The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-01-21

drinks formed the drinking habit be-
fore they reached the age of twenty.
He said that during the recent agi-
tation of the liquor question in Cal
ifornia, the California Wine Grow
ers' association issued a pamphlet to
impress the people of the state with
an idea of the enormous business i'm
portance of the wine industry to the
state. 1t was argued that the in
dustry, suitably fostered, would bring
into the state of California the, enor-
nous sum of $2,000,000 annually. For
this reason parents were urged
to teach their children early in life
the habit of wine drinking.
Brought out His Chart.
DR.. Stafford displayed a chart Jon
which were two maps of the United
States, one showing the wet and dry
states twenty-five years ago, and
the showing them at the present
time. 1t was shown that twenty-five
years ago there were only seven dry
states namely, Maine, New Hanlp-
shire, Vermont, North and South
Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma, using
the present map names. Today there
were nineteen dry states. During the
coming year five states would vote
on the question, namely, Vermont,
Michigan, South Dakota, Nebraska
and Montana, probably California and
possibly Utah. The speaker said he
hopes that every one of these states
would be added to the dry column.
He said that while. the fight was by
no means over, the long wished-for
goal, saloonless America, was at
last in sight.
Dr. Stafford ridiculed the .cOnten-
ton that prohibition does not pro-
hibit." He declared that he had
figures from reputable trade journals
to show that during the year 1915 the
total amount Of beer consumed in
the United States was 7,9S5.477 bar
rels less than during tn. year 1914.
He said that this was due to the
sweep of prohibition sentiment. He
said that the decrease in the con-
sumption of beer alone thus amount
ed to 3,690,696,40o drinks. He gave
other figures to show a falling off in
the consumption of spirituous liquors
generally, declaring the decrease of
1915 from 1914 to be 1913 per cent.
County Option Law.
Speaking of the Minnesota county
option law, the speaker stated that
since that measure was signed by
Governor Hammond, forty-four coun-
ties of the state had gone dry. There
were now fifty-four dry counties in
the state. He admitted that during
the first four months of the year 1915
there was an increase in the pro-
duction of beer over the same months
of the year 1914, but he stated that
the first eight months showed a de-
crease in the manufacture of beer by
100000 barrels. The beer traffic had
fallen off in the state by two and a
half million dollars. s.a-
DR.. Stafford dwelt at some length
on the fight that occurred in the
state legislature over the county OPP
ton bill, when the change of one
vote would have defeated it. He said
many people were inclined to speak
disparagingly of legislators in gener-
al, but he declared that at that legis-
lative session there were heroes that
displayed courage equal to that
shown on any battlefield of Europe.
| He told many instances of delega-
| lions Of voters threatening this and
that legislator with political and
commercial ruin if he did not vote
! against the county opticr IN, and
yet in many cases, whoa III" legis-
lator had nothing to lose by voting
against the measure, 81 every risk
to run in voting for it, his vote was
| cast for the bill. The speaker said
he knew one legislator, who was
rather needy man, to remark that
! by voting against the bill he could
/ have had $4,000 and never injured
himself, commercially or politically in
the least. "