River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-02-28

The Hon. J. B. Grinnell, for whom
the town of Grinnell, Ia, was named,
recently said: "In Grinnell there are
no saloons, and no one has been sent
to Jail, to the poor-house, or to the
penitentiary for twenty-five years.
We can stand a cyclone occasionally
if you will keep whisky away from
us.
Prohibition has been in operation
in Kansas for twenty months, and we
iinJ in The Kansas Cuy Journal an
abstract of full reports received from
60 out of the 81 counties in the state,
from letters received from the county
attorneys, county superintendent and
police judges. In these counties the
number of saloons has been reduced
from 708 to 3l3, Of which more than
half are in Leavenworth. During
this time the population has increased
II per cent. In Al counties there is
not one saloon. In the district
court there have been 400 cases
against liquor-sellers tried, resulting
in 35l convictions, or five out of every
seven. In justice courts there were
378 convictions out of 572 cases, or
three out of four. The fines have
amounted to $4,000; and 81 saloon
keepers have been imprisoned. In 81
counties prohibition is reported as
growing in favor. The progress of
prohibition is the phenomenon of our
age.
The official figures indicate that the
temperance movement is making
steady progress in England. The Gen.
sus returns show in 1881 decline of
So per cent. of the number of purveys
ors of spirituous liquors as compared
with 1871 equivalent to IT, per cent.
if the growth of the population be
considered. The great branches of
food supply, on the other hand, in
creased in fair proportion to the in
crease of population.
Rev. j. w. Lee, writing from
Rome, Ga, to the Independent, says
there are ninety counties in that state,
out of one hundred and thirty.six,
with partial or entire prohibition. He
adds:
Nor do we expect to cease our eff
forts till the sale of whiskey is pro-
hibited in every county in the state.
The success of the movement has
been so great here, so helpful to
trade, to morals, to education, that it
is hardly necessary to make an argu-
rlent in favor of it in places where
liquor is sold. Concrete arguments in
favor of it are so numerous and com.
handing about lis that we have only
to point to those counties VIII ere ii
has been in operation a few years,
their factories, their better schools,
their improved farms, their increased
trade, to settle it. There are counties
in the state that ten years ago, were
noted for their ignorance and thriftless,
ness, which have absolutely been rev.
olutionized in tone, in business, in APP
pearance, by the influence of prohi
bition. Whenever prohibition is es
tablished in town first-class men are
elected to the positions of mayor and
aldermen. Loafers and "dead- beats
either move away or go to work. The
capital and labor utilized in the whis
ky business are applied in more profit
able and healthy lines of trade.
There is no longer any question
among our people as to whether pro
hibition prohibits. We know that il
does prohibit, not whisky simply, but
vice, idleness, ignorance and all other
evils which go along with the liquor
traffic.