Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-10-03


the Constitution of the United States
so that the same shall not prohibit.
the manufacture, sale, transportation,
importation or expectation Of bever-
ages which are not in fact intoxicat-
ing, as determined in accordance with
the laws of the respective states'?"
The wording of the referendum was
framed by Elihu Root, who was the
attorney employed by the brewers to
carry the test cases to the United
states supreme court, so it is obvious
that the aim was to catch the wet,
not the dry vote. TIE idea was
contagious. Illinois and Wisconsin
through their legislatures voteo to
submit the same question. Nevada
voted to submit the question of the
repeal of the Volstead act to the
voters Of Nevada. 1t is novel
Imethod of legislation for state to
vote on the repeal of a federal law.
Because these four states are per-
mitting the people to vote on national
Legislation, thus asking congress to
do something which congress cannot
legally do in deiegating to individual
citizens the power to make federal
legislation, we have maintained the
attitude that it would be a waste OF
time and money to devote attention
to these referenda to tine exclusion
of campaigns for the election of dry
officials.
In Missouri Colorado, Montana and
California the referendum idea has
taken another form. These states
have the initiative and referendum
and in accordance with state law, pc
titions were circulated to submit to
the people the matter of repeating
state enforcement codes and other
state laws. In Missouri and in Colo
rado it would repeal their state en-
forcement codes, in Montana it would
repeal statewide prohibition and
every other law except the law for
| bidding the sale of liquor to children
fand in California it would repeal the
Wright enforcement code. These
referenda are legal and would be
binding. Accordingly the National
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
and the state Woman's Christian
Temperance unions are doing all they
can by way of education, public meet
| ings and house-to house work to
arouse public sentiment to vote
| against such referenda. Prohibition
| is ir the Constitution. We believe II
is there to stay, but the bombarding
! of it's enemies is heavy~and we might
as well make up our minds that this
is a siege and not a battle. No great
reform was ever won in a day, but
we will win prohibition enforcement
Il if it takes generation.
Government Control
Since the hearings at Washington
the opponents of prohibition are
talking about the Quebec plan as
method of solving the liquor prob
, lem. They claim that under this
plan there can be respectable drink
ing without drunkenness They use
the name Quebec plan,' but they
mean government control, as liber-
allied in other Canadian provinces.
Each of the provinces of Canada has
different plan in each province
as it adopts it's own makes it H1oreI
liberal than the preceding ones. Under
the Canadian plan of governmental
control, the government is financially
interested in promoting, the sale o.!
beer and wine. In Quebec, liquor MAY
not be drunk on the premises, In
British Columbia there are wine
rooms where liquors may be drunk
and although only one pint of whls-
ky may be sold to an individual at
any one time, he can go back until
his money is gone, even 20 times
day, and at each visit nlVKe a
purchase without being questioned.
No license territory under the Canad-
ian plan has steadily decreased and
they have a problem of hard liquors
there just as we'll as here. One of
our problems in law enforcement is
due to the fact that they export
large quantities of hard liquors to
the United States; they also have
poison liquor as was we'll evidenced
in the recent cases of bootleg liquor
imported from Ontario, as the result
of which So people lost their lives.
Even under government control they
seem to have problems in Canada.
AS long as their experiment is not
great success why not have patience
with ours
If the object of temperance legisla-
tion is to do away entirely with the
uors their manufacture and sale ano
to break the political power of the
traffic, government control is fail
ure, according to the testimony of
such men as former Attorney General
Raney, of Canada, and Dr. w. w
Peck at the hearing in Washington,
and the testimony of investigators
like the Pioneer" and Christian
Science Monitor"
We are confirmed in our belief thai
prohibition is the best method yet
tried of solving the liquor question
Compromise With The Vets Means
Defeat
Straight thinking on the prohibition
question is needed. The most cleverly
organized, most efficient, most ex-
tensive and most insidious propaganda
movement in the history of America
is now functioning at full speed in
an effort to break down the legal
victory over the liquor traffic achieved
after SO years of laborious effort
ridicule, estrangement and sacrifice
even unto death.
Notwithstanding the encoufagements
of +I,a ,,aar tho wets have made some