Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-03-10

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creditably and fairly in congress.
r. r.. MOCKLER.
PROVES NOTHING IN PARTIC-
ULAR.
Grand Forks Herald: A special
writer in Leslie's Weekly fills a
couple of pages of that magazine with
the results of an investigation" of
the prohibition law and its enforce
ment in North Dakota. The article
Is specially featured, and is treated
as If it were Of great Importance.
! Really it is of no Importance at all.
It presents no new facts, and it con.
tains no matter that could not be OBJ
tanned by the most superficial oh.
server who chose to spend two or
three days in the state. It tells
wi at everybody knows-that North
Dakota has a prohibition law which
is violated more or less according to
the conditions in each community.
1t gives brief interviews with few
people, some of them occupying Of
fetal positions, and others speaking
as the representatives of some spec
ial interests. 1t is flimsy and SUPER
fetal, as a hastily constructed arti-
Gle might be expected to be, and is
about as valuable contribution to
public knowledge as a book on "The
United States of America" would be
if written by European who came
across and spent couple of days in
New York between steamers. The
writer does not formulate his con-
illusions very clearly, but such as they
are they are to the effect that the
prohibition law in this state is a
failure. This conclusion is not war
ranted by any facts that he cites,
but on the contrary, the opposite
conclusion might fairly be drawn
from the evidence" which he sub
mits. He finds that liquor is sold
in the state in violation Of law, but
he has also stumbled upon the fact
that in many communities where
much was formerly sold there is but
little sold now. He expands on the
fact that in many places liquor is
sold in low doggeries, and he tells of
the preparations that are made for
the immediate destruction OF. stock
in, case of a raid. i. This must Ger.
tainly mean that the liquor business
is no longer respectable, and that
there is a good deal of fear and
trembling on the part OF those who
are engaged in it.
Pictures Of carloads of beer en-
route to North Dakota mean little
except that beer is used, and that
some of it is sold in the state. But
there is nothing to indicate what the
sales or what the consumption would
be if we had no prohibition law.
Some people say that more liquor is
consumed now than would be the
case if we had license law, but bold
assertions prove nothing. Neither is
anything proven by che assertion of
a brewery agent that the prohibition
law increased the liquor sales.
There is evidence more convincing
than mere statements to the con-
trary. Notwithstanding statements
that brewers and distillers are we'll
satisfied with the conditions as they
exist, every effort is made by these
people to overturn the law. Retail
ers in the Minnesota border towns
are not anxious to sec cne law chang
ed, as they now get patronage from
the North Dakota side which would
go to North Dakota dealers If sa-
looms were permitted on this side.
But the liquor interests of the coun-
try as a whole are opposed to pro-
hibition in North Dakota and every
where else, and they are opposed to
it because Of their conviction that
prohibition diminishes their business.
.---------------------------
A lot of Devils Lake business men
will induce farmers from the sur
rounding country to do their trad
ing in Devils Lake by putting up a
$50, 900 Lotel, for the especial accom-
mediation of farmers who come to
town to do their trading. The sum
of $4,000 has been subscribed by a
committee of business men, and it
is, believed the investment will be a
paying one, and will stimulate the