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OCTOBER, 1916
il
The Commoner
The Liquor Issue in
; Nebraska
In Nebraska, as elsewhere, party lines disap
pear when the liquor question enters the arena
of politics. The defender of the saloon knows
neither party allegiance nor party loyalty. It
is a matter of BUSINESS with him. and he
boasts of his political independence.
The opponent of the saloon can ;not afford to
be less independent. There will be but one im
portant task hefore the coming session of the
Nebraska legislature, namely, the enactment of
laws putting into effect the prohibition amend
ment which will be adopted on November 7th. .
At the April primary the dry candidates for
governor in the two leading parties received
twenty-four thousand more votes than. the wet
candidates. As only two-thirds of the vote was
polled in April -the majority ought to be thirty
bx thousand when the full vote is polled in
November. It ought to be more than thirty
six thousand for three reasons: First, because
the wots came nearer polling their full vote at
the primaries; second, because the wet voters
drew the lino on the liquor question more strict
ly than the drys and, third, because the drys
have had all the time since April to gain re
cruits. '
The liquor interests. have their candidates for
the senate and house in every district where
they have any chance to win, and their aim is
to inaugurate an era of lawlessness the con
dition which is sure to follow if the liquor in
terests can control either house. Wet demo
crats and wet republicans are working side by
side in their conspiracy against the home and
humanity. DRY DEMOCRATS AND DRY RE
PUBLICANS CAN NOT AFFORD TO BE LESS
EARNEST IN DEFENSE OF THE HOME AND
ALL THAT IS HIGH AND HOLY. THEY
SHOULD UNITE AND VOTE FOR THE DRY
LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES WITHOUT RE
GARD TO PARTY DIFFERENCES ON OTHER
SUBJECTS "The opposition is united; there
must he, no" division among the friends' of the
amendment. If in any district two drys are
running against one wet, one of the drys should
withdraw. No man who has the interests of the
state at heart will allow his personal ambition
to jeopardize the cause, and he should not be
permitted to do so even if he attempts it.
If the enemies of the saloon are only half as
active and zealous as the representatives of the
breweries, the distilleries and the saloons, the
amendment will be adopted by an overwhelm
ing majority, both houses will be controlled by
the friends of the amendment and Nebraska
will be saloonless forevermore.
W. J. BRYAN.
Any argument seems to go In a political cam
paign. Candidate Hughes declares the demo
cratic party is a sectional party because most of
the house committee chairmanships are held by
southerners. During the republican regime
most of the committee chairmanships were held
by northerners, thus proving, of course, that
the republican is also a sectional party.' When
one recallB, however, that the rule of seniority
prevails and that the south has been electing the
same democrats longer than the north has been
doing, the mystery disappears, just as it evapor
ates in the case of the republicans when we re
call the south doesn't elect republicans to congress.
The beef barons have raised th6 price of meat
to such altitudes that the average man is lucky
if he can indulge more than three times a week.
The next thing we know the barons will be pos
ing as public benefactors, claiming that we eat
too much meat for our own good anyway.
AN EXCEPTION
When Mr. Bryan urges the election of a dem
ocratic senate and house to support the Pres
ident's economic program, his language must
not be construed as an endorsement .of any rep
resentative of Wall street. If the money trust,
the shipping trust or any other predatory Inter
est must have an agent in the senate or house
it is better that he should.be a republican. His
sins will then be charged up to the republican
Party and he will not hold committee positions
that should go to better democrats.
- I'TIIE REMORSE OP DEtfVER"
From the Denver R,ocky Mountain News.
In the campaign againBt prohibition In Kan
sas City, Mo., Denver is being held up as tho
horrlbltf example." Tho former city is being
warned to beware tho fate that has befallen this
city since it put the lid on at the first of the
year. A pamphlet, entitled "The Remorse of
Denver," is being circulated by tho "Breweries
and Brewery Agencies of Kansas City." It con
tains a list of the saloons that were closed and
the rents paid and what had happened to the
building up to Juno 1. Naturally a good many
of them were for rent and naturally thOBe that
were rented did not always bring as much
monthly rent as they did for tho other purpose.
The appeal is to the cupidity of tho individual
property owner. Prohibition, it sets forth,
means confiscation to the owner of property as
well as to the saloonkeeper. It is claimed -that
Denver is losing ?95,000 a month in rents as a
result of tho change decreed at the polls two
years ago.
-Denver is engaged taking up the slack from
the first of the year's revolution. It has suc
ceeded very much better than the most optim
istic predicted.
This season has been tho best this city has had
in its existence. More people have come this way
than in any other summer and they have pro
longed their visits in Colorado by an average of
thirty days. They came here to enjoy them
selves and they did so without the "booze" an
cilliary. It is safe to state-that the saloon was
not missed by one-quarter of 1 per cent of the
visitors, . . . ,...
Business done this year by merchants has
shown an average increase of 20 per cent over
a year ago this from their own books." Manu
facturing his Improved and, if it be claimed that
this was due to extraneous conditions, it can be
stated on the other side that prohibition cer
tainly put no obstacle in the way.
Returns from retail merchants' credit associa
tions and the like all are to the effect that col
lections have imprqved very materially, that
there are muqh smaller losses and currents debts
have been reduced by 50 per cent since prohibi
tion went into effect.
