El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-07-08
Both Sides of Prohibition
CONTRIBUTED BY J. L. CAMPBELL.

the "bootlegger,'' the blind pig"
and the whisky drug store that
follow in the wake and supplant
the regulated saloon in statewide
prohibition states"
Let no man be deceived. The IL
censed liquor traffic is the anti-state-
wide prohibition organization and 1T
makes and defends the saloon what
ever its character. There are a lot OF
good men in very bad company. The
liquor traffic never advocated and
never will uphold local option except
as a shield against statewide prohibl-
ton. It hates and plots against the
one as against the other 1t must DO
SO to live. II 1t had any regard for
the morality and happiness OF the
community, it would remove both the
licensed saloon and the unlicensed dive.
It is the father of both.
Question 81 and answer, of the liquor
catechism, read:
"a. What is the real issue IN
this campaign? The real issue is:
Shall the people of Texas repeal
the present local option and regu-
lation system and substitute in lieu
thereof statewide prohibition? That
is, whether the people of each in
corporated town, city. justice pre-
cinct. county. or subdivision there
of shall decide for themselves
whether they want to maintain the
license system, or whether they
want prohibition. Or stated in an
other form: Whether the people
of Cooke county shall decide for
the people of Comal county what
they shall do. Or illustrating it in
a national way: Whether the peo-
pie of Maine and Of Kansas shall
hA Texas
shall do"
This theory leads to anarchy. 1t
does not stop at the smallest subdf-
vision. the precinct 1t goes on down
to the individual. If the state shall
not decide what the counties shall not
do, the counties shall not decide what
its towns and precincts shall not do;
the towns and precincts shall have no
voice as 10 what shall not be done as
between themselves; the precincts shall
not say what its individual citizens
shall not do; and, finally, man shall
have no redress against the acts OF
his next door neighbor.
This is precisely the personal liberty
theory Of the LIQUOR traffic. If 1t
could get everything but the precinct
behind it, it would then raise its
standard Of personal liberty there and
Q6mdnQ the dOO14llOn Va AOSGA OPIAO-A
in the precinct.
This is the theory which in an at
tempted application between the states,
cost $4,000, 600, 600 and 100000 lives for
the preservation Of the union.
Within prescribed limits, the state.
and the state only, is the recognized
local option unit This is specifically
recognized in the national and the
state constitutions.
Counties are creatures Of the state
and only legal subdivisions Of the lat
ter. Counties do not make laws
County officers are state officers and
hold their commissions as such, en-
force state laws, and are subject to
impeachment and removal by the state.
The state issues the saloon license.
The liquor dealers bond is made to the
state The law regulating the liqnor
traffic and the saloon is made by the
state and administered by officers of
the state. State sovereignty is the
smallest division of sovereignty recog-
nized and nothing less can cope with
and adjust the multitudinous and fire.
quently conflicting interests of the
citizens of the state. Local option is
legal only because the state has made
it so. j. L. Campbell.