The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-03-22
After The Saloon, What

The Prohibitioni.ts in this state are
entering upon the campaign for tho
adoption of the amendment with
commendable zeal aud determination.
But in their earnestness 10 secure
nopular majority for the measure they
should not forget TO ask themselves
what is to take the place OF the saloon
in case the prohibitory proposition is
car led. Unless they make prepara-
tions for meeting this emergency the
effort TO eradicate the liquor evil will be
as great aud lamentable failure here
as it has been in many other states, and
real temperance reform will be put
back for generations.
The mistake most advocates make is
10 persuading themselves that the only
things necessary to stop the drinking
of intoxicants as beverage are to
place an amendment forbidding its
manufacture and sale in the Constitu-
ton, to pass laws carrying the amend
ment into effect and to elect officers 10
enforce the laws. They utterly ignore
the fact that the saloon is as much a
place for social gathering and greeting
as it is for obtaining strong drink
The advocates OF free liquor are wiser
in this respect than the advocates of
Prohibition and they gladly supply
the conyeniences, and often Injuries,
to their customers which cannot be
procured elsewhere for many times the
worth of drink of liquor.
There is no state that has tried more
earnestly to root out the saloon and
stop the sale of intoxicsnts than Iowa.
Its Legislature has given the temper
ance people every law they asked for
until to-day the anti-liquor laws are
declared by the Prohibitionists them
selves TO be "as strong and arbitrary az
the language of man can make, them
and as tyrannical in their operation
almost as an edict of the Czar or the
caprice of the Sultan" and yet saloons
openly flourish in the larger cities and
carloads Of beer and whiskey are
brought into the state and sold.
When it is remembered that the in
habitants of Iowa are of an unusually
intelligent and industrious character,
this failure to make the law effective
is all the more significant.
The blame for this situation the Des
Moines Register lays mainly at the
door of the Prohibitioniats themselves.
1t asks them "what they have done or
tried to do by way of supplying to the
people in need of cheap social resort
an honest substitute for the evil they de-
stroyed. How many coffee houses,
free readiug-rooms and other public
social places have been provided in
place of the saloons? Has any city or
town in Iowa even two such social re-
sorts as against the scores of saloons
existing before? How many cities and
towns IN Iowa have even one such
substitute, and how many of them have
made even an effort TO supply such
substitute? How many of the prohibi.
tionists could report that, aside from
clamoring for more law, they had
stood up and done their dnty in t. ying
to make this reform successful and
POPULAR
Such questions from state like Iowa,
where prohibition has been the law for
nearly five years, and from a paper
which did more than any other influ-
ence to secure the passage of the law,
should cause the Prohibitionists here
to stop and think what the result of
the adoption of Prohibition may BE-.
1t was discovered centuries ago that
the social habits of man must be con-
sidered in any proposed reform, but
the modern Prohibitionists evidently
believe that they can ignore all natural
laws. If they were wiser in this re-
spect it is probable that they would be
vexed by fewer failures in trying to
destroy the saloon by prohib,tory laws
and constitutional amendments = Press.