San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1885-01-29
PROHIBITION.
Galveston Christian Advocate.


Galveston Christian Advocate.
Under the caption; ''Practically q
Failure" tho Galveston News, in a
recent issue, says:
DR.. Dio Lewis, who has recently
made a trip through Iowa, finds that
the stringent liquor law OF that State
does not work. Drunkenness abounds
in most places, and liquor is sold
everywhere, either secretly or openly.
In Iowa City he saw kegs of beer
publicly delivered without any show
of concealment, and the people he
talked with confessed the failure of
the prohibitory law. Those who
know DIR. Lewis, remarks the New
York Hour, will not doubt his intelli-
gence and ability as an observer, nor
his interest in the promotion of cold
water theories; but rs he found the
situation in Maine, so he found it now
in the West. Prohibition does not
prohibit. He would be glad if it did,
but he confesses it does not, nor is it
likely to. An editorial contributor to
the Hour passed through several
counties in Iowa, He found that in
some small places where the law is
respected druggists would not keep
liquor for medicinal purposes, being
afraid of making q mistake, the law
is SO strict But smart drummers
travel through the State and find out
who wants liquor and the want is
supplied. And when men get togeth-
er to drink in private, in violation of
the law, it is observed that they drink
the more for the secrecy around their
action and the difficulty of obtaining
the supplies at other times. This ap
plies to the country; but in the cities
the law appears to be openly set at
defiance. The Wisconsin legislature
has the subject before it, and the pro
hibition advocates are discouraged.
The question discussed in the
above is vital one to the people Of
Texas. If prohibition is failure,
the people have a right to know it,
but in this death-struggle with a.
giant curse they cannot afford to be
misled.
We have no right to ask the Gal
weston News to become prohibition
journal, but we have the right to de-
mand that it shall give all the facts.
In this case it has not done 80. There
Is mass of testimony on the other
side which cannot have escaped the
notice of the News
Mr.. Richard Katzenmayer, Secre-
tary of the United States Brewers
Association, made lately the follow
ing statement, which appeared in
many leading papers of the North:
In Kansas the prohibition system
has been in operation for two years,
and all the brewers are ruined. No
organization, therefore. exists in that
State,
The prohibition law which has re
Gently gone into operation in Iowa,
nas made terrible havoc amongst the
brewers, and many Of them are com.
Dletely ruined. AS a consequence
heir political influence has been
greatly diminished.
The Christian at Work published
the following calm, we'll
statement from Mr.. j. w.
of Iowa:
The prohibition law in Iowa has
been in force since July 4th. From
the first, this law has had several fea
lures quite favorable to its enforce
ment. 1t rs stringent law, which
makes not only the manufacture and
sale ofintoxicating drinks criminal, but
llso the giving away fora considera-
ion, the keeping with intent to sell, the
building or keeping house in which
% sell, the sale to minors and men
intoxicated as well as men who are
n the habit of drinking to intoxica-
ion, and it makes intoxcation itself a
The law imposes
leavy penalties; for intoxication ten !
lollars; for manufacturing. two hun
lred dollars for the first offense, and
i've hundred dollars for every subse-
luent offense; for selling, not less
han fifty dollars for the first, and I
or every subsequent offense, not less
han three hundred dollars. This
aw makes the importation OF intoxi. /
.ating drinks a criminal ohense. In
leeping with this, all our principal
lines, with commendsble I
,romptness, prohibits shipments
mother favorable Circumstances for
he law in Iowa is our State Temper
nee Alliance, organized in every
,ounty and many townships Of each
.ounty in the State. for the purpose
4 enforcement II is virtallly one
,rsat Law and order league with rep
esentative organization AL over the
,tate-
But how does the law work. We
i've twenty-five miles west Of the Miss
ssippi, in q portion Of the State where
here is a large foreign population
msn With a team can mike IN one
lay = return trip 70 Wisconsin and