The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1884-02-28
FOR OPINIONS SAKE.


A good many papers are cOndemning
in vigorous terms the defeat of r. c..
Mitchell, of the Duluth Tribune, for
Receiver of the Duluth land Office.
Copies of the Tribune published several
years ago in which Mitchell expressed
his disagreement with orthodox theol-
ogy were used against him and on the
strength of these articles his name was
withdrawn.
Every effort, it seems, failed to shake
Mitchell's strength until this point was
made on him, and this secured his
defeat.
II this is not practically religious
government, what is it? The AD-
VANCE has been putting in its protest
for years against Comstockism and the
tendency to apply religious tests, and
every editor who believes that this
government should let religious matters
alone and attend to matters of state,
should speak out against the present
tendency to enact Blue Laws and re-
turn to Puritanism and church rule.
Still, Mitchell should rejoice that he
is not sent to the penitentiary. Ben
nett served a year at Alba1y for pub
fishing a so.called infidel journal.
The Saltwater Gazette comments
thus on Mitchell's case:
Many over.credulous people still cling
to the notion that this is free country
IA country where every man 8 opinions
or beliefs, whether political or theOlog.
ical, if honestly entertained, are entitled
to respect. Such IS not the case. 1t
looks, in view of this outrage against
liberty of thought and belief, that we
are drifting back to days Of Puritanism,
when men were Ostracised and banished
and deprived of property and guaran-
teed rights, for opinion 8 sake.
SENSE AND LICENSE.
Elsewhere we publish some extracts
from remarks made by Gordon E. Cole
at the high license meeting of ministers
held in St. Paul under the auspices of
the American Church Temperance so.
ciety.
How does that sound to those fanatics
without prohibition? Heretofore near
~ all the efforts of the Protestant
clergy and Of church temperance So
cieties, haye been to teach that Prohibi-
tion and Temperance are the same
thing and that there can be no other
temperance than prohibition. This they
teach to the young especially. We
could name a good many people in
Worthington who are confounding
temperance with prohibition and be-
lieving earnestly that to be temper
ance advocate one must DO a prohibi-
zionist. This is largely due TO the
fanatical zeal and ignorance of their
teachers. When they come to think of
it, when they get the facts, and see
that prohibition does not prohibit, and
that the wisest and most efficient tenn
perance workers in and out of the
church, are not prohibitionists, but
high license advocates, they will begin
to change their views and conclude
that man can be an earnest temper
ance man without being an impractical
fanatic.
No town presents better exnmple
of the failure of prohibition than
Worthington. For years it was in 4
continual turmoil and warfare trying
to enforce prohibition. Liquors were
sold nearly all the time and men WHO
were inclined to drink were more
drunken under prohibition than unde,
license. In q business and financial
view, the town suffered greatly. Trade
was not only driven away but dozens Of
men of means came in, looked around
and said, "This is one of your sec
tartan, fanatical towns" and went
elsewhere. A debt of SIC. 400 to 81, ,O0(
was saddled upon the village and coun
ty in q vain effort to crush out th<
liquor traffic. During the last year
under high license, there have been ~
prosecutions, only one or two mer
have been locked up for being disor
derly and village orders are par.
AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLICAN,:
Notwithstanding the bitter spiri
shown by many Of the Republican pa
pers of the State in referring to th
Porter case, we are glad to find some o
the party independent enough to speal
from the heart. unfettered with politi
cal shackles. or contolled by the to-