Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-07-14
State Wide Prohibition is the
Only Fair Method.

Only Fair Method.
The liquor men ask this: SIS it
fair for the country to force pro-
hibition upon the city?"
The country does not force pro-
hibition upon the city. 1t never
has, never can, and never will.
The country cuts no figure as the
country, and the city cuts no figure
as a city, save in local issues;
local option is an example of this.
In a local option election the
country votes by itself, and the
city by itself, and each abides by
the results independent of the
other. We have plenty of wet
towns and cities, wet, because they
voted wet, while the country
around them is dry, because it
voted dry.
When the liquor question be-
comes a burning question all over
the state, it is then no longer a
local question, but a statewide
one. When enough legal voters
demand through the initiative, the
prohibition of the sale and manu-
facture of intoxicating liquors,
then it becomes by law a state is
sue. 1t touches every citizen of
the state, whether he be a resident
of city, town, OF country. Just as
in electing a governor or a presi-
dent, no one asks for the vote of
the cities by themselves, or of the
country by itself, but only for the
states as a whole; just as in vot-
ing on any other amendment to
the constitution, or Cd changing
the capital, every section of the
state must be heard from, so it is
now. This concerns all.
The cities could not exist three
months without the country to
furnish them fuel, fruits, meat,
milk, vegetables and all manner of
food stuffs. The smelters would
shut down without the country's
products of the mine. The mills
would close without the country's
grain. The lumber yards would
close without the country's supply
of timber. The factories would
close without the country's cotton
and wool. They draw their very
life from the country. Why should
the cities force saloons upon their
benefactors? The country hates
and has largely out-lawed the sa-
looms.
The country cannot force pro-
hibition upon the city. Only a
state can do that. and a state puts
it upon city, country, village and
hamlet alike. The state undoubt-
eddy has a right to protect itself
from the saloon.
But the city does, without the
action of the state at large, and
therefore unfairly force the sa-
loon upon the country. No one
can claim there is any harm lin
going without liquor. No one "a
claim abstinence will iniure the
pocket book, wreck the health, or
destroy morals, When the state
stops the saloon, as the state has a
right to do, she Injuries no mans
character, hurts no families,
wrecks NO wife's happiness, but
the city when it keeps its saloon,
while all the country around is
dry, actually forces itself upon the
country. A net work of railroads
and street cars bring the farmers
to town and to the allurements of
the drink palaces. Every farmers
son is tempted by the open saloon
each time he drives a load of pro-
duce to the city. The men 60
back to the country to sleep off
their drunk and curse their fami-
lies. Every city saloon forces
itself upon the country.
Make the proposition statewide.
Close every still, every brewery,
every dive, every saloon. Give
our 100000 boys and youths under
twenty one a chance to grow up
without the blight of an open sa-
loon ever before them. Give the
quarter of a million Missouri men
who are now drinking, a chance to
bride the appetite that is fast
growing upon them. Give the ten
thousand gutter drunkards Of the
state a chance to reform if there is
strength of will left to them to
want to reform. 1t is as fair then
for the city as it is for the country,
and as fair for the country as Tor
the city. LoRA S. L. NANCE,
State essrSuperintendent of the
Missouri w. G. 7. U.
Thora orc fawar