Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1908-11-11

tries come to us with habits of their
own that have been the growth of
centuries in the fatherland. Among
these. is the almost universal use in
a moderate way, of the mildest and
least harmful intoxicants, such as
wine and beer. To many of our own
people such use seems harmful but
to these people it is an innocent and
harmless as the use of tea or coffee
among ourselves.
How have we met this habit of
theirs, innocent as it seems to them,
ii not indulged in to excess?
At first we made it penal offense
for anyone to manufacture or sell to
one Of them, or..to anyone else a
single drop of alcoholic liquors of any
kind to. be used as beverage. Not
man in Iowa who believed natural
right ,of. his own was affected respect
ed that law. The result was its open
notorious and fragrant violation In
the chief centers. Of our population.
ad is secret aand alnost. as constant
|violation IN every other locality Of
the state.
In. time the law worked badly in a
political way against the party that
enacted it, and then the same party,
without repeating the first, enacted
another by which certain persons may
with impunity violate the first law,
provided they do SO in certain spec
flied way, particularly pointed out by
the second law. Among others it is
provided that the party who is to be
protected against violations of our
iibftory aw shall immune himself
i'll single room, with one line of
fingress and egress, without furniture
of any kind to adorn its interior, with
unshaded windows looking out upon a
public street, and then he must see
that the accessory of the crime he is
about to commit stands straight up
and down while he swallows the pro-
hibited draught.
If he does all this and much more
without swerving hairs breadth
from the plan provided by the Act, he
can appeal to one law to safeguard
him against unlimited violations oi
tanother equally solemn statute of the
same state.
i We could have made this last law
d little more ridiculous in the eyes
of foreign residents il we had pro
vided that they should stand on theil
heads instead of their feet while they
slipped their wine and beer.
Now what is the harvest of thest
laws? If we search for good the!
have produced do we find it? !
there less intemperance in Iowa thai
..ere was before their enactment
X, SO, how is it shown?
But turn to the other side; wha
are their evils? In. the first place
u deep-seated contempt for all thei
provisions by every man who feel
that his own manhood his own in
assailed by their provisions, and tn
men who believe this in Iowa includ
include almost every foreigner in tn
state and vast number of our ow
people as well. The result Is
willingness on every hand in man
, communities Of this state to Sc
; their laws treated with contempt an
j, protest even to the verge of purgin
lin our courts known violators of tn
same.
al Their attempted enforcement ofte
arrays neighbor against neighbo
q class against class, race against rae
a And still the unfortunate wrong &c
e on. On one side, from pulpit, pres
$ and rostrum the appeal Is heal
$ Give us a state constabulary. Hit Il
bulls-eye by impeachment of tt
# Judge that will not jump to the frol
# in efforts to enforce these laws. R
e. move the prosecuting attorney tn
ID does not do the same. Indict the p
is lice officer that lags in his duty he
whatever the cause. Hiss on Il
st sleuth that trails the foreigner t
re the money that's in the law. And
I'd the other. cold determined. defian
I'd of the law. A great and growil
as army Of law breakers. An open file
re beckoning the boot-legger to col
m and ply his hideous traffic in the ds
ng The drug store often converted in
an a menace worse than the saloon.
RS 1t surprising under such conditio
lip that Iowa's population is diminishil
that her capital is hunting otf
M fields for investment. that her far