The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1909-08-26
u,ohibition, the Obstacle to Real Reform
Concluded From Page Six

Tho saloon e3lStS pscaoSS tnSie -
aomond for it. A prohibitory law GER
calmly does not remove this demand. 1t
,aoa not eradicate the social instinct
ona the desire to drink that lie back
e Tho demand In short, it does not
,ostrov a single one of the elements
that constitute the life and power of
tha saloon. 1t does not introduce into
the community a single element that
,cts a. an antidote for the saloon. The
whole root of this institution remains
in the community intact, undisturbed
and vigorous. Under these circum-
stances it is inevitable that the sa
loon, in one form or another, will con.
time to serve it's customers.
Law enforcement is, in the long run
dependent on public sentiment. More
over. public sentiment, in order to
make itself felt, must be active, alert
and persistent. A mere vague wish
that the law be enforced is not enough.
Inc WISH inuoI NC 1oiioW0u uP Ny "cA-
organized effort. When you find
community in which the government
is ringridden and corrupt, it does not
mean that the public sentiment is in
favor of such conditions. 1t means
that public sentiment is impotent be-
cause it is either inactive or morgan
lied Thus it occurs that small minor
tiles can defy, and are today defying,
the will of large majorities.
Just how much Of this active and de-
termined public sentiment is required
TO insure strict law enforcement, de-
Ponds largely on the character Of the
law A stringent, harsh sumptuary
law, like prohibition, could not be en-.
forced unless it had on it's side an
almost unanimous public sentiment,
vigilant and well-organized. Such a
law has all the odds against it. 1t
has an uphill job from the outset. Pub
lie officials are, as a rule, far more in
clned to heed and yield to the voice
of protest against the enforcement of
a law Of this kind than they are to
make an extraordinary effort to en-
force the law in obedience to the de-
mand of the other side. Under state
wide prohibition, there are many CON-
munities where the majority sentiment
is strongly opposed to enforcement, and
even prohibitionists admit that, in such
communities, the law becomes a mere
farce
But even under the Local Option sys-
TEN, which is supposed to insure local
majority rule, prohibition, in great
many instances, does not actually repre-
sent a majority of the electorate. And
the reason is that at a local option cleo
ton, a considerable proportion of the
voters do not mark the excise ballot
at ALL In the writer's own town, the
vote on the license question, during
the last fifteen years, has always fallen
from IL to 20 per cent short of the
total vote cast on other questions and
for candidates for Offices. During the
period in question the town has been
carried for no-license a number of
times, and in every instance by a
minority of the total vote polled. More
over, the public sentiment in favor of
prohibition is not only not strong
enough in quantity to enforce the law,
but even what there is of it is not of
the right quality.
The great majority of those that vote
for prohibition are full of zeal and en-
thusiasm up to the time of the cleo
ton; but after election their enthusi
asm dies out, and they leave it to
others to attend to the matter of law
enforcement. They think that in merely
casting their ballots for prohibition
they have done their full duty and
saved the country. The writer has
watched the prohibitionists in his town
for seven years, and he can testify
that not two per cent of the men that
vote for no-license ever lift a finger
or contribute one cent to have the law
enforced under either system.
The prohibition public sentiment is
of that cheap, shallow, emotional va
rlety that exhausts itself in all man
ner of hysterical performances during
the campaign. Over against the inner
ent weakness of this prohibition senti
ment is the public sentiment opposed
to the enactment and to the enforce
ment of the prohibitory law. Thi:
sentiment is of a very different kline
from the other. There is nothing
frenzied nor hysterical about it. Bu
1t ID determined, active and persistent
1t knows what it wishes and, what il
more to the point, it knows how tt
get what it wishes. It doesn It exhaus
itself before election nor grow indiffer
ent after election. Indeed, as soon al
the town goes "dry," this anti-pro
hlbition sentiment begins to arouse it
self and warm up.
man in a "dry'' town wishes