Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1908-07-21
Prohibition In Nebraska.

Perhaps there are some people In the
good old prohibition state OF Maine who
would like to hear something about the
great prohibition wave" that has struck
Nebraska in common with other states
| in the south, southwest and middle
west. To many who have been working
| for Temperance for the last twenty-five
or thirty years, sometimes in the strength
of despair rather than hope, it has come
as a surprise, like some of our western
floods that almost in single night raise
small creeks into big rivers, overfiowing
their banks and tearing away bridges AZ
II in sport.
As the result OF our spring elections,
over four hundred towns in Nebraska
went "dry"-to use the common e1-
preston for voting out saloons. Quite
large proportion of these towns had
never before been able to drive out the
saloon. Last year there was only one
"dry" county in the state-that is one in
which all the towns in it bad voted out
the saloons by local option. This year
we have fifteen counties in which
there are no saloons, three more so
nearly ''dry" that only one saloon town
remains in each More than half the
territory in our great stale is now with
out saloons, though not one-half the
population. Omaha, our largest city,
where the great rich breweries are To-
Gated, has so many saloons it has some
full than water.
In the city of Lincoln, on the Saturday
before election day, there was grand
prohibition parade which afforded a
most thrilling demonstration of the
strength of prohibition sentiment among
the people. Representatives OF more
than fifty organizations in the city.
churches, Sunday Schools, the Civic
league. the G. A. R.. W. e. 7. O., l..
T. L., Y. NJ. C. A, Y. W. c. A, Saliva
ton Army. Volunteers, women's clubs,
the State University colleges and public
schools, made up, with numerous bands
of music, procession more than a mile
long. Garages of all kinds were used,
automobiles, dray wagons, hay carts,
floats of every description, all profusely
decorated with bunting and carrying
banners with appropriate notices con-
corning the question at issue. In one
part Of the procession thirty min
listers walked two abreast, in another
there was broom brigade of thirty
boys. One float deserves mention: it was
made in the form of half an egg and flll-
ed with young men and boys bearing the
motto, 1--WE are Matching out No Sa-
loons.'" A Lincoln paper said that es-
Inmates of the number of people who
took part in the parade ran from two
thousand to five thousand, also that
even a great circus parade had seldom
called out such throng OF sight seers.
1t is believed by many that If the issue
had been between prohibition and the
forty.two saloons in the city as they had
been previously run, prohibition would
have carried at the polls. But few
weeks before election the issue was
changed. 1t was to be between prohibit |
ton and reduced number of saloons
that should be open only from seven in |
the morning till seven at night: Many
saloon keepers at first regarded the
daylight saloon" as too much of joke
and even declared they would prefer
prohibition. They claimed they made
most of their profits in the early morn |
ing when the lsboring men were on their |
way to their work and in the evening |
when their rooms were thronged with
thirsty crowds till late hour. After a |
while, however, as drowning men catch |
at straws, they seemed to conclude that |
even daylight saloons" would be better |
than none. As is usual with saloon men,
they marshalled to the polls the riff raft
of the city, men whose votes could be
bought with few drinks or few dol
lars, many of them ignorant foreigners
who had not been long in the country.
Some have claimed, though it cannot be
positively known, that the small ma
jority by which prohibition was defeat
ed was due to the Russian and Italian
vote.
The defeat was sore disappointment
to many temperance people who had
been sanguine of victory. They feit II
would be a grand object lesson to the !
whole state and to other states il our
beautiful capital city, an educational
center, with its great university, its col
leges and it's thousands of young men
and young women students, could have
driven out the saloon. But there is
comfort in knowing that the victory of
the anti-prohibition forces was really
nothing to boast of. Compared with the
whole number of votes cast, the majority
against prohibition was very small. The
city has now but twenty-five daylight
saloons in the place Of forty-two run
ming in full blast from early morn
ing till late at night. Any saloon is
bad enough, but one that can be open
only from seven to seven is quite an
improvement on the ordinary kind, its
power for evil considerably curtailed.
These twenty-five saloon keepers with
the sword of prohibition hanging over
their heads, are likely to be much more
crcumspect in obeying the law than they
have ever been before. Next to the sat
isfaction OF seeing saloon keeper put
out of business is that OF seeing him
compelled to toe the mark.
Some tell US this prohibition wave"
will subsde after while and leave us
where we was before. But we believe
that as the outcome of long process
of education, it has come to stay, or
rather to 60 on with increasing power as
part of the great movement for civic
righteousness to which our nation dur
ing the past few years seems to have
been waking up. Our temperance work.
ers are jubilant for they believe state
prohibition is in sight.
MRS. HANNAH Z. N. ALLEN.
Valparaiso, Neb.