Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-09-27
The aRis,,.artk Tribn,4e.
PROHIBITION.

lty OF the voting people In the state OK
Maine made the discovery that the old
theory Of the fall Of man, and the true
plan Of his redemption, was gross error.
According to their new lightit was thus:
When the first pair bit the first apple they
sucked its juice and thereby acquired q
relish for cider, which, transmitted to their
progeny, becames q taste for wine, and
finally in later times and colder climates
grew into taste for downright rum.
This, they said, was original sin, the veri-
table, original article specified in Genesis;
and the deduction they drew from it was
that the salvation of the race was to be
found neither in sacramental wines nor in
sprinkled water, but in stringent anti
liquor laws and internal application of the
baptismal fluid; plan. which to their
minds, lost none of its plausibility from
having never been so much as dreamed Of
by the leaders, prophets and judges of Is
rael, the Savior and his apostles, the bish-
ops, priests and deacons of the church,
all of whom came eating and drink
ing-and. of course, all signally failed.
From this starting point new sect
arose of which Neal Dow was the prophet,
whose mission it was to control the habits
of the social world and create discord in
the old political parties. The "Maine
liquor law" as it was christened soon diff
fused itself in other states and party was
organized on the basis with "Sons of
Temperance" auxiliary to aid in securing
the election to the various offices, men who
were pledged to this new fallacy of the
Maineites.
Vermont was the next state to fall
victim to the prohibition infatuation.
Through the greed of two wouldbe foster
parents her early struggle for statehood
was an education in obstinacy, carried to
such degree that at one time she resolved
to set up little sovereignty of her own.
But after considerable coaxing on the part
of congress and a great deal of sulking on
the part of Vermonters, she finally sat
down March 4, 1871, in company with Ken
lucky as companion "bud" at the union
table with reasonably sound constitution,
which contained no provision suggestive of
prohibition" other than that ''laws for the
encouragement of virtue and the preven-
ton of vice and immortality, ought to
be constantly kept in force, and duly exc
cuted." No single vice was specially pro-
vided for or called by name. AS a conser-
vative, we'll ordered member of the union
she obtained and maintained record in
the whig column up.to 1858 as ''the star that
never SETS" With the exception of being
little "rattled' at one time by anti-Ma-
sonry she we'll deserved the motto. In
1853 when prohibition came out of the
woods of Maine and opened shop within
her borders it was such a departure from
conservatism that the old party for the
first time lost its balance and failed to
elect governor and lieutenant governor
by the people, and the general assembly,
when it met. elected two lifelong demo-
Gratis to fill these Offices, the latter being
filled by Dakota's late much respected
delegate to congress and district Judge,
Jefferson P. Kdder. 1t was only one
term experiment. The aMaine liquor law
came in detachments, the thirsty members
OF the old party soon discovering that with
Canada abutting the wide end of the state,
with Lake Champlain running down from
the spirituous town of Whitehall the whole
length of her western border and with
daily express communication with Boston,
their politics and their grog were not
necessarily homogeneous and enough of
them naturally relapsed into their old
party to make Vermont the solid republi-
can state she is to-day. Prohibition legis-
latlon and improved soda fountains, striped
pigs and "town agencies for medicinal pur-
poses only'' have kept about even pace
with each other: the "revised" and "com-
pileds statutes growing more plethoric
from year to year, on "total abstinence"
and the thirsty ''violators" more tipsy.
This is not apolitical history of Vermont,
but very brief outline of how prohibition
has fourished in one state under a non
committal constitution. There has been
no lack of legislation "for the encourage
ment of virture and the prevention of
vice." and the suppression of the sale and
use Of intoxicants is the one particular vice
that has been singled out. A majority of
the states in the union have legislated upon
the same subject without constitutional
aid or hindrance. and it is but fair to say
that wherever prohibition has been the
ultimatum it has most signally failed. 1t is
now on record that several of the most
prominent and foremost of the prohibition
states have within the past two years pro-
nounced against prohibition as means of
promoting temperance, and it's decadence
as political issue is every where to be
seen. Michigan, Texas, Tennessee, Ore
gon. West Virginia, New Hampshire.
Massachusetts. Rhode Island and Pennsyl-
vania being prominent in the list, "Little
Rhoda," after trial, throwing the prohi-
bltory amendment to her constitution out
into the back yard with as little ceremoyn
as bartender would clear his bar of s.heel
taps" Speaking of this result at the time,
the Providence Journal said: Brightly
interpreted, the defeat of the constitutional
amendment is in no sense defeat of any
thing that is really helpful to the temper
ance movement. On the contrary it clears
the way for better reform work through