Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-07-02
A Natural Result.

A Natural Result.
The election last Monday, under
the Local Option law, was vigorously
contested. The prohibition party,
led by the membership of the Meth
odist, Presbyterian and Congrega-
tional churches, had been for many
weeks past engaged in a crusade
against the saloons, under the name
of the Thurston County Voters
League, while the saloon men had
apparently been doing nothing. As
all one-sided agitations, managed ex-
clusively by the members of any
particular class or sect, the move.
ment failed to attract those who
might have become active co-labor-
ers, had not the prevailing idea been
kept constantly before the people
that it was through the church Or
carnations, if not the creed itself,
that any reform could possibly be
expected. It was not the real merits
of the temperance cause that were
discussed, or the temporal benefits
to be derived from it by the individ-
ual or the community that were
put forward as IN incentive for
action, but that higher spirit
ual excellence claimed for creed
was constantly held up as the
grand object of emulation. A
popular vote in the affirmative, ur-
der such conditions, would have
been quite as effective, whether the
law was an oak or a reed, whether it
banished whisky or furnished free
tipples, whether it depleted the pub
lie treasury without abatement of
the costs of government, or reduced
it to figures that small purse would
pay. The moral effect would have
been attained, let the practical result
be what il might.
The feeling that has always per-
vaded American sentiment, against
o union of interests of church and
state, was intensified in this contest,
by the course pursued. The politi-
clan who is rebuked for participation
in a party caucas on Sunday, under
circumstances that he deems quite
as justifable as the "plucking OF
corn on the Lords Day." can find
no excuse for the preacher who
leaves his church Sunday night to ad-
dress mixed audience on question
of paramount political importance.
Nor did the citizen who attended
these meetings hear the saloon men
denounced as " whelps," without con-
Guiding that one reverend gentle
man betrayed the cause of this in
tensity of feeling, when he contrast
ed the long black column on the
chart he exhibited representing tho
cost of whisky, with the little cube in
the corner representing the salaries
of ministers Of the gospel. In vul.
gar parIance it was o dead give
away"
The vote throughout the Territory
gives some hope to the prohibition
lists, the result being very very gen.
orally favorable in the country pre-
cincts, many Of which never had, and
never will have, a saloon, while in
the larger towns or cities, it has gone
overwhelmingly against the measure.
It has been tho same wherever local
option has been tried, and the ex-
perience Of prohibition States dem
onstrates that the will of the people
must be overwhelming in its support
TO enforce law that is obnoxious to
any business recognized as lawful in
an adjacent precinct, county, or
State and can command the" sinews
of war" to fight. 1t seems to us
that the present law, even if its de-
fects are cured, will not be as effec-
tive as high license statute, and
this is the opinion of many lifelong
advocates of temperance. The Leg
islature will, fortunately, convene
before another contest can take place
under an enactment that has caused
much bitterness between neighbors.
i is safe to say that our law-makers