The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-07-17
Discussing the Liquor Question


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+ + + + 1. 1. + !. /. 1. + !. /. i 1. + +
+ ARTICLES under this heading +
+ are nearly all contributed in l.
+ response to our invitation to i
+ the public to discuss the sub +
I. ject with the view of helping +
+ to solve the liquor problem, +
+ rather than keep up an argu- +
1. ment. Some of the writer's are +
l. willing their names should be +
1. used with their articles, while +
1. others prefer that they should +
+ not-not because they are +
+ ashamed of their views, but be- +
+ cause they do not care to be +
- in the lime light.-Editor.) +
+].s + T. i - + i. i. 1. + + + + +
LOCAL OPTION NOT CONSTITU-
TIONAL.
(Reprinted by Request
A paper read on the PRACTICABLE
ity of Wide Prohibition, by
Mrs. Emmett D. Nichols of Boise. by
request before the annual meeting OF
the Mothers Congress of Boise on
May %, 1908. Mrs. Nichols is presi-
dent of the Good Citizens Club OF
Boise.
The exponents of statewide pro-
hibition as the next measure to Work
for in temperance legislation take
the position, first, that Idaho should
not be classed with other states that
have come into the promised land OF
prohibition through the wilderness OF
focal option, being in advance OF said
states in the present statutory pro-
lection it affords from saloon dom1-
nation through council prohibition
and the discretionary power vested
in her county commissioners.
Working for local option with
such a protection already provided
seems to us illogical, and not In keep
ing with the forward spirit OF the
century.
feel that our position is tenable.
Time, energy and money are being
used to bring results that have prac-
tically already been attained
Every state that has passed
through the experiences of local OPP
ton has learned that prohibition
cannot have fair test while liquor
is sold in certain cities therein
Through the sentiment of local self
government, which is so ardently ad-
vanced alike by friends OF whisky
and perhaps we'll meaning friends of
temperance, some little spot reserves
the right to sell, under the personal
liberty granted. Such centers, with
out exception, supply through under
ground methods the means that
serve to thwart the wishes of local
tiles that vote to be free. 1t is many
years since a Lincoln declared that
the nation could not exist half slave
and half free. We, as temperance
workers have been slow to learn that
the same sentiment applies to the
rum slave trade, and that a state can
not exist half drunk and half sober;
but today, thank God, there is pro-
gressive sentiment abroad that has
sounded the signal gun OF no COM
promise; and this same sentiment
will be satisfied with nothing less
than overwhelming and everlasting
suppression of the rum fiend, through
prohibition.
Prohibitory law is useful in those
communities where sentiment Is in
favor of intoxicating liquors just as
health laws are useful in commun-
ity where aseAtiment would favor
omen cess pools, tainted meat and
rotten fruit We would unanimously
denounce the board of health that
would give the smallpox infected dis
trict of a city option as to propagat-
ing the disease germ.
Another pertinent objection to a
local option measure lies in the fact
that when obtained it delays, for
many years, the day of state prohi.
bition. Politicians use it as a club
TO kill stronger measure and JUSTIFY
their positions by the assertion tina,
it has not been fully tested. Since
several local option kittens have al
ready met an ignominous death al
the hands of our lawmakers of the
past, progressive and aggressive sen
timent would suggest a change OF
tactics at the next sitting by turning
loose upon them roaring prohibi
tion lion. 1t was a mighty tida
wave of righteousness that gained
the splendid victory for Georgia. Ii
the legislative body of 1877 members
in session at the time, there was no
a man who had even been instructed
for prohibition, but the united, de
termined, desperate move on the par
of the people goaded by the insolenc'
of the demands of liquor men who
under local option, after the dealt
of the prohibition warrior, San