The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1894-07-14

nute.--Proposed Pipeline to Tide
Water.
The eStrait-Jacket Policy.
st. Paul Globe:-A considerable portion
of the people of the present day appear
to regard it as their duty to make strait
jackets for the rest of their kind, and to
compel the wearing OF the garment.
They regard themselves as their brothers
keeper in more senses than one. While
they repudiate responsibility for his acts,
they insist that those acts he performed
in conformity with certain rules and
regulations prescribed by law, and that
any deviation from the letter or spirit of
those regulations shall be punished with
the utmost severity. They seem to
think that all men are made in the same
mould, that they should have the same
appetites, the same ambitions, the same
desires.
This idea is at the't6ttom Of all the re-
strictive and sumptuary legislation so
popular nowadays. Some men feel no
need of artificial stimulants. They may
be abundantly supplied by nature, OF
they may be phlegnatic, and care moth
ing for the eXcitements that are pro-
ducedb by stimulation. They think the
rest OF mankind should be like them,
and they enact laws for the repression
OF all natural impulses, for the regula-
tion of natural appetites. for the suppress
OF inOrdinate desires or harmless pleas
nres. For however much we may depre-
cate intemperance and condemn tippling
the fact cannot be overlooked that
occasional indulgence in alcoholic
stimulents is not only necessary but
beneficial to some men. Those OF nervous
disposition require no exciting potion;
nature has supplied them with all that
is necessary, but many men are lethargic.
dull-even stupid-without them, and
cannot be aroused to action; cannot show
the metal Of which they are made, unless
artificially aroused.
1t is not the province of the law 10
prescribe thata man shall not drink
alcoholic stimulants. 1t would be Just
as competent to dictate that a man should
eat nothing but corned beef and cabbage
as to say that he shall drink nothing
stronger than Lake Phalen water or tea
and coffee. Aud, indeed. it is quite as
harmful for some people to indulge IN
tea and coffee as it is for others to drink
whisky, beer or wine
All sumptuary legislation is pernicious
1tinterferes with the personal liberty OF
the citizens, and is at war with our theo
ries OF government. The law is not tc
blame for the existence of drunkards any
more than it is for the existence OF
gluttons. and libertines, and paupers
1t cannot make a man Industrious against
his will; it cannot make him yirtuoue
when nature has created him otherwise
1t cannot create new desires or eradicate
old ones that may be inherited or OF long
standing. The Ethiopian cannot change
his skin nor the leopard his spots at the
benest of Legislative enactment. And
a man will never be made temperate OF
virtuous by placing him in strait jack,
ct. The restraint will make him only
the more defiant and disregardful of the
law and more resentfnl OF the men who
make it.
The strait-jacket policy has been tried
in this city and in many of the neighbor.
ing states. withresults that all men arc
familiar with. Drunkenness was never
as prevalent III Iowa as since the effort
was made to prohibit the manufacture
and sale OF hquOr. In Kansas and the
Dakotas repressive legislation has had
the effect Of increasing rather than di.
minishing the wee, and the people are
in rebellion against the laws. Wherever
elections have been held this spring a
loud protest has arisen against prohibi.
tory laws. With scarcely an exception
all the Minnesota towns that have been
heard from have voted in favor of the
licensing of the liquor trafic. This does
not argue that the people are advocates
OF intemperance or Of liquor drinking
but that they are opposed to making
strait-jackets of themselves and Their
neighbors to wear. Occasions arise
when even the most bigoted prohibition.
lat is in need Of alcoholic stimulation
lie wants the privilege of procuring il
when such times come. There is. besides
the growing conviction that all attempts
to regulate the human appetite bv law
are bound to fail, and that the best means
to promote intemperance by prohibit
ting the sale or consumption of alcoholic
beverages. 1t is natural to mankind to
eat OF forbidden fruit, and useless TO
attempt to cure the fault. A lack of
knowledge of human nature is at the roof
OF all sumptnary legislation. 1t would
be wellfor all concerned to bear in
mind thata knowledge OF natural dispo-
slt!on is necessary to an intelligent
treatment of social evil; and before they
labor to cure the sim they should labor to
comprehend it..
The Direct Tax.