Arizona republican., 1911-04-02
The Question of Prohibition

The Question of Prohibition
 For the second time within a short period, the question of prohibition under the provisions of the local op- ton law is before the people of Phoc- nix and of Maricopa county, and will be decided at the polls on the 18th of this month.
 Merely because a prohibition fight is always the nastiest of all political contests. is marked by the most rabid intolerance on both sides, discloses more of the meanness of human na- ture on both sides. and is provocative of the worst spirit in humanity, We should prefer to discuss other topics in the editorial columns of The Re publican. And in any case we will not be drawn into championship of the fanatics of either side of the pending contrOversy-there will be abundant injury done to neighborly feeling, and there will be more than enough brakes placed upon the wheels of material progress. without any voluntary addition of fuel to the flames
 There is no question which calls more urgently for calm, dispassionate consideration than the question of prohibition - and, unfortunately. no question is considered so little from the standpoint of critical and analyti- cal common sense.
 While a multitude of other ques- tions will be. injected into the con- troversy before the election, and the public mind will thereby suffer con- fusisn, the paramount question which will be kept in mind by every cool headed voter is:
 Will prohibition prohibit?
 For the liquor traffic as a traffic there is absolutely nothing to be said. If it were possible to wipe the traffic from the face of the earth. there would be no doubt as to the attitude which would be taken by the average citizen. The traffic would be suppressed by an overwhelming vote.
 But so long as the manufacture of intoxicants is not restrained; so long as there is no restriction upon the shipment of intoxicants into any community, such efforts as may be made to control the traffic are pre- cisely similar to mans efforts to control a river in flood. He may succeed at times in so diverting the waters that dry section of land is preserved, but his success in that direction depends always-anpon local conditions There are places where he may hope to keep the land dry. There are other sections in which all his toll is worse than wasted. And if disaster follows in time with cer- tainty.
 The licensed saloon can be SUD- pressed in Phoenix, of course.
 But would the suppression of the saloon simply divert the liquor traffic into irresponsible aHd lawless hands? This is a question which no amount of denunciation of the liquor traffic as a traffic will even begin to an- swer
 Experience through more than two generations of the attempts to en- is not altogether encouraging, even under the best conditions. The wildly unreasonable prohibitionist and the rabid partisan of the liquor traffic both draw conclusions satisfactory to themselves, because neither is open to the convincing logic of fact and reason. The fact is. of course. that in some places prohibition is a pro- nouBced success. In other places it is a dismal failure. But there are some conclusions which the person anxiously in search of the truth is bound to draw One of these con- clusions is, that prohibition is always a failure. in any community in which there is not an absolutely over whelming sentiment in its favor
 And of course we mean lasting senfiment-a sentiment based rnou fixed conviction and not upon the | emotions Of the moment. Prohibition in the state of Kansas is measurably a success today, but only after more than thirty years of constitutional inhibition of the liquor | business And it must be conceded | that this success is only relative. when it is remembered that in the I