The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1908-04-04
THE QUESTION:.

Next Tuesday the voters of Lincoln
will be called upon to decide whether
the sale Of liquor shall be permitted
under the strictest regulation, or
whether the sale thereof shall be driv-
en- into the alleys, into bootlegs, into
blind pigs, into prohibition drug
stores" or so-called clubs.
1t is not a question of saloons or
prohibition" despite the efforts of the
prohibition orators to make it appear
as such. If that were really the ques-
ton the result would never be in
doubt. But it is a question of progress
sive regulation VS.. Illicit dealing that
can not be regulated. The Wagework-
err has been accused by some of sell
ing out to the Saloons" despite the
fact that it has given more space to
prohibition agitators than it has to
the arguments against prohibition.
The accusation comes from people
who deem it a virtue to bear false wit
ness If they think they may thereby
gain a point. The Wageworker is not
opposed to prohibition. 1t is opposed
to the farce that masquerades under
the name Of prohibition, and which
Is fostered by Missionaries who I'M
agine that legal enactment is the
sovereign remedy for all social evils.
They think that if they merely vote
for prohibition their responsibility
ceases. They belong to that class of
Christians who believe that they have
relieved themselves from the RESPONSE
bility of giving their children religious
instruction If they send them to Sun
day school an hour a week.
The editor of The Wageworker has
lived in Lincoln off and on for nearly
twenty years. He knows, and every in
telligent citizen knows that social con-
ditions today are thousand per cent
better than they were twenty years
ago. There has not been a year in
the last decade that Lincoln has not
made progress along social and civic
lines. 1t is a cleaner and better city,
socially and morally, than it was a
year ago, and year ago 1t was bet
ter city than it was two years ago.
This progress has been steady and
gratifying. 1t has been made along
sane lines. 1t will continue to i'm
prove IL the mistake is not made of
substituting hysteria and theory for
education and experience.
Today Lincoln, city of $4,000 peo-
pie. is better city. morally and so
cially, than any other city of it's size
in America.
Lincoln is the cleanest city, mea-
sured by moral standards, of it's size in
America.
No other city of equal size. no mat
ter where. has smaller percentage
Of drunkenness. crime or disorder and
Lincoln's percentage is being bettered
every year.
There is not another city of equal
fic is better regulated. or where the
effects of this traffic are less notice
able. And this condition is growing
better every year.
There is not another city of equal
size in America that has so little pow
erty. SO little hunger, so little squalor.
There Is not another city of equal
size in America where society is clean
err, where men are manlier, women
are more womanly, where Sunday is
better observed, where churches are
better supported, where life and prop
erty is safer and where the social at
mosphere is purer.
Lincoln is making splendid progress
along all these beneficial lines every
year. And The Wageworker believes
that common sense dictates that we
continue the policies that have brought
about these splendid results, rather
than resort to the experiments pro-
posed by those who are actuated by
sentiment and enthused by theory, and
which have failed to make good in
other communities.
Because The Wageworker believes
that the ultimate results will be bet