The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-10-10
OFFICIAL PAPER OF MCLEAN co.
PROHIBITION AND WILD MUSTARD.

1t is the habit of some license news
papers, in order to court popularity with
both sides, to state that 1--WE are opposed
to prohibition, but the law should be en-
forced" Now, why should it pc enforced,
in sections where public opinion is against
it, any more than other foolish and tyran-
meal laws that are allowed to go by de-
fault? There was a law enacted a few
years ago in North Dakota compelling
every one to pull any wild mustard, as we'll
as certain other weeds, that might come
up on his land. The law was rlgidly en-
forced for a while, until it was found that
where mustard had gotten possession of a
field the compulsory pulling of the weed
was practical confiscation of the land. 1t
was also learned that q summer fallOw or
the mowing-machine would cheaply Grad
icate the pest in one season. SO that law
was quietly laid upon the shelf. Yet it
says that wild mustard must be "pulled."
It stands on the statute-boOk the same as
the appetite law. Under its provisions the
wild mustard must as surely be pulled as
the blind pig. Yet those who lay such
stress on the sanctity of the prohibitory
law nave no tears to shed because wild
mustard, as by statute made and provided,
is not yanked out of the ground by the
roots.
Again, North Dakota has n severe Sun
1.. .AA-A- TY-l@. :ko ~
siOns the farmer who takes a load of grain
to Bismarck on Saturday aud trots home
contentedly on Sunday can be arrested n
made to feel the butt end of the law. But
it is not e~nforced-in fact, few know that
it exists-and the sumptuary specialists
make no protest.
But this infamous appetite law--put up
on the people of the state by a minority
vote. and in many sections voted for by
some us a huge joke-must be forced upon
every community in the commonwealth.
whether they wan it or not. The fanatics
who sit quietly while other laws objection
able to the majority are honored only in
the breach have donned their warpaint to
force their specially upon the people of
the Missouri Slope, where every county but
one repudiated it at the polls. They should
be met in the same spirit. Their spies,
informers and other doors of dirty work
should be made to understand that they
have mistaken their field of operations.
They should be taught that resistance to
%tyrannous laws as we'll as tyrants is COM
mendable in freemen.
And tho first objects of attention should
be those public officials who, after secur-
ing Office us opponents of prohibition, are
willing, in order to make themselves solid
with the prohibitionists also, to exercise
more than ordinary official diligence in
carrying out the program of the fanatics.
They should be relegated to private life
and men chosen who, evcn if t%eetotalers
themselves, have no sympathy with the
contemplate methods of the enforcement
league. Then, at the next election, let the
votes of the Slope high-license people be
placed for state and legislative officers
where they will do most good for the cause
Of individual liberty.
Let it be understood that on the Mis-
souri Slope prohibition must take its
chances with the Sunday-observance and
wid-mustard statutes.-Emmons County
Record.