The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-05-05
HOW THIS AMERICAN CITY OF 10000 VOTED "DRY'

from eating pie because pie is
harmful?
Tea, coffee, tobacco. hot bread,
tight corsets. hair rats are also
agents of physical degeneration, but
can | say that you shall not have
them?
BY the same token shall one man
restrict another in regard to the
use of alcoholic liquors, which are
also harmful?
Is dry" town a dead town
Are more men driven to drink by
poverty than are driven to poverty
by drink?
Hasn't the state gone into the
church business? Thomas Jefferson
declared that the church had
usurped the power of the state and
the nation legislated this evil down.
Are prohibition states now usurping
the function of the church?
Here are some of the questions
that have stirred this city of more
than 10000 people during the past
month. Muncie went into the sa-
loon question on broad lines. While
rs of the 80 other counties of the
state were rushing in for prohibit
ton, Delaware, in which Muncie is
located, held back until both sides
had been heard Then, the other
day, by a substantial majority, the
people voted that the So saloons
must go. AS the question of per
sonal liberty had been considered
from all sides, as fanatical preju-
dice was not the spirit of the dry
campaigners and as the election
was, so far as can be proven, clean
of fraud, this local option fight is
considered a conspicuous feature of
the national temperance movement.
Muncie is one of the few cities of
more than 10000 people to vote
"dry.'
The ity has two newspapers. One
was wet" and the other dry"
This insured thorough presenta-
ton of the arguments of each
! party.
The "wets" (made up of the
drinking population, liberals, bust
ness men who fear the effects Of
prohibition upon property values,
the state brewers association and
men otherwise financially interest
ED argued that to prohibit the sale
of intoxicants is in violation of the
spirit of the constitution, which
guarantees personal freedom. They
did not say that liquor was not
harmful, but they did contend that
other fads and drinks were also
harmful, and that people had the
right to indulge their appetites even
If they did do themselves harm.
One wet leader in a speech before
a great and respectful audience,
made up from both sides, was APP
plauded when he said that the sa-
loon was the poor mans club, that
the poor man gets little enough out
OF life for his hard labor, and that
If he could have any fun from
whisky he ought to be permitted to
indulge himself" He also said:
Some men drink and do not beat
their wives, and some men beat
their wives and do not drink
The vets argued that it was just
as reasonable to say that rich
drinkers get rich from drink as it
Is to say that poor drinkers become
poor through drink" Men. they
said, become what they will and you
cannot legislate bad out of them or
good into them.
In regard to the states usurpa-
tion of church rights, they said that
the influence of the church was
waning because Legislators were
making laws which prescribed per
sonal conduct, whereas this used tC
be the function of the church.
And, of course, they went in fol
statistics, alleging that temperance
hurts business, depreciates propert!
values, increases the taxpayers
burden, causes men to sneak tC
drink, induces the sale of inferior
liquors in drug stores and "blint
tigers" and results in more whisk.
drinking because whisky is easieI
to procure under cover than il
beer"
The wet campaign was carried OF
by distribution of literature anC
public meetings.
Women were the active leaders il
the dry campaign. In automobiles
buggies and on foot they canvasset
the county. They campaigned OF
the farms and in the big manufac
turing plants. They got up a parade
three miles long. Thousands of Sun
day school children were in line
The babies of half a dozen promi
nent women were swung in thei
cribs on floats drawn by flower
0ecked horses. Placards on thes
wagons read: Vote against the sa
loon in the interest of future ger
erations."
One well known young woma
posed in a cartoon on a cart. Sh