Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1909-08-12
REFORM
moral and social evolution

L@quoi legislation must necesSa rily
foRow one of two general policies. II
may aim at the abolition of the ]jouor
traffic, or at the regulation of the
traffic. These two policies are ex.
IRENE opposites at every point and IL
every feature. The object of one is TO
Xii, that of the other is to cure. 1t
IS on this broad question of general
policy That the people are divided to-
day.
No legislative system has ever been
more extensively nor fairly tested
than that of prohibition. During the
last sixty years it has been tried on
the statewide scale in many different
sections of the country and under the
most diverse social and political con-
ditions, the periods of trial ranging
from three years in Nebraska to
fifty-three years in Vermont BY It's
record, by what it has done and by
what it has not done, prohibition
must be Judged. On every page Of
that record. from beginning to end.
are written the words failure, folly,
farce. Nowhere and at no time. in
all its history, has prohibition ac-
objects. Nowhere has it abolished
the liquor traffic; nowhere has it pre-
vented the consumption OF liquor nor
lessened the evil of intemperance
Neither has a tate-wide system nor
under Local Option has prohibi-
ton ever made the slightest
contribution toward the solution of
the liquor problem. The on solitary
service that it has rendered to society
is that of furnishing warning ex-
ample of the supreme folly of at
tempting to legislate virtue into
mems lives.
There could be no stronger evil
dence of the failure or prohibition
than the fact that seven of the eight
states that adopted the system fiftv
years ago. have since abandoned 1t
and gone back to the policy of of IL
cense and regulation. The people OF
these states adopted prohibition in
good faith. They honestly and earn
estly desired to wipe out intemper-
ance. They realized that intemper-
ance was directly or indirectly the
cause of much crime, poverty ana
disease; that it was a financial bur-
den on the state: that it was a hind
rance to material prosperity and to
moral progress. They thought it was
better policy to abolish than to IL
cense and regulate a traffic that
seemed to them to be the root and
source of this evil. Now, TO claim
that prohibition was even measure
ably successful in these states, that it
accomplished even little good, is to
insult the intelligence of the people
of New England. No sensible person
can believe that these seven states
would have deliberately repudiated a
system that they had adopted in high
hopes and with high moral purpose.
if they had found that that system
was making for sobriety, prosperity
and good citizenship.
In view of the fact that it is al
ways easier to secure the enactment
than the repeal of laws of reputed
moral purpose, the reputation or
prohibition by these states is all the
more significant. The only conclusion
consistent with reason and common
sense is that the people. after years
Of bitter experience. found that they
had built on false hopes, and that
conditions were not only no better
but far worse under prohibition than
had been under the license system. II
is also very significant that the states
that were swept off their feet by the
prohibition wave fifty years ago, are
among those states that are being
least affected by the present agita-
x,,1,f ok, fc hp
only one of these states that has re-
tanned prohibition all these years. Is
actually showing unmistakable signs
of genuine repentance. 1t Is conceded
on all sides that a decisive verdlct
against prohibition would have been
rendered at the last state election in
Maine, when resubmission was
prominent issue, if it had not been for
the fact that it was a presidential
year Prohibition is generally least
popular where it is best known.
If prohibition really prohibited, the
fact ought to be reflected in the fig
ures of the U. S. revenue department
But. according to the government re-
ports. the use of alcoholic liquors ac-
tuallv increases with the spread OF
prohibition. In 1898, the year the
Anti-Saloon League was organized,
the per capita consumption of matt
and spirituous liquors in the whole
country was 1876 and Las gallons re-
spectively. In 1899. when only SIX
million people were living under pro-
hibitorv laws, the figures were 1915
and LII. In 1907, when approx
mately S5 million people were living
in dry" territory. the figures had
risen to the high-water mark, 22.o
and 1.5s. The report OF 1908 shows
a decrease of about 10 per cent IN
spirituous liquors as compared WIN
1907, while the consumption OF matt
LIQUORS was about the same Tor ooth
wears. Thus we are confronted with
the remarkable fact that, in lsos'
when the prohibition wave had reach
ed enormous proportions and was
wiping out saloons at the rate OF H.
600 a year, the American people con-
sumed more liquor per capita than
they did in any previous year since
1898. the year 1907 alone excepted
Nou, lar ZIG turn for a moment TO