Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-12-07
lal of the people in the States

lol oAo eAClI pdtlOu VI Une urat1lC IN
alcoholic poison made and sold to be
used as beverage will never cease to
disturb and finally destroy great polit-
zeal parties until they submit the
question OF the enlargement OF nation
al constitutional jurisdiction SO as to
include control of the subject.
When this proposed amendment is
submitted to The action of the States
the subject will pass in it's important
features from the national arena to
that of the several States until the fate
OF the proposed amendment is decided.
When decided, if adversely to the rati-
tication, the subject will be eliminated
from national politics, at least for
many years.
1t on the other hand the proposed
amendment should be ratified and be-
come part of the national law, the
chief curse OF the world would be sum-
moned to the block OF national justice
and die by the hand of the only power
which can WELD an AK big and sharp
enough to cut off its hydra head.
! Then we should have peace.
| But the agitation for the destruction
of the liquor traffic cannot cease until
the evils which it intlicts upon mar :
kind are removed or the human race is
destroyed.
1t is useless to cry peace, peace.
when there is no peace. 1t is time to
face the subject. Evasion has become
almost impossible, and the effort re-
quires an activity which is too exhaus-
tive for its long continuance.
Judging from the petitions which
have been presented to Congress dur
ing the last few years, many Of which
are representive of great bodies and of
communities whose Individual sigma
lures have not been obtained, it can
hardly be doubted that at least ten
millions of the American people are
desirous of natlons! legislation for
the destruction of poisonous, that is to
Say, OIL alCOnOllC drinks.
These people represent a power of
thought aud a moral force far greater
than their mere numbers. Whoever
expects to withstand the shock of their
charge will yet regret that lis irresist-
ible power was not seasonably real
ized.
These petitions for the opportunity
to amend the National Constitution
must be heard and will be heard.
Those who will oppose them in the
States upon the proposition OF a pro-
hibitory amendment of the National
Constitution.
70 deny this is to subvert the repul :
lican form of government, and the
honorable opponents of the measure
will not always refuse to its friends
that hearing in court which is the
sacred right oi every American, and
especially in Z. matter of SO great
national concern.
1t is claimed by the advocates OF
this ameudmen; that the LIQUOR traffic
is y unit of evil which submerges the
whole nation. and that there can he
no complete and certainly no perrla-
nent elevation of any part above
this ''sea of trouble" which is not the
result OF lifting force exerted con-
tinuously by the nation in its organic
capacity everywhere throughout the
whole country, cooperating with and
supplementipg, and, when necessary
to accomplish the end, overruling and
subordinating the action OF the States.
at the present time the police power
in the States is fettered and thwarted
in its efforts to suppress this evil with
IN the limits Of the States, respectively.
by the national guarantees OF protec-
tion to transportation and the rights OF
manufacture and sale existing in all
the States and localities which decline
to impose the necessary restriction.
This evil runs with the blood
throughout the. whole system Of Ma,
tional life, and; nothing but national
constitutional treatment will cure it.
1t is not a local disease. To be sure
there are local alterations, but they
extend all over the body. 1t has be-
come continent eruption which must
he medlcined from within as well as
from without. 1t can not be cured 10y
the external application Of patches OF
plaster upon the States, whose COM
hined surfaces, with that OF the Ter
ritories, cover that of the entire na-
tional body.
The police power in government, the
power OF the people.to preserve order.
health, and good ncrals, is said to be
vested in the States. The liquor traffic
is believed by the advocates of this
resolution for the amendment OF the
Constitution to be directly destructive
of society and consequently of all the
ends for which the police power exists.
| From the very nature OF the liquor
evil. and the fact that we are Il nation
ana but one nation, this omniprt sent