Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1906-09-13
Contributed

Oklahoma will have presented for
their consideration the question: OF
constitutional |prohibitian, and they
should examine it from a broad, dis
passionate standpoint before arriving
at the decision of their judgment. Al
the outstart the people should clearly
understand the distinction between
temperance and prohibition. All men
are for temperance, but all men do
not agree that it can be attained by
force. They agree that, drinking not
being a crime in itself but one Of the
natural rights Of the individual, it is
Il matter Of education and regulation
to protect persons from It's evcesses
the same as the excuses of any other
natural function mental or nhvsical
A certain of accidents happen in ac-
tive forces in nature or in man. There
are cyclones and earthquakes, drouths
and floods in the laws Of the earth
that destroy life and property. Those
who walk run the risk of breaking
their limbs. those who mink may
break down mentally. and those who
eat are liable to be taken down with
ailments of their digestive organs,
The regulation of drinking is a mat
ter of Judgment from past experience.
1t is like all natural functions, it will
ALWAYS be with us in some form as
long as the products Of nature fer
ment and the human family exists de-
pending upon them for life. So the
question of drinking is like the ques-
ton of ife-heretofOre, here, and
hereafter-it will never be resolved
as long as it exists.
The moral forces in existence are
coexistant with the. physical forces.
and will forever play their duel parts.
and those who are set apart as mora
teachers will forever be meditaors OF
the two.
They but show us the evil results OF
drinking inflame thir audience and
bias their judgment. They point to
the enacting Of prohibition in certain
states, but they do not inform them
of its failure and repeal. Thus each
community is persuaded to pass thru
an experience at much EXPENSE OF
moral and financial wealth, that ii
could have evaded by profting by the
experience Of others.
The history of the prohibition move
ment in the United States is so con
trary to whatthe average citizen has
been made hat the following will
astonish the intelligent. Especially is
such information necessary in Okla.
homa. As the article shows move,
ments to suppress or regulate the
liquor traffic go by raves of action
and reaction. The people of Oklaho.
ma came here without law, and that
splendid personal v%olitiOn that has
made the West the personitication OF
the viral manhood in the world raj
riot in its pleasures as well as in its
other pursuits. 1t was natural tina
a moral reaction should take place il
this excess, as a modification has ia.
ken place-a falling into the groove
set by centuries-of all other socia
and commercial habits. But will moi
prohibition drive us into a condition
in which, as a state, We will be at
disadvantage in the struggle with the
things that make a prosperous, happy
people? Oklahoma is today as neal
local option as though that law were
on the statue books. With a few eX.
ceptions, none but the cities Of the
first class have regular saloons. OF
its W law of reaction from those
early excuses Oklahoma is today the
best regulated state in the Union in
its LIQUOR traffic and its people the
most temperate. There is less drunk
enness and less crime as a result OF
the liquor traffic than in any other
state. Is this not a good enough re-
suit of e~ducationQ, and encourage.
ment of what can be done in the fu.
ture by the same agency? We have
done this all ourselves, without any
outside influence. Shall we allow an
organized influence from without
drive us into a condition of prohibi-
ton, whose virtues are. eXtold but
whose baneful results are kept silent
results that made twelve out of ff'
teen states that adopted it repeal it
These are some of the questions
that should suggest themselves to the
readers of the following article:
During the colonial days nnearly
all of the colonies from Maine tC
Georgia enacted, at different times
prohibiting, in various ways the man.
ufacture and sale of liquors, and in
some instances of tobacco also. These
laws were uniformly disregarded, and
were productive of numerous evil con.
sequences. So impossible was it tC
enforce them, and so great were the
abuses growing out of them, that they
rarely remained upon the statute
books more than a few years. Such
experiments were repeated from tire
to time, always with like results. until
toward the Revolution, when they
were given up.
The colonial experience with nrohib-
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