The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1909-04-02
DRY YEAR.
A Resident or the City Answers
Some Questions in the Amer
lean Issue.

Ten months ago the fourth largest
city in South Dakota was turning dry,
and the first question that was asked
was this: "Can the law be entorced?'
Some said, "You had better have an
open saloon than a blind pig The
reply was,"We don't propose to have
ing the town dry?
First. 1t cleaned up Main street so
that our men, women and children
could go down to the depot on either
side Of the street without passing
eight saloons that vomitec forth bias
phemy. vulgarity and insults. No
longer do you see crowds Of drunken
rufians standing in the street, inter-
cepting passersby with their vulgar
remarks. The women and the chill
dren have the rigIt OF way on the
pavement, rather than the loafer. the
hoater, the gambler in his ~diamonded
shirt, the bum and the hoodlun. AS
q resident in a years time have seen
only one drunken man, bat that does
not say there were not many others.
Second. Has the law been enforced!
Go to the city treasury and ask the
coin that has been paid ia as fines by
the blind plggers. 60 - the county
Jail and ask the mob h d have been
there and are still there, whether pro.
hibition prohibits. Go to the Sioux
Falls penitenyiarv and ask our color
ed representative who will shortly be
in the hands Of the warden, docs
prohibition prohibit Ask Onr de-
tectives. most Of all our League al
tOrney, who is also city attorney, to
whom the city gives the credit for our
law enforcement program, whether
prohibition prohibits Ten Grim.
inals with hands uplifted will cry ont,
''We didn't believe il a year ago, but
w belive o that prohibition prohip-
IT'S"
The third question that vas asked
when the town went dry was, ''Will il
kill the town." They saic that the
grass would grow in the streets and
that it would be one failure Of bust
ness after another. They said the
coy otes would be sitting in the middle
of the street looking for dinner. What
was prophesy has not gone into very
respectable history. Has the town
prospered? The merchants tell their
own story of prosperity. Have the
banks failed? The banks have never
been larger. A new depot is going up
for the Milwaukee with its increased
freight receipts. One OF the larges,
federal buildings in the state will
soon be able to receive our mail. The
enrolment of students at the univer'
sity is larger than we instead OF
q dead town, Mitchell, for its size, i:
the livest wire west of the Mississippi
With q loss of IS, 900 revenue, yet the
city is being run this year at q saving
of something like $l1, 600. We have
no need Of a chief of police and have
none, for we do not have ten dens Of
vice, ten schools Of crime TO guard.
1t was said that without the saloons
we could not get up a corn palace, bu'
we had the best r. palace from 8
financial point of view and from The
point of view of high grade entertain.
ment that we ever had. There were
very few arrests corn palace week, nc
need of policemen, although the
streets we're filled with tens Of thous.
ands Of people from all oyer the com
m%onwealth.
VIII the town go dry this year? The
probabilities are it will. The tria.
year has been satisfactory, eminent
ly so Those who were on the fence
have seen demonstrations of what the
dry regime means, in the way of rise
of real estate in the saloon district. il
the Unprecedented prosperity of oul
merchants, and in the trium ph of tn,
law.abiding people. and in the fact
undisputed, that prohibition prohibits