The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-04

j gives us Whole case away WHtH IL
says: 1T is not within the limits OF
reason that any man would pay for a
license unless he meant to use it" It
! is simply evidence that certain class
| of persons intend to be 1aw-breakers
il they can. Many of them are ar
rested and sent to prison the first sale
they make; and one hundred of such
persons would not sell as much as an
average saloon in this city
Finally, will not Mr.. Quinn, or some
other apologist of the saloon, answer
this question: II prohibition is and
has been such a stupendous failure,
why is it that such prominent MEM
bers of our constitutional convention
! as Moritz, Kiesel and Haynes are not
working and voting for its adoption?
GEORGE T. GOODWIN.
Salt Lake City, April 2, 1895.
We print the foregoing, although we
think it should have been sent to the
paper which it attacks, because we
wish to give our prohibition friends the
chance to be heard. You seldom find
any more Incorporate people than the
so-called temperance folks. That is,
/ in their manner of argument. Prohibi-
ton itself is intemperahce IN an oppo-
site direction to excessive liquor-using.
1t is an extreme as much as that which
it opposes.
If the advocates of prohibition would
set forth their arguments, facts and
figures without charging falsehood and
all kinds of improper motives to those
who do not see with their eyes, they
would make a much better impression
with temperate people than they COM
monty effect.
The article which the above writer
assails does not argue that 1.-The saloon
assists in teaching young men self
respect" But, strange to say, this ad-
vocate of temperance actually belittles
the influence of education in the work
of teaching young men self-reSpect
and the evils of inebrietyl The idea
that the saloon tends to nullify and
destroy every virtue that is inculcated
in the home. is an extravagant notion,
Incorporate in its eXaggeration. 1t is
not the saloon but the excessive indul-
gence in the intoxicating fluid that
brings about the evils complained of.
And that this can be and is carried on
without the saloon is admitted by the
writer, in saying that:
Every drug store in prohibition states
takes out a government permit; be
sides these. every "boot-legger," every
keeper of a "blind-pig" or hole in the
wall" in fact every disreputable
scoundrel who intends to violate the
law of the state takes out a govern
ment permit
What is all that for but to surrep-
titiously sell intoxicating drinks? That
would be the way in which the law Of
this state would be violated, in every
part of it where the overwhelming ma
jority of the local inhabitants are not
opposed to it. A bare majority would
not establish prohibition in fact, if it
were set up by law.
The argument why the legal voters
of Utah should not be allowed to vote
upon and decide this question for
themselves" is to some extent fur
nished in the gentleman's own admis-
sion, which we have quoted, and in the
paragraph Immediately preceding this.
But his query is very speciously
made. If he had put it in this way.
''Why should not the people in each
| lOCdl ulNlSlOu u Tie SldlG DG dlIOWGu
to vote upon and decide this question
for themselves the answer would be
different. That would no doubt be
agreed to by conservative people Of
both parties. But it would be wrong,
unjust and unsdemocratic to give the
people in remote places the right to de-
cide by their votes, what shall be
done in Salt Lake city in a matter
which should be left to the votes of
the people in this city.
The stories told about the effects of
prohibition in states where it has been
tried are very unreliable. Figures are
! quoted on one side of the question,
only to be disputed by the other and
vice versa. We care little for them,
| because they are confusing and really
| prove nothing. We draw our conclu-
sions from different premises.
False in one false in all' is a legal
axiom which is not true in matters of
fact. A statement may contain one
falsehood and a dozen truths. 1t can
only be received as relating to the gen.
eral character of a witness, one wilfu1
| falsehood casts reasonable doubt upon
all the liar says. But one error does
not destroy dozen truths nor do
dozen untruths prove one truth error.
The argument of our correspondent
with which he closes his letter, is so
childish that we wonder if some whole
some stimulant wouldn't arouse his
brain matter, or whether he has not
come within smelling distance of
cork from one of the establishments
whose owners he refers to. Let US
have little temperate reasoning in an
argument in favor of temperance
Possibly our friend will call The
Herald an advocate of the saloon
an "apologist for the liquor traffic"
That would be about in line with some
of his assertions. But this paper is
neither. 1t is an advocate of local
self-government and of municipal
rights. Let prohibition be established
where the people want it. To try to
establish it where they don't want it
is not only vain and humbug but it
is inherently unjust.
1t surprised many visitors to the
Chicago Worlds Fair to find that of
all the blood purifiers, Ayers Sarsa-
parilla was the only one on exhibition.
The reason is tta at Ayers Sarsaparilla
is standard remedy, and not a patent
medicine, or secret nostrum.