Arizona republican., 1902-10-10
PHoENIx. ARIZONA, OCT. 10, 1902,
pi.eouraeine for Prohibition

The good people who hope eventually to convert the voters of Arizona to the beauties of prohibition find little to en- courage them. either at home or abroad. Instead of gaining, prohibition appears to be losing ground. every where. The two western states which have been most conspicuous in legisla- tion against all forms of liquor selling, are Iowa and Kansas. The prohibition idea had but a short reign in Iowa. and in Kansas the constitutional amend ment restricting the sale of intoxicants to medicinal. mechanical and scientific purposes which was adopted twenty one years ago, has long been dead letter. Nearly all towns of any conse- quence in the Sunfiower state now ad- here to a system of fines which amounts practically to high license.
 Even in the New England states. prohibitionists find the situation most discouraging. Vermont, which has fol- lowed the prohibition flag for fifty years, has abandoned it at last. The newly inducted governor. who failed to receive the necessary majority of the popular vote and was thereupon chosen by the state legislature. has officially recommended that a liquor law with high license and local option features be enacted for the state. Since in the September election a considerable ma 4 torial candidates who favored letting down the prohibition bars, Governor Mccullough naturally assumes that the opinions of the masses will be reflected in forthcoming legislation.
 It is interesting if not encouraging. to note that one by one the New Eng land states, where prohibitory sent.- ment has been long enthroned. are fall ing away from the standard of ''toucn not, taste not. handle not set up by an earlier genera ton. Social conser- vatism, lifelong habit and puritanical inclination are one and all overcome by the imperious exigencies of new com munal and commercial conditions. The Vermonter of today, unlike his for bears, has little or no sympathy with asceticism for its own sake. There is little difference between him and the average citizen of Arizona, for in- stance. He neither seeks seclusion nor mortifies the flesh. He builds trolley roads. installs marvellous summer ho- tels in romantic mountain fastnesses and by picturesque lakes and streams. harnesses crawling creeks and broad rivers to turn mill wheels and furnish electric power, and persistently adver- tises the scenic and industrial attrac- tions and advantages of his state. In pushing forward he finds it necessary to make concessions, and one of them appears in the guise of a presumably successful high license movement.
 There have been numerous previous attempts in Vermont to secure a re- versal of the popular prohibitory de- cree of 1851. but none which-like the present movement-carried a warrant from a majority of the population. Pro- hibitory statutes find congenial habi- tat in sparsely settled communities, where individual influence may be powerfully exerted. As population ia- creases, and communities become more complex and consequently more toler- ant. various methods of regulation supplant the older system which aimed at exclusion. To this stage the Green Mountain state has apparently att tained, by a leisurely process of evolu- ton characteristic of social and politi- cal development ir New England.