Morris tribune., 1910-03-25
Strong Plea for County
Option and Law
Enforcement

to leave your homes and travel long
distances in order to assemble here
in this vast convention at the capital
city of the state, | am satisfied that
you are deeply and earnestly inter-.
ested in both branches of the sub
Ject. You have not come here for
pleasure, or as members of any fra
ternal or social, or political organiza-
tion. But regardless of political, re-
1igious,. or fraternal affiliations, you
have assembled here in your capacity
as citizens to protest against the
domination of the liquor trust in the
politics of this state and to demand
needed reform in the handling of the
liquor traffic.
A Moral Question.
Public sentiment when aroused in
behalf of just cause is an irresistible
force in our public life and whether
it be the oppressor or the debaucher
OF men against whom it is directed,
his doom is sealed. I do not under
stand that the question of the use of
liquor by the individual is involved
at all in your deliberations. The only
question is the length to which the
government should go in licensing
public saloons. Liquor may be kept
in their homes by people who want
it, wholly irrespective of the licensed
saloon. Whether people shall use
liquor in their homes is moral ques-
ton; whether, and to what extent, the
government shall license saloons
where liquor may be publicly sold is
a political question.
"(TOver0mawfc ara establish ed
among men for the protection of life,
liberty and property, and the pro-
motion of the moral and material
public welfare. The right of the gov
ernment to regulate or suppress any
thing which injuriously affects the life,
health or morals of society cannot be
questioned. Universal sentiment con-
cedes the right to regulate the liquor
traffic, but as the use of liquor has
been INDUCED in from the earliest
historical times, reasonable men real
ize that it cannot be peremptorily
eradicated
"The process of eradication must
be gradual. Laws for it's regulation
should never be in advance of rea-
sonable public sentiment, and ought
to be so elastic that different rules
can be applied to different communi-
ties, according to the sentiment of
such communities. This state does
not in my opinion favor absolute
prohibition at this time There are
communities in this state where a
considerable majority of the people
favor public. saloons under proper
restrictions, and such communities
should be permitted to have saloons
until the sentiment changes.
For the same reason a community
where substantial majority of the
people are opposed to the mainte-
nance of saloons for the sale of in
toxicating liquors, should not be
forced to have saloons against the
will of that majority. Thoughtful
people who take a broad view of
things realize the necessity for pro-
crossing slowly in this matter, in
order that their progress may be per-
manent, but they want to be going
forward, not backward.
What the Saloons Assert.
"The population of this state is
made up largely of immigrants from
the North European countries. Our
Scandinavians, Germans or British,
vie with the natives in. their loyalty
and allegiance to Our institutions. We
have no foreign element in my opin-
ion that in any degrees interferes with
our adopting a distintively American
policy on this or any other subject.
When we are told that political par
ties dare not take up this or that
theory for the regulation of the liquor
traffic because this nationality or
that nationality of foreign origin, will
oppose it, I resent the statement as
untrue in any broad sense. There is
no foreign element among us that, as
a class, claims the right to debauch
American life or lower the standards
of morality established by the ma
jority of Our people. Such argument
is but the special pleading of the
benefciaries of the traffic, and be-
Titles the foreign element on whose
behalf it is urged. They tell us that
laws regulating the liquor traffic are
sumptuary laws, undertaking to regu-
late what the citizen shall eat or
drink or wear We say NO. Wear
anything you please that will not re-
suit in indecency. Government does
not care what you eat or drink so
long as it does not deprive you of
your senses. If you lose control of
your mental faculties by sickness.
government places you in an asylum;
if you undertake to rob yourself of
your mental faculties by the use of
Intoxicating liquors, and thus volun-
tari1y render yourself temporarily in
sane through intoxication, govern
ment, for its own protection should
restrain you while intoxicated, and it
has the right to prevent the estab-
can make yourself intoxicated. In
toxicating liquors cannot be classed
with articles of ordinary food or
drink; they must be placed with
morphine, cocaine and other dele
terious drugs. the use of which make
men incaDab1e of either governing