The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1908-01-06

SUaUlSIlcS dcceSSlDle u every OHt, Ildl
he idleness, disorder, pauperism and
crime existing in the country are
traceable to this evil"
The Supreme Court of Indiana in
That drunkenness is an evil both
to the Individual and to the state all
must admit. That its legitimate con-
sequences are disease, and destruction
to mind and body, will also be grant
That it produces four-ifths to
ninetenths OF all the crime commit
ted is the united testimony of those
judges, prison-keepers, sheriffs and
others engaged in the administration
the criminal law, who have investi-
gated the subject. That taxation to
meet the expenses of pauperism and
crime, falls upon and is borne by the
people, follows as a matter of course
That its tendency is to destroy the
peace, safety and well being of the
people, to secure which the first arti-
Gle in the Bill of Rights declares all
free governments are instituted, is
too obvious to be denied"
Bearing in mind these decisions,
and the declaration of every State
supreme court in our Union, that the
saloon is a to the health, nap
piness and morals of the community,
listen to what the Supreme Court of
the United States says:
mo legislature can bargain away
the public health, or the public NOR
ais. The people themselves cannot do
it, much less their servants" Stone
v, Miss, 1O1 Z. S. SIG.
And again: mo legislature can bar
gain away the public morals or the
public health, or the public peace"
PheIan V. Va, s Howard 163-16S.
II the light of this declaration by
the highest court in our land, how can
any legislature pass a law that is con-
stitutional that licenses those dens
which every court says are the pro
life source of crime, and are destruct-
i've of the morals, health and nappi-
ness Oh ile community
i presume there is no intelligent
person WHO will defend the saloon
upon moral grounds. We nave pass
ed that point in the discussion. The
excuse given for the enactment of l.
cense laws is that prohibition does
not prohibit; that hiSh license is the
better method of control; that liquor
viii be sold anyway, and that the city
ought to derive a e from it to
take care of the expense made upon
the public by the traffic.
Then again they say prohibition
may work in rural districts, but can,
not he enforced in a large city. That
dens of vice are necessary in a large
city, and that to wipe them out will
destroy the prosperity of such city
These statements have beer so FIRE.
~quently and persistentIy made by the
friends of the liquor traffic, that a
large number Of good citizens have
come to believe them.
Temperance advocates have answer
ed by saying if liquor will be solo
anyway, it must be sold without oul
license-we will aot be partners il
the crime-we will not accept part O.
the blood money.
About a quarter of a century age
the people of this state said that they
would not legaIize a traffic which, as
our supreme court says. produces in
Vulnerable ills and woes. shame ana
disgrace, indulgence, poverty AMI want
Twenty-Five years ago we discover
ed a precious jewel, and we hid il
away. 1t has been hid so long the
world was denying we possessed it
SO it became necessary to polish it
n hold it forth to prove we owned
it, as well as its great value.
Kansas is today the experiments
station of the world. In this state is
to be determined and forever settled
whether prohibition can be enforced
in large cities as well as III rural dis.
tr1cts. Kansas proposed by actual ex-
pertinent to demonstrate whether
dens of vice are necessary for the
prosperity Of large cities. Peculiar
circumstances caused the selection
OF Kansas City. Kansas. as the first
experimental station. It was a CITY
OF nearly one hundred thousand in
habitants. and the METROPOLIS of the
state. 1t was a manufacturing city,
and tae home of the wage Garner. It
mad a large population of foreigners-
the pauper labor of the old world. Il
possessed a larger number of unda-
slfaole cluzens in proportion to its
population than any other large CITY
in this nation Time and again had
the slum broken forth like a volcano.
burning property. wreckine trains and