Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-05-31
somewhat to date. The rooms, how
oyor ara still furnished in the Of vIo

somewhat to date. The rooms, how
ever, are still furnished in the style
OF the time of its foundation, and
are decorated with paintings. Deer's
head adorn the antechamber in the
first story. Passing through this
room we come to the large hall with
vaulted roof and Gothic windows,
allegories and notices on the walls
between the windows, and at the
ends symbolical mural paintings.
From the roof are suspended chan
deliers with electric light In the
entresol there is a richly decorated
"Trinkstube," and everywhere one
meets an air of medieval grace with
modern comfort.
The ,hrongs that gather here are
sight to see. It is perpetually
crowded The nobleman and the
workman touch elbows. Women and
children come and so of their own
sweet viii. Disorder of any sort is
undreamel or Tile can Of beer
served for twenty-fow pfenntDgs
lsx cea.sl is double the size O the
stein known In America When this
can is empty ,he habiue axes il
himself 10 The cash and has j. rel
filed Cheese and sausage are the
food le This has been goiug on
day ia and day cut for hundreds of
years. and furnishes a complete an
swer to the dogma of the American
prohibi,ionists that we can no more
conduct the liquor business without
producing drunkards than we can
run rattlesnake ranches without
raising poison" One might as we'll
say that we cannot run banks with
out raising emBezzlers; or railways
without countering accidents; or Gu
cumbers and cabbage without the
risk of cholera morbus, the thief,
the wreck, the bellyache, like the
drunkard, being the exception. Shall
we have no more fiscal institutions,
no more lines of transportation, no
more truck gardens and no more
cakes and ale? Perish the thought,
for what has been and is in Bavaria,
can be in Kentucky or anywhere else
where are rule of sanity and moder-
alton is observed.
We think we are a free people.
But agree that the world is too much
governed. Yet nowhere is individ-
ual liberty 80 assailed as in the Unit
ed States. The prohibition wave,
happily subsiding, was a menace to
free Institutions. Thoughtful people
are beginning to see that there are
worse evils than the drink evil; evils
more subversive Of the character Of
a nation. because more general and
pervasive, less obvious and reach
able. The drunkard b usually in
evidence. He may be death with.
1t u otherwise with the varying
forms OF personal and political cor
ruption. Virtue is self-resistance to
vice. not enforced obedience to dras-
ttic regulation. Morality is relative.
That may be moral In one country.
Circumstances alter cases. Time and
place must be regarded. This is
strictly exemplified by the Hofbrau-
haus Of Munich.
The common good" about which
we hear 90 much, like the general
welfare" clause of the constitution,
has been worked to death. The
common good" is the veriest alb
stracti0n. 1t 10 not everywhere the
same as one sees here in Bavaria.
II has its variants. Who is to de-
eide what is the common good?"
Time was when the church, or rath-
er its close corporation OF ruling
prelates, alone decided. The com
mon good" was their belief, or pre-
tended belief, in prescribed religious
dogma. The common good" en-
braced certain customs, manners and
clothing decreed by canon law as
orthodox. The penalties assessed
against the delinquent varied from
hanging to burning, from the rack
to the thumbscrew. They were app
piled by whichever church party
found itself in the ascendant.
After many centuries of strenu-
Gus trial in the effort to make good
by force of arms and tortures, both
costly and a CHASTITY failure, the
self-ordained agents of God sowing
the world in blood and shame, were
hent to the rear and the doctrine of
toleration-the bedrock of all free
dom, of all enlightenment, of all
good government-was established
measurably throughout Christendom,
but absolutely as the founders
thought in the United States.
This the prohibitionists would set
aside and nullify. To do so they fly
| in the face of Heaven itself Tread