Arizona republican., 1910-01-28
PHoENIx. ARIZONA, JAN. 2s. 1S1O
The Prohibition Question in coehise.

inc frohipition question m SocniSe.
 The progress of the prohibition campaign in Cochise county, and the result of the election, announced yes terday, have attracted more or less attention in all parts of the, territory. The county seems to have voted de- cisively against prohibition, although the prohibition vote was neavy.
 The prohibition proposition in Ari- zona, so far as it applies to the cities, is not separable from the problem of enforcement. A firm belief that the sale of intoxicants could not be suppressed, and that the only alterna- tive was rigid regulation, was the controlling influence against the prop osition in the election of Wednesday.
 The average man is temperate in his habits, and he does not find the saloon essential to his happiness. If asked to answer the question in the abstract, he would say that the saloon may be abolished, so far as he is concerned. But when asked to decide as a citizen whether the saloon shall be abolished, he finds it his duty to inquire whether abolition of the saloon means abolition of the liquor traffic And when he analyses the conditions with which most Arizona cities have to contend, he is led to the conclusion that to vote for pro- hibition of the saloon means to ex- change the saloon for something worse. The failure of many citizens to un- derstand or acknowledge the differ ence between abolishing the saloon and abolishing the liquor traffic. ac- counts for much of the strength of the prohibition movement in Arizona communities
 In no other state or territory of the Union, if we except New Mexico and some of the cities of California, is the prohibition question attended so di- rectly by the problem of enforcement.
 !Thi. problem-of difficulty. rather. for. the situation presents no myste rious or unknown factors-may be stated irfz single word: MeXicans.
 In most Arizona cities. especially in the southern half of the territory. there is considerable Mexican popu- lation Of this population there is a considerable percentage of low-class Mexicans. It is from Mexicans of this latter class that the inmates of our city and county jails and our territorial prison chiefly come. It is a notorious fact that for Mexicans of this class sentence to jail has no regarded by them as pretty good joke. These Mexicans do not work, except spasmodically. and then only 1 from necessity. If saloons were abol- l ished by law hundreds of Mexicans of the class referred to would at once engage in the illicit sale of liquor | The tempting profits of the traffic would lead them to take it up as an industry. They would gladly go to | jail from time to time as a penalty | for liquor selling, if there was a | steady demand for "boot-leg' whisky | in the intervals of their freedom. So | far. nobody has suggested a way to get. around this difficulty. And with ! the difficulty not removed, the abo- lition of the saloon would mean the l surrender of public restraint and reg ulation of saloons. and the substitu ton therefor of a horde of boot ieggers, Mexican and American, but mostly Mexican, from whom boys and men would buy vile intoxicants in the alleys and in dark corners all over town.
 It was calm appreciation of these facts which led the good citizens of Cochise to vote for the retention of the regulated saloon as the best meth cd of dealing with the liquor traffic in that county.