The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-08-27

straight path to hell is marked out
for your boys: Sometimes, as has
been the case more than once In our
country there came disagreements
and drunken brawls, and then MUIR
der is committed. On the morrow,
the blood stains are covered up-the
dead buried, and an open mouthed
public straightway forgets, and fools
drink from the glass that the murder
err used the day before.
Prohibition to Protect the Innocent
We demand prohibition in our
county for the protection of the in
nocent, These incurable topers may
not truthfully flatter themselves that
all this worry and agitation is about
them, while we pity them We do not
consider them likely patients. We
look far ahead, we want to save the
young from their fate. Great re-
forms are not accomplished In mo-
ment, or day; we are building for
the next generation. Seventy years
ago, Horace Mann. the great educa-
tor said: There are thousands and
tens of thousands of inebriates who
never would have been so had the
tavern and the dram shop been five
miles off from their homes.
1t is worse than nonsense to say.
that our boys will have liquor, law or
no law The confirmed drunkards
may wade through fire to get it, and
let these burn themselves II they
must, but if it is out of sight, those
who have had no appetite awakened
for it will desire 1t no more than
they will carve for morphine.
Value of Prohibition
The value of prohibition laws, as
an aid to the Improvement Of morals
is shown best by comparison. Here
are some examples: Boston is wet
and Portland, Maine, is dry:
For every 10000 of the population,
Boston has 426 arrests for drunken
ness, and Portland has 81.
Comparing prohibition Maine with
licensed Massachusetts, for every TO-
900 population Massachusetts has 33
criminals in the penitentiary and
Maine has 13.
Mayor Johnson, speaking of Fargo,
N. d., says: "We have comparatively
no crime in Fargo, During my incum-'
bency of the mayors Office between
1896 and 1902-was out OF Office
four years-there was not Il hold
up, stabbing, shooting assault of
women, in fact thsre was practically
no felonies committed during that
time
This is the showing of Bro"kton,
Mass, which tried prohibition and
then tried license and then went back
to prohibition:
Under no license, 1897 Arrests
for drunkenness ......... 453|
Under license, Arrests
for drunkenness 1927
Under no license, 1899-1900-
Arrests for drunkenness -. 455
Our neighboring county has been
enjoying a dry spell" for few
and leading men in some Of
the districts report that conditions
are very much improved. This Is
shown in the decrease of hoodlumism,
and the improvement in the charact-
ers of the young men, and although
liquor interests are exerting them
selves in every way possible to keep
alive the taste for their goods, the
good results of prohibition are al
ready noted.
Saloon Men Defiant Law-Breakers
While 1t has been shown that crime
as the result of the personal use Of
liquor greatly increases the tendency
Of the liquor traffic toward open and
defiant lawlessness 1t is best seen in
the lives and policy of the saloon men
themselves. They have great or
ganization and spend immense sums
Of money to defeat the operation of
the laws that the people have made.
This, under any other head would be
called anarchy or nihilism. Where
there is a dry town, they will give
whiskey away, rather than see its use
abated, and their whole study Is to
evade every law that Is made to con-
troll them, whether to the selling or
giving OF liquor to minors, or the pro-
of the sale of liquor alto
gether. Let prohibition be assured,
The defiant talk you now hear so
and then let the law take its course,
much, may then be modified. The as
pect of this question will change very
when one comes to look
at 1t through the bars of a jail.
Saloons Menace to Nation
But there is perhaps weigh.ief
matter than any have been consid-
ering, at least when viewed from the
standpoint of the patriotic lover OF
our country. quote the words OF
Samuel Smiles.
Experience serves to prove that
the worth and strength of state de-
ponds far less upon the form OF its
than upon the character
of its men, for the nation is only the
aggregate of individual conditions,
and civilization itself Is but ques
ton of personal improvements"
II that be true, and 1t most certain
ly is--what hope is there for the fut-
ure Of this nation IL the present con-
ditions continue.
Experience has shown there Is no
successful way of licensing or control-
ling the sale of liquor; the higher the
license, the more they have to adul-
terate; the lower the license the more
saloon keepers. AS liquor interests
grow in wealth and power they will
lay their strong hands upon every de-
partment of our government, and the