Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1889-09-13

IL Is generally CONSIDERED by tlOSc VINO
are governed entirely by maxims of policy
that the man who is asking Office at tae
hands Of the people should as far as pos
sible keep aloof from discussion of those
questions upon which he is not called
upon to express an opinion. But all canti-
dates are "not built that way" ..and, 80 far
as the editor of the RECORD is concerned,
he has no hesitation in expressing his con
tempt for that hypocritical philosophy
which demands that a candidate shall
be call things to all men," and seek to
obtain support IN all directions by dis
guising his true and honest belief.
49,
That the question of constitutional pro.
hibition is before the people of North
Dakota for their verdict on election day
is probably known by every voter in this
county, and it is right that this important
issue should receive fair and open treats
ment at the hands of people and press, to
the end that the right path may he trod-
den The newspaper that believes state
prohibition wrong IN theory and impos-
sible in practice should say go. Those
editors in the new state who believe that
appetite may be controlled by statute aud
that prohibition is better than high H.
cense should at once remove the standard
vessel of measurement and expose their
lights to public view.
~
The RECORD. ls not prepared to deny
that, if intoxicants were banished from
the face OF. the earth, and new agent
discovered and utilized in medicine, the
arts and sciences, humanity would be un.
der obligation for the change. But can
state or county prohibition be applied in
North Dakota with more success than has
accompanied it in Maine or Iowa? Would
state prohibition prevent the sale of lntox
icants in Emmons county? These are the
questlons--the practical questions Ito BE-
answered.
In Maine, as every intelligent person
knows, for thirty years the Intellectual
ness of the "prohibitory" law has been
butt for the shafts of rldiculc all over
the land. Statistics for the last ten
years show slightly greater ratio, &C.
cording to population, of arrests for
drunkenness in prohibition Maine than in
her neighbor, New Hampshire, where
prohibition was recently defeated In
Iowa and Kansas, where fair majority
of the voters cast their ballots for pro
hlbitory laws--and where, if anywhere,
public opinion ought to be able to enforce
such laMs--in these states, mark you, the
official reports of sworn officers of the
nation show that more government H.
censes for the sale of intoxicants have
been issued for given time under the
sumptuary law than under the pre-.
! existing system of high license. From
the same source, too-Kcports of the U.
s. Internal Revenue Bureau--lt Is shown
that the amount of liquor consumed in
the two states named has been greater un-
der prohibition and the quality poorer.
Within little over year prohibition
has been defeated IN nine states. In some
of them-notably Rhode Island, Massa.
chusetts and Michlgan--prohibition had
been tried and found wanting. Would
majorities for have been changed to ma.
joritles against the measure, think you,
if the attempts to enforce the prohibi:
tory measure had proved successfully
1t had been claimed that the over..
whelming defeats Of the sumptuary idea
was due to the foreign element"
ing our adopted citizens from across the
sea. So, as the time approached when
Pennsylvania was to vote on. the question
Of whether or not she wonld regulate
the appetltes of her citizens by law, all
eyes turned to the old Keystone Stale.
"Here is new condition." said the pro.
hibltionlsts. Here is an American state
"a state with small proportion Of
foreign born citizens. Wait till yeu hear
from the people of this grand old COM
monwealth." And st. John, Fisk, '"rhe
Voice" and all the other haters of the Re.