The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-04-10

We are in favor of religion and
morality as qualifications for the life
hereafter, but when they are to su-
percede our best interests in this life
we are compelled to doubt the validi-
ty of the principles upon which they
and the discretion of the re-
formers who advocate them. The
closing up of saloons in this town
was tried many years ago. Then, as
now, there were preachers and re-
formers who proclaimed that II we
could only close up the saloons these
dens of mischief and sources of ini-
guilty, morality and virtue would set
lie over the town in the calm, sweet
tranquility of a perpetual Sabbath
rest, while drunkenness and revelry,
would be heard in the land no more.
The idea then was, break up the sa-
looms and people will not buy whisky,
because those that want it will not
buy a gallon, Every old citizen here
knows what was the splendid out
come to religion and morality under
this experiment. Men that wished a
drink would club and get a gallon,
and as a rule, they would drink 1t up,
if it made every n Of them drunk;
perhaps there is no period of our his
tory, when more and can whisky
was drank. Let rs ask right here,
has any prohibitory laws stopped
drinking anywhere, or at any time?
1t may change the mode and manner
of procuring it from the front to the
back door, from open, unrestricted
drinking to getting it on the sly;
from getting it here to sending for it
to Memphis, The p~rohibitory laws
on this subject have been violated in
every town, and in every State in the
Union until in some of them the
laws and their advocates have sunk
into merited contempt. With the X
perience of former trials in former
years, are the people of Grenada to
repeat a similar experiment Of folly?
The following from the Philadel-
phia Weekly Timesso Of some weeks
ago, certainly is authentic 50 far as
The responsibility of the Journal is
concerned. AS to State Senator
| sutton, of Iowa, we know nothing
personally, If any of our prohibi-
ion friends do not believe in his
identity as a man, or his character as
Legislator, just sit down and write TO
nim. Ifsuch is prohibition in Iowa,
what will it be in Mississippi, when
The delusive antl-whisky spell
oreaks?;
estate Senator Sutton, Of Iowa, has
contributed to the history'of the pro-
hibition movement the most remark
able chapter of recent times, 1t is in
substance an exhaustive review Of
he situation in the Senator's State,
showing the workings of the law as
illustrated in ninety-nine counties,
including every city and town of
three hundred inhabitants and up
wards, Briefly, it shows that since
the law went into effect the number
Of places where liquor is sold openly
has increased from 1,S06 to 1887 and
that over 400 dealers are selling by
The well-knOwn subterfuge of a side
door. While the little villages in
some instances have been enabled to
enforce the law, in the larger cities
and towns there is practically no eff
fort made to abolish the traffic, Even
where such effort has been made and
The issue sharply drawn the result
mas been the complete route ofthe
prohibition people and an increase of
the evil they sought to destroy.
IA comparison of present with past
conditions in the leading cities is es-
pecially instructive and significant.
Des Moines, which two years ago,
under a high license law, had reduc-
ed the number of its saloons to sixty,
now has one hundred and seventy
five; Davenport reports an increase
of thirty; Dubuque, n hundred and
twenty-six; Keokuk, thirteen; Sioux
City, twenty-five, and the correepon-
dent from Ottumwa reports flour
times as many and ten times as BAD
Waterloo, "a place Of sixty-five hun
dred population, reports n reduction
from twenty to sixteen, together with
less carousing; but it is carefully ex-
planned that this is the result, not of
prohibition, but of an annual tax of
1925 levied on the saloons, without
regard to the prohibition law"
at has long been apparent to the
most casual observer that it is easier
to pass strict p%rohibitory laws than
to enforce them. The New England
States passed through this expert
ence long ago and Kansas and Iowa
are but repeating the lesson. In the
country districts and small towns the
law can be enforced without much
difficulty. In the cities and larger
towns it is practically not enforced
ut all, and the wiser way would be to
attempt to regulate the traffic by a
high license law. Some control Of
the worst features OF the traffic would
be secured by this means and a large
revenue for municipal or State pur-