The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1911-08-25

in the saloon, where selling to min
crS is a criminal offense and pun
ishable by heavy fines. He approves
CT the example of drinking express
whiskey in the home.
why should Canyon County want
to re-introduce the saloon when any
man can get pure whiskey by eX
press cheaper than the saloon can
furnish it to him? Oh, how bril-
liant! First of all the gentleman
believes in sending his money out oil
the co"nty and state, and the profit
on NhisEey sold by other states goes
to enr4cn their communities. Elk
press whiskey pays no city license
and paIes no city streets; neither
does it help to pay the school tax,
the municipal tax, and also a por-
ton of the state tax. The gentle
man must know-he talks SO learn
eddy and so advisedly concerning
this matter-just how good is this
express whiskey. Evidently he be-
lieves in the right of the individual
because he does not deny the right
of purchase of express whiskey
in dry territory, and yet it must be
admitted that if it is a crime to
drink liquor in a dry county, it is
also a crime to purchase it.
The one beverage he says that is
absolutely safe for all persons is
water, and yet water has been re
sponsible for more misery and sick,
ness and death-and statistics prove
it-than all of the whiskey manu-
featured in the world, even when
drunk to excess. Whole cities have
been devastated by plaques of ty-
phoid fever, dysentery and other
diseases through contaminated water
sources. Men go down to the sea
in ships and are drowned. ia
Johnstown flood devastated a whole
city. The Galveston flood caused
the death of 5000 souls, yet do w
demand certificates of purity when
we want to quench our thirst with
water?
He makes a poor comparison when
he brings about obvious compari-
son between the heather chinee'
and this government in our fights
for civic righteousness. What does
he mean by civic righteousness?
What puzzled reference can it have
to the drinking of liquor? Does he
arrogate to the ice-water angels all
ness, and that every man that takes
drink is criminal, and yet as
deplorable as may be the condition
of the drunkard, it is no compari-
son to the poor, weak, tottering
wreck that stands before us-the
marked victim of the drug habit.
The writer is almost inclined to be
lieVe from the nature and tone and
tenor of the article that the gentle
man is the advance agent for some
whiskey distributing firm when he
decries organized fights on prohibit
ton, when people can get all thl
whiskey they want by express.
Yes, men are free to drink when
they want to and where they want
to, but the boys of our country need
fathers and mothers far more than
they need-blue-coated legal guar
dams of the law The boy raised in
the sitting atmosphere of Puritan
ism is in graVer, greater danger
when the guiding hand of the parent
is removed than the boy who has
been taught to know the good and
the evil of the world. Better to
teach our boys and girls to sit W
with the aid of their own back
bones than to teach them to sit VI
with the aid of the straight jacket
offered by the prohibitionist Young
minds are naturally active and in.
quisitive. They wish to fathom the
mysterious and when you surround
the drinking of a glass of beer OF
|
and tell that boy that each droI
contains so many thousand devils
the first thing you know he is goine
to find out for himself what tina
thing tastes like. This boy-savinl
question is far better in the hand.
of the father and mother who d.
not have to confess to the publ,
that they need a liquor restriction
to protect them against themselves
Prohibition is the badge of weakness
and the man who processes pro
hibition, admits he must have SOM
protection against himself. Th
strong man stands up and faces tn
temptations of the world like
man. If he chooses to indulge il
strong drink, he knows his limit
Drunkenness is not crime; it is
vice and because one man abuse