Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-10-16
WEDNESDAY,, ecresER IS. 1855
noes Prohibition Prohibit?

WEDN RIS UAIs SCESGEA IN. 5000
Does Prohibition Prohibit?
With the single exception of one of
the Dakotas, which has adopted prohibit
ton as a feature Of its first Constitution,
the cause of teetotalism has made no pro-
gress in the United States in the past
four or five years. In fact, all its pro-
erosion has been of the crawfish order.
What eccentric impulse it was that has
worked the Dakota miracle it would
perhaps be hard to say. 1t is asserte d
that when whiskey gets out in those re-
gions it proves to be fearfully and Won
derfully made, sulphuric acid, strychnine
and niggerhead tobacco being it's leading
constituents, and it is only from the cir
cumstance that their stomachs are cop
Der. plated and limebanked, that few
Dak,t pioneers struggle on painfully
beyond the fifties. These things explain
an action which would be inexplica BILE
on any other ground.
That prohibition has refrigerated is
undoubtedly due to great extent to
the discovery that it does not prohibit.
Notwithstanding all Mr.. Neal Dow's ex-
cited defamation, it don't prohibit in
Maine, where it originated. The New
York Sun, which periodically sends re-
porters to the Pine Tree State to investi'
gate the matter, has proved this fact
over and over again. There are in ratio
more drunkenness and crimes chronicled
now in that commonwealth than in the
ante Neal Dow days. However honestly
q man may be devoted to prohibition, he
cannot possibly fail to note such signi6-
cant and salient facts, to reflect upon
them and to be thereby influenced in his
political action as conscientious citizen.
Just as prohibition has lost ground, high
license has gained. 1t is precisely on
this account that the fsnatical prohibit
tionists direct their onslaughts with
special animosity against high license.
They recognize the fact that in high
license and local option they are threat
ened with the most serious danger.
In fact, they are taken in flank by this
element, as they can always rely upon
the certainty that, outside of a
half dozen States of the American
Union, more than half of the population
are against their sumptuary law theories
on the ground of personal liberty alone,
Recently Gov. Larrabee, of Iowa, has
entered the lists as the champion of pro-
hibition. He Gays that the testimony Of
the Judges of Iowa shows that prohibi-
ton has reduced the percentage of crime
in the Hawkeye State from thirty to
sixty per cent, according to locality, and
probably according to the complaissnce
of these gentlemen. The experience Of
the Marshall Statesman, q journal pub.
lished in Marshalltown, Marshall county,
Iowa, does not sustain the Governor. In
its issue Of the 4th inst it says:
We are tempted to use the ''deadly
parallel" on the T-R. In its Saturdays
issue it gave editorial prominence to
Governor Larrabee's letter to CONNER
cial man, in which the beauties of pro-
hibition are given, and particular stress
laid upon the statement that the testi-
mony of the Judges of this State is that
criminal business of their courts has
been reduced during the last three years
from 80 to go per cent. In the same issue
in another Column is given the local
statement that at the late term of court
in Marshalltown seven criminals were
sentenced to the penit entiary-four for
robbery, two for burglary and one for
forgery, and that four others were heav-
lily fined for liquor selling. In addition to
this there are now in jail awaiting trial
three persons charged with burglary and
four accused of murder. This expose of
the local workings Of prohibition, in
the same issue with the high-falutin
letter of Governor Larrabee, has provoked
q broad stare of incredulity at the exscu-
tive statement. If other counties are in
the same fix as Marshall in respect to
the array of burglars, robbers, and muir
derers, the State certainly does not rest
in the roseate atmosphere Of prohibition
purity 30 touchingly described by the
Governor. Most certainly this county
has little to boast of as regards immunity
from crime. The T.-R. should put
wider dates between the Governors
letters and its own reports of criminal
matters.
For single prohibition county, in
State which, like Iowa, has no large
cities, this is pretty formidable roster
Of crime. 1t is calculated to clip the
rhetorical wings of the Governor, and to
throw great doubt on the value of his
statements. Four murderers, to say
nothing of the robbers and burglars, is
pretty good showing for town which
has no metropolitan pretentions. In the
populous county of Los Angeles, which
contains at least one hundred and fifty
thousand people, which has not
adopted prohibition, and in which
the prohibition vote is very small,
there are only seven persons held for
murder, and one of them is an insane
Chinaman and another an Indian. To
make this exhibit the more gratifying in
our favor, and as against the prohibition
county, Los Angeles is the natural re-
ceptacle Of many Of the desperadoes of
Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
The same journal. the Marshall
Statesman, gives an account of
the practical workings of pro-
hibision in Iowa. We quote:
The great bulk of whiskey and beer
sold here is shipped to private families.
c~< sn roa1xy n "a The -