The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1917-01-04
VI licensing the saloons,

of licensing the saloons,
Thus OF ce more is demonstrated
how deepli the American people re-
sent the mixing of organized religion
with politics.
Mitchell Witnessed its own proof of
the same nd a few years ago, when
an attemp'. to carry the city against
license by means of an evangelistic
esulted in the largest ma
jority for ,cense returned in Mithell
in the last two decades.
Whatever the reasons may be, the
voter objs, It's when church or a
combinatio of churches attempts to
tell him how to vote. 1t matters not
if the issue be one of largely moral
nature. TIE voter obviously resents
the idea that he should find out from
tany religit us organization how he
the implic ltion that he is not good
enough to take the right stand with
out instrb ction from those who
preach the Christian life. Possibly he
is keenly s ensitive to the consequence
of any all lance between church and
state. AnG in some cases he may be
governed oy his conviction that it is
none of tie church's business how he
uses his b blot.
This do S not mean that the church
cannot aft .ct the relations between the
citizen a, d his ballot. Indeed the
church can do great deal. But it
must be by its influence upon the in
|dividual. when it attempts to handle
communities or whole groups of indi-
viduals b means of general instruc-
|tions how to discharge their duties
as citizen it will ANONYMOUSLY fail.
1t is indeed surprising how frequent
ly we for get that the state is mercy
an agglS CATION of individuals. 1t
does not possess a collective con-
|sciousnes peculiar to itself. Instead
it is mad up of as many individual
tiles in consciousness as there are
persons. Therefore the state cannot
be refoN ned by a single appeal. 1t
must in /! very case cone through the
individual, as truly as water cannot
rise abd e it's source. Since the
church is admirably situated to work
with the individual and since that is
the Only effective way by which to
elevate he state as whole. why
shouldn' the church proceed in that
way?
M->e@
The U lifted States has just conclud-
ed anot Ter fiZZle in it's efforts to
straight out the Mexican tangle
The joilt commission of the two
countrie, got no farther than did the
Snuth American commissioners. ,,,h r,
were ash ed by Wilson to try to solve
the pro- lem. Carranza did not even
pay the United States the courtesy of
answerl g its note containing the
proposal so far suggested by the
commits ION. In the meanwhile, Villa
is again taking possession of north
ern Me- leo. Wilson might just as
we'll lea' e Mexico alone as to continue
efforts that are known in advance to
| be futiI
@9&4
The ederal authorities have found
that thu re is plenty of print paper in
the United States to meet all needs.
The mi nufacturers have carried on
a delibe ~ate campaign to brighten the
newspa 'ers into the belief that there
is such a shortage that they could
considei themselves fortunate to OBJ
tain enough to keep their papers go
ing. Th 1T this is all tissue of false
hoods ! just another evidence of the
vicious character of the monopoly
which : +; now extorting profits of 200
to 800 per cent from it's customers.
1eM
The balance OF power in the next
House Vt congress will be held by two
Progre isives, two Independents. one
socialist and one prohibitionist. The
Repub] cans have PA and the Demo
Gratis % and two seats are contested
or the radicals, it is expected the
Democ ats will command three and
the Re rublicans two, in the organiza-
ton o, the House. This would give
either side ZIG votes, without the
two contested. Therefore it appears
4 now II at, unless one of the parties
u wins 9th of the contests, the vote
will still be tie. in that case a slight
defect On from either party would
mean he defeat of it's candidate for
the 81 eakership. The Republicans
lseem more disorganized than the
NDemoc 'ats. for there is an issue of
Nprinci1 lie between the progressive
tnnd re dictionary Republicans, while a
ElDemoc rat is just a Democrat, south
Or nor h. 1t would be better for the
l2epub lean party to lose the speaker.
Iship Il an to elect Republican who
would make a record as a reaction
AIRY Al d it is very much to be doubt
cd whether a strongly progressive
Republican could control any large
pnrcen age of his party vote as can
didate for speaker.
\ MSE
I Whs France says in effect to her
itouted hero. Joffre, is this: Here's
La deco ration in recognition of your
lsnFAendid qualifications to command
EthA VII ole of the French armies; now
hplEasa turn over your command and
IreAinqi ish all. your authority, to an
s}other general" Is there anything
more cruel. in all its, aspects, than
|war?