Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-10-19
Communicated.


speeches, and, with your permission,
will make comments on each through
your paper. One of them was delv-
cred by the Rev. John Russell of Ma
comb county. who anticipates lift by
the prohibition party CHE legislature)
of Michigan To a short term seat in the
u. ). senate; the other, delivered by
our esteemed fellow citizen. DR.. a. w.
Nichols, the populst nominee for the
gubernatorial honors of the state vs..
Todd, Fisher and Rich. The prOhib.
ton speaker and Office seeker appears
like fair minded man and said many
good things, among which, he in
formed us that intemperance had be-
come great evil; and so it is! Now
his plan To obyiate and forever wipe
out the evil, is this-vote the prohibit
ton ticket, advance his party to power
and eden will be restored Happy sug-
.gestion! If we could be persuaded to
believe such to be the result the temp
tation would be to cast our ballots for
his party. While we have every reason
To believe Mr. Russell TO be a good
man, he is, like the rest of mankind
human, and differs very little from
other Office seekers ON the stump-an
intense desire for getting there" Mr..
Russell went further than we are will
ing 10 follow, when he stated that to
vote for any other party. than the pro-
hibitiOniSt, is 10 vote for the saloon.
While it may be true, that every pro-
hibitonist is temperance man, II is
not true, that every temperance man is
a political prohibtionist. This fact
was brought to view in 1887, when a
prohibition amendment was submitted
TO the people of this state and the vote
in favor Of the amendment was u.s.
600. And because this proposition was
submitted to the people by republic
can legislature, the prohibition party
was reluctant TO accept of prohibition
NOM such a source; and, lest they lose
their party organization, they put in
nomination candidates for office that
same year and polled $4,000 votes for
their third party ticket Why was it
that 100000 voters were So ready to
support the prohibition amendment and
unwilling to enter into the third party
movement? Simply because they be-
lieved that temperance should not he
made political measure In other
words. temperance like religion, should
be cherished by the members Of all
political parties. Besides, political or
carnations are for solving other great
political problems as well a to regu-
late the liquor traffic. tWhile we all
agree with Mr.. Russell that the intoXi-
eating drink habit is deplorable, is it
true, that prohibition is the only rem
edy, or even the best means for its sup
preston. Experience is a great teach
er. And what are the lessons taught
during the last five years? Simply this
Nand nothing more-that all the states
that have tried prohibition, save Maine
alone, have repealed prohibition and
adopted high license, and some of them,
like Michigan, have coupled local OPP
ton with license. Mr.. Russell, in his
speech, referring to license having
taken the place of prohibition, said
that Maine would do the same thing.
The solution is this-when prohibi
ton law is first enacted, there is more
or less enthusiasm over it among the
temperance people and while that is up
to high pressure point, the law will be
enforce in the villages and rural dis
tricts, but seldom in the larger cities,
and soon this ardor is abated and the
law becomes dead letter and the final
result is free whisky. and dru lkenness
staggers forth at MONDAY.
The republicans of Michigan enacted
a prohibitory law in 1850, and it re-
mained a valid statute for twenty-five
wears, and the last ten years before its
repeal. MichigaH had virtually free whis-
XIV. and such were the conditions in
Minnesota, Connecticut, Iowa Kansas,
Massachusetts and Rhode Island these,
and all other states, that have tried
prohibition, have now adopted high il
cense. except Maine, and it is expected
that Maine will do the same. Massa-
chusetts and Rhode Island have each
tried prohibition three times and have
declared the experiment failure.
New York has a license law. In our
own state of Michigan several counties
adopted local option which is prohIbi-
ton and most. if not all of them, have
cone back to license. Why is it that
the license laws have supplanted and
set its iron heels upon prohibition?
Simply this, that the people have
learned by sad experience that there is
more intemperance and drunkenness
under prohibition laws than under
license. The purpose of such laws is
to abridge, as far as possible, the use of
1ntoxicants as beverage 1t was
learned in Iowa, that there were twice
"a many places where grog was sold in
1898 under prohibition, as there were
in 1883 under license; and the good
people of Iowa were forced to adopt
license again to cut off, at least, one
half of her rumshops. Now, suppose
the prohibition party comes fully into
power. what will they do? Why, they
will amend the constitution and enact
prohibitory laws, of course they will.
Now, if it is true, as has been demon