Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-06-01
WHAT HARDING DID AND CAN DO.

The Sioux City Journal says that Mr..
Harding is not committed to the return
of the saloon and insists that it is q
false issue to question his attitude.
Another asks what Harding could do
to bring back the saloon as against an
Iowa legislature.
Let's analyze this between ourselves
briefly. Now the men in Iowa who see
no other business for themselves but
the liquor traffic, who desire no other
business and the brewers and distillers
who seek a market for their goods
don't as a matter Of fact care greaIy
whether they sell legally or illegally II
they have the trade nor does the
brewery worry greatly over whether it's
product is blind piSged or salooned Sd
long as the demand continues and the
wholesale price stays up. The onV
reason a saloonist pays for the privilege
of selling booze is because the law
forces him to pay. The lower grades
of liquor sellers in Iowa would be per-
fectly satisfied if permitted to sell with
on. a license.
There is not the slightest doubt n
the minds of those who know him and
his legislative record that Mr.. Harding
is in favor of the return Of the saloon
to Iowa. He would not be able prob
~, III ;rc n iYGnce a
legislature to pass a high license law.
But he'd do it if he could. See his
esislative record.
Mr.. Harding seems presently to be in
favor of the unlicensed saloon, the I'M
mulcted drinking place. He calls the
prohibitory laws foolish" and non
enforcible' He is very much opposed
to any interference by the state officials
with the town and local officers who
are charged with enforcement of the
statutes.
What does that mean? In most cities
and towns 1t means a lax enforcement
Of law. In many cities and towns ii
means wide open blind pigs and boot
| leggers with a free hand? 1t means a
return to political control of the vicious
element. It means the return of the
| hidden gambling house. of the assgna
ton house, Of the dangers that the
farmers hoped had been removed from
their sons when the boys went to
| town" and from the daily paths Of the
BOY in town. It means renewed bidding
by unworthy candidates for the vote
that goes to the wide open town. II
administration shall locally repeal the
| Cosson laws. 1t means return to the
conditions of nom Increment that fol-
lowed the prohibitory law thirty years
ago. 1t is the hope of the saloon adj
vocates that non enforcement will bring
about similar disgust with the law and
the return of the saloons in time. It
is the same old game over,
Now contrast the two men, Harding
| anu SbSooiA. cooScAA 40 VIC oAliIOl eAAN
has been the enforcer Of the Cosson
laws. When the Cosson red light law
went into effect the Burlington and
Davenport papers described the hegira
of prostitutes and pimps across the
river to Illinois the day before the
law became effective in Iowa. When
the white slave law was before the
Iowa legislature in the Thirty third as
sen1bIy Harding is marked "absen. or
not voting" When the Hammond red
light injunction law came before that
same legislature Harding is marked
absent or not voting" The records
are in black and white There is no
avoiding or explaining the records.
When the five mile limit law came
before the next legislature Harding
voted mo" That law was to put the
saloons five miles away from the state
university. But Harding voted to keep
them under the noses of tho students
lfor whose welfare fathers and mothers