Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1909-08-12

rs not blind partisan will deny this
-Four years ago, Governor Cobb,
sincere prohibitiorist and an honest,
outspoken man, declared, in his in
augural address, that the state ought
to be ashamed OF itself to have a pro-
hibition law on dts books and to make
that law laughing stock of the ma
ton. And he insisted that, as a mat
ter of common honesty, the law ought
to be either enforced or repealed. Re-
corder Wheiden, of Portland, recently
made this statement: There are at
beast 400 men and women who are
brought before this court time and
again for in,oxication" Think of it,
four hundred habituals in city from
which the liquor traffic is supposed to
have been banished sixty years ago.
During four years, up to January 1,
1907, in Portland, liquors were seized
on IS streets and alleys and at 445
different places; and 1892 different
persons were brought into court for
violation of the liquor law.
The report of the Committee of
Fifty, based on a most thorough and
extensive investigation of conditions
in Maine, tells the whole story of the
miserable failure of prohibition
throughout the whole state. Every
one that has travelled through Maine
/ knows that there is not town in the
| state where even a stranger, if he
+, take the trouble to make inquiry, can
not get all the liquor he wishes, such
as it is. And in many places the
| stranger is waited on by some consid-
crate person who asks him whether
he would not like something" The
| statistics relating to arrests for drunk
! enness and deaths from alcoholism in
Maine all tell the same tale. They
| spell the word failure.
In response to the loud clamorings
of the Anti-Salocn League, the legis-
| lature of Georgia enacted prohibit
tory law a couple of years ago. The
act went into effect January 1, 1908.
For a short time the new law seemed
to have a good effect. Judging from
| surface indications it looked as If
prohibition might at last break its
long record of failure and actually
stop the sale Of liquor. But, again
| it was all dream. and very short
dream, too. The drinkers adjusted
themselves to the dry system, and
We're soon hobnobbing as openly and
boldly as ever with the old demon
| Conditions kept going from bad to
worse, and before the law had been
| on the statute books a year, it was
clearly evident to everybody that had
even half an eye that prohibition 1T
| Georgia had broken down.
| Here is the testimony of two of the
prohibition leaders themselves. Rev.
DIR. Holderby, of Atlanta, an ardent
prohibitionist, said last winter THE
! legislature is afraid to stand by the
very law which it enacted twelve
months ago. Atlanta has become g
laughing stock and a stencil in the
nostrils of the Almighty" This con-
fession must have been very humil-
iating to the good parson, as he had
been telling his people right along
that he knew it to be fact that the
Almighty was on the side of prohibl-
ton. Assistant Superintendent Rich
ards, of the Anti-Saloon League, ut
tiers this wall: Beer is sold here right
and left, and | know it. You can get
whisky, too; for what does 1T mean
when twenty-seven carloads of beer
| and whisky are shipped here?' Well
Brother Richards, it means, in the
first place. that there are good
many thirsty people in Atlanta. and
in the second place, that your prohib-
itory law is a humbug. other leading
prohibitionists speak in the same
strain as the two just quoted. Condi-
tons in Atlanta are sample of those
that obtain all over the state.
Just a word about prohibition I'M
der the local option system. The
writer is very familiar with the work
ing of prohibition in number OF
towns on the east end of Long Island
and from his own observation dur
ing the last seven years he can testify
to the fact that in every one OF these
"dry" towns, prohibition has been a
disgusting farce every time it has
been tried. In the writer's own town
the record of prohibition may be
summed up in the admission of the
local Anti-Saloon leader, that ANY
body can get all the liquor he wants
in this town under either license or
no license" That no-license has
failed to accomplish any good on Long
Island, may be inferred from the fact
that at the elections, last spring, ev-
ery town on the island was carried
for license by a decisive majority
The Anti Saloon League made the
fight of its life. but 1t was no use
The people knew all about the "bless-
ings'' of prohibition, and they con-
cluded that they had had enough. The
prohibitionists lost every town they
Their held, including conservative Ole
Eas, Hampton, which gave majority
for license for the first time in fifty
years.
| Many and various are the reasons
why prohibition in this country has
proved a failure. The following con-
siderations will reveal a few of tht
more general reasons.
! Prohibition is an attempt to deprive
men Of what they believe to be an In
herent right The question OF indi'
vidual right is the underlying issue
in this whole controversy. Majorit,
rule is, of course, sound politica
principle, but it is obvious that thu