The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-04-20
PROVO CITY.
PROHIBITION.

The very emphatic way in which the
qestion of prohibition was disposed of
yesterday, is just little astonishing,
when we recall the fact that this curt
action was had by body of men who
were still perspiring from their hearty
cheers over the success of female suf-
frage. The question Of prohibiting the
manufacture, sale or giving away of
intoxicating liquors in Utah is most
important one and has ever been con-
sidered as the twin sister of woman's
Utah for many months as an argument
in favor of suffrage, because, its friends
claimed, the women could be depended
upon to vote en- mass for it every time.
The policy of the Mormon church and
its teaching and faith on this subject
are well known and widely commended
throughout the length and breadth of
Utah. 1t has been claimed also that
suffrage a little more than doubles the
Mormon vote and thus it would seem
that logically the convention should
have accorded prohibition little more
attention. At least the important
question should have gotten beyond
the committee in order to give the
brave members an opportunity to
have aired their sobriety and their
eternal hatred OF the cups that both
cheer and inebriate.
Now, being strictly democratic, The
DISPATCH is opposed to prohibition
and all other forms of sumPtuary leg
islation upon principle, yet it cannot
but wonder at the inconsistency
pointed at above. Having generously
enfranchised the especial champions of
prohibition, and yet in the face of this
to decline to permit the newly enfran-
chised to tilt in the cause of temper
ance is both cruel and inconsistent, be-
sides being illogical and unreasonable.
Are We to take this result as indicative
of republican Indifference on the SUBJ
ject,or is it only another evidence that
there is good everywhere even in a
body having good round republican
majority But it is not little sur
prising that in constitution contain
ing almost every other isnl en earth y
find 70 prohibitionism and
DO we have to ascribe
Uo-;.o mis- fact, as we
bur- e ohe,',5 - -
incense before him at once
and keep it up until the massive
bronze doors of the senate swing
clangingly behind him at Wash
ington. To be sure such result
would greatly distress the Tribune, but
the wholesome medicines were ever
bitter and we confess that it would give
us exquisite enjoyment to witness the
wry faces this awful paper would make
over consummation so uni looked for
and prayed against as this. While we
are trying the isms, because this is our
experimental stage as state, we
might as well have put prohibition in
with the rest and had it all over at one
time.
It will not fail to strike the average
onlooker that Notwithstanding the re-
publicanism of the convention, yet
their work is pretty we'll mixed with
democratic results, at the same time.
The defeat of the bounty provision was
q very decided democratic victory, and
now the elimination of prohibition is
another notable democratic advance; if
only suffrage had been beaten, thus
removing all danger of the defeat of
the constitution when it falls into the
hands of the foes of Utah, in the east,
we might fairly claim that our demo.
cratic minority was more potent and
efficient than was, or is, the republican
majority in the convention and the
general result so much more useful and
satisfactory. Prohibition has been the
cause of the church, the whole church,
not simply the Mormon branch of it,
but the church proper in its entirety;
but peculiarly the Mormon church be-
cause temperance and sobriety are
taught and urged, even to the extent,of
rejecting tea, coffee, tobacco and all
manner of stimulants and sedatiyes,
as well as intoxicants properly SO con-
sidered.
This should stand as an indication
TO our eastern friends. As guarantee
that Notwithstanding we have female
suffrage in our constitution, yet we are
not, and do not intend to go bound
hand and foot under church goYernance.
If this view is taken of the constitution
in the east 1t may have the good effect
of taking off entirely the chill occas-
ioned by the presence of our wives and
sweethearts at the polls and on the
hustings. Really there are few unmixed
evils in this world. Every devil has an
angel of light on his shoulder, if only
we recognize the fact. The constitu-
tion is not all bad.
THE papers which were opposed to
taxing mortgages are now busy in