The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1907-11-09

the famous editor of the Courier-Jour-
nal Of Louisville, KY, in an address
last month at Lexington, KY, where
the state fair was being held, said, in
part: II do not care to live in world
that is too good to be genial; too
ascetic to be honest; too proscriptive
to be happy. I do not believe that
men can be legislated into angels. The
blue laws of New England-dead let
tiers for the most part-did more to
harm the people while they lasted
than all other agencies combined. 1
would leave them in the cold storage,
to which the execration of some and
the neglect of all consigned them long
ago, not embalm and import them to
Kentucky, to poison the meat and
drink and character of the people,"
Mr.. Watterson, in this same speech,
declared for a reform of the liquor
traffic.: but warned his hearers against
the rabid prohibition tactics of Beck
ham Of Kentucky, who would bring
that commonwealth under state prohi-
bition law.
The history Of our nation stands as
constant protest against the prohibit
ton of mems rights. Out of the orig
inal twenty three states that have
from time to time adopted state pro-
hibition it is in force now in only four
states, namely, Maine, Kansas, North
Dakota and Georgia. In Georgia pro-
hibition was adopted at the last ses-
sion of the legislature of that state.
And it was not adopted because there
was popular demand for prohibition,
but because a quick and effective
method was needed to prevent the ne
groes Of that state from securing
liquor, the constitution providing that
the negro should have the same rights
as the white man. Our national gov.
eminent wisely provided for it's ward,
the Indian, by making it a misdemean.
or to sell Intoxicating liquor to him,
but the negro, fully as irresponsible,
was not thus safeguarded, and some
of the atrocious crimes that have so
greatly int1amed the South against the
fortunate fondness for whisky. So a
majority of the people of Georgia
willingly threw their own rights and
inclinations into the balance to save
the negro from himself.
AS to Maine, Kansas and North Da-
kots, the other states still holding fast
to state prohibition, a simple glance
at government statistics as set forth
by the United States census bulletins
Of 1908, shows that the ratio of arrests
per thousand of inhabitants of those
states for drunkenness is greater than
in states where the licensed saloon is
wisely controlled by municipal govern.
mert. If further proof of these facts
is needed look back only to last spring
and ponder upon North Dakota's un.
successful fight against the blind pig
gers of that state
Facts like these are what cause us
to stop and think. We know that
state prohibition does not prohibit
That back rooms, veritable dog-holes
become the haunts of young men and
boys, and mat the influence of these
dives is hundred times worse than
that of the clean, open, licensed sa'
loon. County local option is only a
shade removed from state prohibition,
because it enables one part of the
county to legislate away the rights OF
another part.
The Trade Journal, as an advocate
of temperance and the friend of those
who are earnestly working in it's be-
half, believes that the solution of this
problem is best worked out through
the man himself and that the best aid
to the man and to his friends in the
temperance cause, is the licensed sa.
loon, controlled by local option of the
people in each community in the Uni.
ted States, and conducted under the
just and equitable restrictions of our
laws.
1t is a fact that men are more and
more breaking away from the habit OF
drinking strong, Intoxicating liquors,
and are drinking more of lighter, less
Intoxicating beverages, such as beer
and wines. It is fact that the EN-
ployers Of labor, of skilled and profes'
sional talent, and that the people
themselves, will not tolerate drunken.
ness. So, in this attitude of the PEG
pie and in the spread Of the reign OF
sobriety, beginning with the man him,
self, we believe lies the solution that
confronts the friends and advocates OF
temperance.-FrorlL the st. Paul Trade
Journal.