Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-06-17
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PECK AND PROHIBITION.

IS PECK AND PROHIBITION.
Former Governor George w. Peck
of Wisconsin, was in the state a
few weeks ago advising himself as
to- the conditions in North Dakota
under the Prohibition law, and the
first summary of his experiences of
his experiences and beliefs is pub
lished in the st. Paul Pioneer Press
and the Milwaukee Sentinel. The
governor expresses himself as be-
lieving that the North Dakota law
is a farce and that anybody can OBJ
tain liquor who has the price to
pay for it. He sites the case and
convenience with which liquor can
be obtained via the bridge route at
Fargo and Grand Forks, the sales
made by some Of the big drug
stores in the state, the fact that liq-
uors in bottles is to be discovered
on trains in the hands of thirsty
travellers, the openness Of the viola
ton of the law In some communities,
and from all of these things he
draws the conclusion that the law
is a farce and that Minnecota gets
the benefit while North Dakota
holds the bag.
We incline to the opinion that
Governor Peck came to the state
with the intention of arriving at the
belief he has arrived at, SO it is
not surprising that his review Of con-
ditions would impress the unthink-
ing reader as convincing Of the
ineffectiveness of the prohibition
law. And we agree with Governor
Peck that the Prohibition law is
not perfectly enforced, nor will it
be so as long as liquor is made and
there is a thirst for it. At the
same time, the governor must have
noticed that in great many Of the
cities of the state it is not possible
4 to obtain liquor promiscuously at
the drug stores. The law is fairly
well enforced, and although liquor is
shipped in, there is not the quanti-
ty of it consumed, we believe, as
there would be if there were open
saloons. And the governor would
have noticed also, if he had taken
pains to inform himself, that in the
towns of the state saloon keepers
are not battling for positions as
mayors and aldermen, that the sa-
loon element in politics is something
the state does not have to contend
with in its political affairs, and that
present conditions through the state
would not be improved by throwing
down the bars to licensed saloons.
Neither will the governor argue,
we believe, that there is the tempta-
ton to young men of fairly good
impulses in dingy ..blind pigs OF
even in Struggled bottles Of drug
store ttanglefoot,n that there would
be in well appointed saloons, where
there is every inducement to the
convivially inclined young man t.
spend the evening with more or less
profitable results The governor
perhaps, would argue for the "regu
lated saloon and the regulated
saloon would merely breed saloon
Keepers who would inject themselve'
I into civic politics for the opportunit.
Of doing their own regulating. T
Is the saloon that is being tough
IN these days not so much the sal
of liquor or the consumption of it
1t is the saloon itself that ha
brought about its downfall and tn
hatred Of the whole liquor traffic.
The sale Of liquor in the state a
the present time is not made re
spectacle by the law, and that
something. There may be some Pro
hibitionists who are unreasonable
in their activity against liquor ant
its sale. On the other there ar
+ many liquor men who are just a
unreasonable in seeking to extern,
their sales and profits by any mean
whatever These people have brongh
their own punishment upon them
selves and there will be found fes
& to be sorry for them
The commercial Of st. Paul AM
Fargo make annual Junketing trip
through the state. visiting with thei
5 c,x1fnr,aru ssnaoaff,sp sf1sn tra ~, sy !, :,