The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-04-23
TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION.

TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION.
The meeting OF the state enforce
ment league which has been called
to meet at Fargo in few days,
would have had much for which to
congratulate itself and the temper
ance people of the state, had not the
combination of democrats, Valley City
ed in putting through the legislature
the democratic measure known as the
initiative and referendum with pro-
vision that the methods of Initiating
legislation shall apply to the chang
ing of the constitution. That the con-
stitutional provision was directly aim
ed at the resubmission question is
evident from the fact that in all coun-
tries and under all circumstances the
constitution has been regarded as
more sacred than the statute laws of
the same state or country, and it has
always been the policy of the best
statesmen TO make the fundamental
law more difficult to change and less
amenable to the whims and caprices
of passion than the acts of the legis-
latures. But the LELAND bill places
the constitution on the same level as
the legislation SO far as making
changes under the initiative principle
is concerned. Why was this done ex-
cept that resubmission might be given
to North Dakota?
The late legislature passed a num-
Der of amendatory acts which the
temperance people have recognized as
necessary for the proper enforcement
of the prohibition law. Among these
is the Haugen bill making the owner
of any building guilty of a INSIDE
meanor when such building is let or
leased for the purpose Of selling
therein intoxicating liquor; the Pierce
bill prohibiting the soliciting of orders
for intoxicating liquors in the state;
the Haugen bill providing for the con-
fiscation of liquor imported into the
state for illegal purposes; and the
Moore bill providing that any person
may make affidavit and have any
premises searched for intoxicating Ii
quors whether such person has pur-
chased liquor at such place or not.
These will materially assist in driv-
ing out the blind pigs and bootleggers
from the places where they have to
some extent been shielded by the lack
of proper methods to bring them to
justice. In addition to these laws, the
creation of the Office of temperance
commissioner and the placing Of the
enforcement of the law in his hands
instead of in the hands of spoilers
as has been necessary under the old
conditions, was long step in the
right direction.
There can be no doubt but that had
the legislature stopped at this point
the next few years would have seen
a decided improvement in the condi-
tons in the state so far as the pro-
hibition law is concerned. The bust
ness would have been made so un-
wholesome and SO dangerous, and the
certainty of conviction so sure, that
no rational minded person would have
cared to engage in the same, no mat
ter how alluring the profits. The
people of the state who are at heart
prohibitionists, but who prefer some
other method of controlling the traffic
because of the failure to enforce the
law in some places, would then have
understood that prohibition meant
prohibition and would have gladly
the present law because of
the proper enforcement.
AS a matter of fact, those who hope
to carry resubmission in its disguised
form of the initiative and referendum
are depending largely on the votes of
that class of temperance people just
who are not satisfied with
the present law as heretofore en-
forced. The desperate needs of get
ting the initiative measure through
the legislature at the last session so
that it could be proclaimed as the
great principle Of modernized liberty,
was that the workings Of the laws
enacted at the same session should
not become known before the people
were blinded with the theoristic adj
Of the initiative. Il
The meeting at Fargo will wisely