Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1911-03-16
which viii You Choose?

No one denies that intenperance is al
r.l,. 40 one. The distiller, the brewe
nd HE sa Don keeper admit it. Thu
government itself, the commonwealth
nd every statesman admits it. The
,ruufard admits it. twenty-five states
" their Supreme Courts, and the Su,
RENE Court of the United States tho
ighcSt authority in our land, have de
e Il menace TO public health, public NOR
&c and public wealth; ard that the
Glor traffic does not possess a natural
'glit, or inherent right or constitutional
GIN, that it is toleraled merely by suffer
nee.
No statesman, no party, no polit'cian,
"rocratc, Republican. Pronibitisnist
pulIst or Socialist, advocates turning
ne liquor traffic scot.free upon the coin.
Iunity The brewer himself does not
, it.. It is branded by law and by
,biic opinion as an evil and a danger.
rs thing.
There are two ways proposed by which
deal with it. Two, and two only.
hich will you choose?
One is regulation, or license.
The other is annihi,ation or prohibi-
m
Licensing the liquor traffic declares in
bstance that it is an evil, but a neces-
ny evil; that it is too strong to put
'wn, that men will make i~ntoxicants;
rat HeS will drink them; that the only
~ 10 hold the evil in check is to CON
; /, regulate and hold it in, and make
.ay it's way for all the trouble it makes,
"A tax or license upon it. That is the
.ument Of the Vets"
Prohibit NJ the traffic calls it an evil,
! Gut-and out evil, and evil only. 1t
'clares that that which is all evil can
1t be regulated or controlled. Tie
iunk cannot he made inodorous by
,'rinkling perfume on him; the fire can.
It be stopped by sire ching a tape in
mt OF it, or a mad dogs bite made
unless BY fttting a court plaster over
ne woand. The "Drys' contend that
ne only way to control the liquor traffic
10 ont !aw it, Danish it, proliibi, it,
amp It ont and annihilate 1t.
We have tried both expcaRatnts.
10Th.
We have tried license and regulation a
ING time and thoroughly. We have
nad behind the experiment, the grea,
oower of government, and the authority
{ the states. We began regulation 2o3
ears ago, in the early days of the col
mics. when the first liquor law was
passed over in Maryland. We have kept
steadily at II, tinkering. patching. fixing
mp. putting on the screws tighter and
And the result is 3 failure. A failure
complete that the only word tina, will
express It is to call it a fzzle. Where
the saloon exists, drinking steady in.
c~reases, crime and lswlessress abound,
go OH increasing, and the church
and home and school suffer. No b,r.0fy,
no d'Si!ItF, no sehooH-krCtcy has err bai
,o,M TIE Plea that moral conditions haze
inp'oiya IN S9i00n communities in Xhr
'ra t.trn!p:f;r years. They can't claim
it for the evidence is too plain the other
way. No advocate of license ever claims
there is less drinking in saloon
than thess was five or ten or TWEEN.
~ years ago.
How abeut Prohibition? II has been
bnt . few years. II has had only
half . chance, for so far, the government
to grant federal licenses that
turn boot ieggers upon the community,
1t 50 far has upheld an inter oretation
Of the interstate law thai,
leaves The liquor people / ship their
goods into dTy i.r'it"ry.
Remember. prohibition has had only
half q chance Yet il has rut-Iawed the
saioOts frvDl rine states and seventeen.
hupEred oount:"s. aud three thousand
aud towns, Not 4 state, not a coun,
~. uot 4 city o. a town that has gone
dry is bankrupt. HOt ons. We have low.
cred the druk hill Of tue nation owe,
half q billion dollars since the year 1907
when it touched high wafer mark. w,