Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1904-02-04
A QUESTION ASKED
And sebewa Farmer Answers as He
Views II

Can prohibltory liquor law be sue
cessfully enforced In Iooia county =
Most of our editors and politicians sag
no. II they are correct our present
liquor law should be revised at once,
for there are several prohibitory laws
among them.
For example, liquor selling Is entire
| ~ prohibited on Sundays, legal holi-
days. and during certain hours OF the
night, and the sale OF liquor to children
or drunkards is prohibited at all times.
In fact the entire business is prohibit
| ed-except under certain conditions
which are set forth In the law. We re-
gulate the liquor traffic much as the
man regulated his hogs, when he built
tight board fence seven feet high all
around their yard--and then left the
gate open.
1t seems to be universally acknowl-
edged that onr local officers have, in
the past largely ignored these prohib-
tory features OF the law, being con-
tent to simply collect the license fee
and protect the saloon keeper. new
er heard them charged with fayoritism
10 the matter; they seem to have mere
y allowed all liquor dealers to do as
they pleased about 1t. Now could these
officers, or could they not, have en-
forced these laws had they been so dis
posed?,
! The testimony OF Theodore Roosevelt
upon this poiut 10 particularly valuable
for two reasons: he had lot OF expert
ence as a member OF the police board
OF New York city, and he is not friend
y TO prohibition. He freely admits,
however, that "any man who studies
the social conditions of the poor knows
that liquor works more ruin than any
other one cause;" and that "the liquor
business does not stand on the same
footing with other occupations 1t al
ways tends to produce crimina'ity In
the population at large, and law break
ing among saloon keepers themselves.
Most people will allow that Greater
New York is almost as tough place
for the enforcement OF liquor laws as
lonia, Portland. or even Pewamn.
When Mr.. Roosevelt undertook the
| job he found among others, a law pro-
hibiting the sale OF liquor on Sunday.
de says: under these circumstances
the new police board had one or two
courses TO follow. We could either in.
struct the police to allow all the saloon
keepers TO become law breakers or else
we covld instruct them to allow none
be law-breakers. We followed the lat.
ter couree because we had some regard
for our oaths OF office. For two or
three montbs we bad a regular fight.
However, when once the liquor sellers
and their allies understood that we
had not the slightest intention OF be-
ing buliied, threatened or cajoled out
OF following the course which we had
laid down, resistance practically ceas.
ed. During the year after we took
Office the number OF arrests for viola
tion OF the Sunday liquor law sank to
about one-half OF what they had been
during the last year OF Tammany rule:
and yet the saloons were practically
closed, whereas under Tammany most
OF them had been open. We adopted
no new methods, save In so far as hon
esty could be called new method
IN, off 4E
ton honestly enforced, he says: 1.-THE
poor man, and especially the poor
mans wife and children, benefited very
greatly by what we did. The hospital
surgeons found that their Monday la
bors were lessened by nearly one-half,
owing to the startling diminution In
cases OF injury due to drunken brawls:
the work of the magistrates who sat in
the city courts on Monday for the trial
OF the offenders OF the proceeding twen-
ty-four hours was correspondence de-
creased, while many tenement house
family spent Sunday In the country be-
cause for the first time the head OF the
family could not use up his money In
getting drunk
Don't forget that this was the result
OF honestly enforcing prohibition for
one day each week and that il vas &C.
complished in the largest and most
cosmopolitan OF American cities.
Iu conclusion let me quote once more
from Mr.. Roosevelt: THE one all-im-
portant element in good citizenship 10
our country is obedience to law and
nothing Is more needed than resolute
enforcement of law
STACY BROWN,
R-35 Sebewa, Mich.