The people are satisfied to continue as they
began the year. They are practical economists.
They know that so many millions were spdnt up
on liquor every year, that the manufacturer and
dealer made exceptionally large profits there
from, that the saloonkeeper made money and
that, taken altogether, the liquor business had
grown into an exceptionally close corporation,
the latter owning wherever possible its own sa
loon buildings and conducting them on the per
centage basis so as to keep all possible profits
within the ring. The people know that tho sa
loon was not for tho benefit of tho community
morally economically or politically arid that it
was a1 good thing to get rid of the evil.
There is less crime of high and low decree.
The'patrolman has grown fat and lazy; the
courts can take the half day off to play golf, and
in time there will come -to the taxpayer a ma
terial reduction in cost of municipal and state
upkeep, with the knowledge that a large amount
of the money saved in tho saloon bill will go to
more profitable enterprises.
, There is before the voters at the coming elec
tion a proposition to undo by indirection the pro
hibition amendment to the constitution. If any
one really desires to know officially what Denver
and Colorado think about the question of no sa
loons in this American city and tho state, all he
has to do is to wait and read the election returns.
Some folks who pose- as political prophets
claim that the major part of the progressive
vote will be cast for Hughes. The progressive
party platform of four years ago complained
that the republican party had failed to. pass
prosperity around. Well, the republican party
lost its job at the prosperity table and if the
democrats' who succeeded to it haven't passed It
around to the satisfaction of the progressives
they must be very hard to suit.
Mr. Hughes is proud to proclaim the fact that
when he was a judge he was a 100 per cent
judge, and now that he is a candidate he is a
100 rer cent candidate. After reading his
speeches, which are devoted largely to destruc
tive criticism, no one will find cause to dispute
his assertion.
Locatedt Last
Mr. Hughes has been located nUlast. He statea
his position when he rflpiMfTatea tho doctrine of
tho administration, as "stated by Dr. Eliot,
namely, "No intervention by force of arms to
protect on foreign soil American commercial
and manufacturing adventurers, who, of their
own free will, have invested their money or
risked their lives in foreign parts under nlleu
jurisdiction."
In denouncing this doctrine Mr. Hughes com
mits himself to tho opposite doctrlno that Justi
fies wars for the extension of trade. As ho took
the side of tho railroads against tho patrons
when ho vetoed tho two-cent fare bill in Now
York; as ho took tho side of tho tax dodgers on
the income tax; as ho has taken tho sldo of tho
shipping trust against the people and as ho took
the side of tho railroad managers against tho
ompolyees on tho eight-hour day law, so ho an
nounces that he would take the sldo of specu
lators in foreign lands as against tho people at'
home, oven to tho use of armed force. Well,
this ought to give him the votes of the specu
lators, but it ought to lose him the votes of those
who would have to bear tho burden.
W. J. BRYAN.
In Nebraska the Prosperity league, which Is
the official title of the organization under which
the brewers fight, Is spending thousands of dol
lars In newspaper advertising trying to show
that the states which have, prohibition havo
more criminals, more Insane, more pauperism
and less prosperity than iirthose where saloons
are licensed. The vote on prohibition in No
vember will really determine whether Nebraska
has as high a percentage of illiteracy as the cen
sus reports indicate, for it requires no great
amount of learning to know that a business that
sells only stuff that Incites" persons to crime,
that causes people to lose their minds, their
money and their jobs isn't Increasing their pros--perity,
their morals or their health. "
In an effort td rob tho democratic administra
tion of the credit for revising tho banking sys
tem so as to make it panic proof, It is now as
serted that the banking bill Is but the Aldrich
bill slightly modified. If these critics would
havo the honesty to say what those slight modi
fications are they would be compelled to admit
that they meant the Aldrich bill with roverso
English on.
Much mental anguish is being displayed by
certain gentlemen because they have discovered
that imports are not much more than under the
late high tariff law andtttc" revenue is much
less, while at tho same timV?tho cost of living
hasn't decreased. ThelrcYrurbation might bo
greatly lessened if they Would just recall that
they once firmly believed 'the foreigner paid tho
duty.
PARKS WITH(U'i! COST
The securing of parks is one of the scrio'us
problems confronting a city, the expense increas
ing with the need. This situation can be easily
remedied without injustice to anyone. The man
who subdivides acre property into city lots usu
ally does so at considerable pecuniary advant
age, and this advantage is, as a rule, an un
earned increment. Ho profits by the growth of
the city and gathers to himself a value due to
the labor of others. Why not require the dedi
cation of a certain percentage of every new ad
dition to park purposes? If, for instance, a
forty-acre addition containing sixteen blocks was,ff
so platted that two blocks would be set aparfiK
for park purposes, the people purchasing in the
addition would havo a commonplay ground a
democratic dooryard andtrieparty platting
the land would realize an additional sum for the
land around the parks that would almost equal ;
their value. But if the parks added nothing to 0 '
the price of the lots adjoining, he could afford
to give the two blocks to the public in return for
the valuo which the public has added to his
property by creating the demand for city lots.
This reform is offered for the consideration of v
those readers of The Commoner who, as mem
bers of state legislatures, may be in a position to
embody the idea in legislation.
W. J. BRYAN.
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