Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1912-10-18
WHICH WAYS

GlVen Two ways OF n8nQInS PROP
lem, which would you choose, the open,
above-board, proven way, or the hypo-
critical, sneaking, deceitful failure?
After all, that is the heart of this
local option question as it is the heart
of more than one social problem. The
efficiency and adequacy of the method
employed, whether the new will cope
with the problem as satisfactorily as
has the old, whether it will have a
greater influence toward uplifting man.
kind or whether in it's very essence and
character it defeats its own ends-that
is the whole question.
Experience Is always the best
teacher. Experience has proven the
absolute failure of local option prohi-
bition. Everywhere local option has
been tried it has failed to do what its
advocates promised for it. 1t has
never stopped the sale of liquor in the
towns where it has been applied.
The ministers and the w. C. T. U.
workers probably will tell you differ
emily but they either do not know or
minister is notably the most ignorant
Of the actual conditions in his city
the main difficulty of the Christian
church today is that it fails to get
under the social cover into the heart
of things, that it touches only the sur.
face.
If the local ministers knew the alb.
solute uselessness of local option in
their own state of Washington, in Ohio
the home of the Anti-Saloon league, or
any of the Eastern states, if they
knew the real conditions in North and
South Dakota, where there is supposed
to be statewide prohibition, or any of
the states Of the South they point to
with so much pride, we do not believe
they would try to foist local option on
Olympia.
If they realized as they should
realize. from the experience of every
city, that the whole question resolves
itself into preference for the well-reg-
ulated. p0liced, open saloon or the
always more numerous, undetermined,
unregulated, sneaking "speak-easy,"
we do not believe they would advocate
the establishment of the latter, as they
are now doing. We do not believe
they would be so blinded by fanciful,
faulty, useless theory that they would
advocate. its adoption, regardless Of its
inutility, If they knew the real facts
about how that theory has indisput-
ably, fatty failed wherever it has been
applied.
There is no getting away from the
fact that mere legislation against a
social problem does not cure that prob
lem. The cause must be cured, not
the effect or the result legislated
against. Most Americans are wont to
dodge their social responsibility in that
way-in the case of local option the
church is lodging social problem, is
merely striking the surface again, for
getting that perhaps there is a cause
hidden somewhere beneath it.
The social evil is case in point.
There is not a civilized nation on the
face of the globe that has not legis-
lated against it, and there is not a CIV
ilized nation on the face of the globe
where it does not exist today. 1t is
legislated against here in Washington,
but it exists here in Olympia today.
Some benighted people may tell you
1t is driven out of Seattle, but it is
not; that it is driven out of Tacoma,
but it is not; that it is driven out of
Minneapolis, but it is not, that it is
driven out of any city you might men,
ton, but it is not.
The European countries are a little
older than the United States. They
have had the social evil problem and
the saloon problem little longer than
the United States. The churches
there are as powerful, the civ
ilization as advanced. mankind as
modern, society and social workers as
earnest, as in the United States.
How do they handle these problems?
By prohibition or suppression? Decid-
eddy not. Why? Experience has
taught them that attempted suppress
sion never does suppress, as many
American cities have found and that
attempted prohibition does not pro-
hibit. as many American cities also
have discovered.