Omaha daily bee., 1890-11-03
AN INVOCATION TO PATRIOTISM.

The crisis that confronts the people OF
Nebraska makes an appeal to their
patriotism. That term has a much
broader meaning than is usually as
signed TO IL. Webster defines it as
''love Of country; the passion which aims
60 serve ones country" The citizen
serves his country best who best serves
his state in promoting its material pros
perity and working for its advancement
along all the lines Of progress. The
highest duty Of patriotism is
performed when the citizen EN-
plOys his energies and in
flucncc in behalf OF those things which
build up communities, which increase
the opportunities for enterprise, which
encourage growth. which bring power
and wealth, and which are productive OF
the greatest good to the greatest num-
her. In union OF sovereign common
wealths this patriotism is as necessary
TO the state as TO the nation. The pa
triotism of the soldier who stakes his
life in defense OF his country is not
more admirable or valuable than
the patriotism OF the citizen
who at the ballot box casts
II vote to defeat an assault upon the well
fare and prosperity of his state.
Such an assault is the effort to plant
prohibition in the organic law of Ne
braslla. The adoption OF that policy
would result in greater injury to the
material interests of the state than any
col ~ in 20 Ia Iic ii me
and blighting effects would reach every
department of activity in which our
people are engaged. There isnot u bus
mess of any kind that could escape the
i'll consequences of this policy, un-
less it be that of the usurer. With the
depletion of population and the decline
of our cities and towns, the depreciation
of farm property would be inevitable.
Nebraska would not only cease to grow,
but, as with Kansas and Iowa for several
years past, more people would leave the
state than would como into it. And pro-
hibition being incorporated in the con-
stitutiOn, it is impossible to say how long
this condition of affairs would continue
before the people would be sufficiently
educated by adversity to remove the
cause. The disaster that comes from
drought and storm and the yisitations Of
nature are for season only. The losses
of one year may be more than offset by
the gains of the next. But the blight of
constitutional prohibition might con-
tinue for many years with steadily in
creasing damage.
Could patriotism have any higher aim
than to defeat a policy in which such
| consequences are involved? Can there
be any more urgent duty upon
| the loyal citizen than to protect his
state from such calamity? The results
of prohibition in diminishing. prosperity
and checking progress have been dem
onstrated. Every state that has ever
| adopted if bears incontrovertible testi-
| mony to it's injurious effects. And
everywhere it has failed OF it's purpose.
On the other hand if prohibition is de-
feated in Nebraska, nothing is more
certain than that the state will real
! ize at once a new impulse of progress
and move forward more vigorously
and rapidly than ever before. Not only
will the effect be to stimulate every
business and enterprise, but to invite
Others. Nebraska needs more people to
take up her lands, more industries to
give employment to her labor, more
| capital to increase the general prosper
| ity, enlarged home markets for the
product of her farms. These conditions
| are possible only in the event that. pro-
hibition is defeated.
| Within forty-eight hours the people
of Nebraska will have made their choice
between progress and retrogression.
Never before has the patriotism of the
citizens of this state been put to more
important or serious test, and we have
faith that now, as in the past, it will be
found loyal to the interests and welfare
of Nebraska.