Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-04-04

forced to- abandon. These pulpit api
iators. in the guiec of serving God.
home and morality. would impose
ON the people OF oregon "a condition
oi things that the greatest and beet
balanced and best equipped state in
the nation had 20 abandon -consti-
tutIonal prohibition
Had 100000 Majority.
Tho republican marty of Iowa had
100000 majority back OF % when 60
enacted constitutional prohibition.
and when Il got through that major
ity had dwindled TO democratic
majority and a majority Of the coun-
ties OF the state went back to H.
censed saloons under the spcious
guise Of mulct law, the only way
license could be legalized under the
crippled constitution. And there
they are today. with over 1000 le-
galized saloons in the wet counties
and more or less violations in the
dry counties Or. Clarence True
Wilson parades the majorities for
the deceptive local option law Let
him study the maiorities in Iowa.
The Failure i'm Iowa.
We know whereof we speak when
we discuss the failure Of prohibition
in Iowa. Our impulses have always
been strongly on the side of moral
ity and temperance and good order.
We supported the republican party
in its death struggle for ten years
trying to enforce constitutional pro
hibit'on. The republicans controlled
the legislature and enacted the most
drastic laws to enforce prohibition,
confiscating property enacting the
state constabulary law that gave the
governor power to appoint consta-
bles not subject to local popular SEN
timent and backed with all the
power of the state, and gave them
the right and power to search and
seize in private houses without war
rant, and to confiscate and destroy
liquors wherever found And hun
dreds of these constabulary swept
over the state of Iowa and raided the
homes of citizens, put them in Jail,
caused hundreds of thousands of
dollars of costs, resulting in resist
ance, killings, dividing communities
against each other, and in the end
constitutional prohibition left the
state where it found it. The dry
counties were more or less dry, and
the wet counties and cities were wet
ter than ever. The power of the law
was found weaker than the power
of education and Christianity.
Oregon Should Not Experiment.
Why should this state experiment
with an experiment that has been
proven a failure and abandoned by
other intelligent commonwealth?
To n Go 10
who cannot get into the limelight in
any other way? Fair-minded people
are perfectly willing to give the To-
cal option law a little longer trial.
and then when it has proven its
complete unfairness and one-sided-
ness, repeal or amend it from a sane
business standpoint. But why add
to the burdens of the local option
law lot more territory that is now
wet, and still further complicate
with visionary theories and impraC-
ticable sentimentality the machinery
of government? If local option is
more or less of a failure in Lane
and Tillamook counties and any
other dry counties in the state, why
make it still more of farce by vot-
ing wet counties dry under the guise
of constitutional prohibition? Why
not honestly try to get the best moral
and practical business results for
the whole state, and by means of ed
ucation and ordinary christian work
secure a larger and larger harvest
of good citizenship and law and or
der, instead of a larger and larger
harvest of disorder and law-break-
ing and contempt for temperance
The failure of local OPP
tion which is confessed by DR.. Will
son should not be distorted into an
for more failure by enact |
ing more dry territory, that would !
only be dry in theory. Constitutional
prohibition will not make one man
sober in Oregon, while it will cost
hundreds of thousands of dollars in !
litigation, destroy property unsettle |
business and in the end lose the tem-
perance cause supporters and even
territory which they now have. We
are opposed to constitutional prohi- |
bition, and shall do all we can to |
prevent it, but if it is enacted, we
shall do all in our power to secure
of it to the letter
Lots of people who would not |
make a gesture toward taking of !