The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1908-03-07
TEMPERANCE VS.. PROHIBITION

In the discussion of any question
the wise disputant will first define
his terms Prohibition does not
mean temperance Neither does tenn
perance mean total abstinence.
Neither does temperance mean sole
ly the moderate use of alcoholic
liquors 1t means moderation in
everything = including language "a
fact that many advocates of temper
ance forget.
The Wageworker is not a pro-
ponent of the saloons. On the con.
trary it is opposed to the liquo:
traffic and seeks by every sensible
method at its command to eliminate it.
But the enactment of a prohibitory
law does not mean the destruction
of the liquor traffic. Neither does
majority vote against the saloon
mean that a majority of the voters
will do their full duty in enforcing
the law they have put upon the
statute books. In discussing the
liquor problem with an elder of a
prominent church the other day, the
editor of The Wageworker made a
remark to which the elder replied:
We'll, l will vote against the sa
loon, and there my responsibility
ends"
On the contrary, there is where
your responsibility begins" was the
editors reply
This elders position is the posi-
ton of majority of those who vote
for prohibition-and that is why the
law is usually farce.
The Wageworker is not impressed
with the argument of those who OPP
pose prohibition on the ground that
it will increase taxes, create vacant
property and throw men out of en-
ployment. Neither is it impressed
with the argument of the prohibition
lists who declare that the enactment
of prohibitory law is the solution
of the liquor question.
This humble little labor paper be-
heyes that the solution of the liquor
problem lies in education. 1t believes
that the commonsense of the Amer
lean people will sooner or later teach
them that the saloon has nothing to
recommend it, and that when they
reach this conclusion-and they are
rapidly approaching it-they will
eliminate the saloon The work of
practical temperance reform has
taken greater strides during the last
ten years of practical education than
it took in forty years of red ribbon"
and blue ribbon campaigning under
Cough and Murphy and Benson.
There is less drunkenness today than
ever before in the worlds history,
partisan prohibitionists to the con-
trary Notwithstanding Men are more
temperate as a rule than they were
in former years, not because of the
moral wrong of over-indulgence, but
because they realize the physical and
mental injury thereof. We believe
that another decade of progress along
temperance lines similar to the pro-
gress made during the last decade
will bring us to the final and proper
solution of the questionable elimina-
ton of the saloon as it exists today.
The danger is that in their haste
to force the solution men will enact
laws that will be impossible of en-
forcement, and a law unenforced is
a farce and a menace.
There are a great many men in
Lincoln who are just as anxious to
rid the country of the saloon evil as
Brother Wolfenbarger, or Brother
Batten, or Brother Carr, or Brother
Flansburg. They are just as honest
as either member of this little band
of brethren. But because they differ
in their conception of the proper
course to follow they are branded as
saloon advocates" and tools of the
devil' by the good brethren who
would reinforce the gospel of the
Nazarene with legislative enact
ment and a sheriff's writ. For the
life of us we can not see much diff