The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-09-22

/ be together in support of one general
effort to further the temperance cause
| i'm this state next winter?
| May / suggest.
| All true believers ia temperance re-
form. and especially all Methodists,
are fully in accord with the language
of the Episcopal address as well as all
other words in our General Church
Statement, found on page 46S Of the
| Discipline, directed against the liquor
traffic, which, as the delfverance says:
Can not be legalized without sim"
| That is fundamental. 1t is substan-
tive. 1t is part of our very being
We are opposed to the liquor traffic
night and day-year in and out-in all
places and under all circumstances.
SO far we all agree; Mr.. Chain. Dr.
Dickey, Bishop Hamilton, Bishop Will
son, president of the Anti-Saloon
league, and al persons to whatever
party or creed they may have given
their allegiance.
Where Division Comes.
Where temperance people divide is
when they begin to apply a remedy.
! Much of the unfriendIy discussion
which has arisen, comes from failing
to distinguish between a fundamental
principle or right and remedial agency.
! Suppose A, living In Moorhead, Min
nesota, owes B., living in Fargo, North
| Dakota, $4,000. Now, because of the
| diverse citizenship of the parties, If
the debt be not paid (Which is a fund
amental right of B. to have done), B.
can pursue his remedy either in the u.
S. court of North Dakota or Mime
sofa, depending, of course, upon max
| ing proper service. A very serious dis
cussion might arise which place would
be the better. Suppose B. employed
| two attorneys, one insisting that the
venue be laid in Fargo; the other, in
Moorhead, and suppose it was finally
determined to bring the suit in Fargo;
would it not come with poor grace
for the Moorhead attorney to fail to
| fully cooperate to secure the payment
of a conceded debt-a conceded funda-
mental right-simply because he did
not agree with the remedial agency to
be set in motion?
| And suppose the Moorhead attorney
should attack the motives of the Fargo
attorney, even to the extent of sug-
| costing he would not be true to the
owner of the debt, and doubted the
debtors liability, because of his insist
ence that the formers remedy was not
! the correct one. Would you not say
such a course was wholly unwarrant-
ed?
Should Stand Together.
So we find ourselves. in battling
against the liquor traffic, which we all
| q CHI h.
ally quarreling among ourselves upon
the remedy-whether we should pro-
coed in our demands first by COUNTIES
or by the state as a whole
| 1t would appear that both expert
ence and reason teach that in the state
of Minnesota, under present condi-
tons, the final object can best be ac-
complished by trying in the first in
stance to secure county option law.
In attempting to destroy an evil like
the liquor traffic, it is best to proceed
using the largest possible, and at the
same time practicable, unit of opera
| ton. What is the largest, will de-
pend much upon the people, the times
and the conditions under which they
are operating.
Some suggest that the national gov
! eminent is the proper unit. That
would be subject for debate, even if
congress had the power to pass a gen.
eral prohibitory law-which is has not.
The police power is one of the reserv-
ed powers of the state, and. unless the
constitution of the United States was
amended, giving congress the power.
laws passed by it prohibiting the sale
of liquor in a state would be unconsti-
tuttonaL q am not here referring to
what congress might and ought to do
regulating the inter- state traffic in
liquor) The largest unit. therefore,
possible, under any present condition
is that of the state.
Frequently many unkind words
would not be spoken Of friends who
believe in the same fundamental prin-
ciple If this distinction was observed.
namely, that the largest possible is not
always the largest practicable unit of
operation.
Twenty years ago, when there were
few vested interests in the liquor bust
ness in North Dakota, with no large
cities, and with a large rural popula-
ton, coming in as new state, as we
were, we found is wise to use the
state as the largest possible unit be-
cause it was practicable, and thus
statewide prohibition prevailed, al.