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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1910)
THE WAGEWOMERl 4 An Independent Newspaper Devoted to Sunshine and Good Cheer. Without Malice and Without a Muzzle Volume 7 LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, NOVEMBER 18, 1910 Number 35 4- THE OUTCOME IN NEBRASKA 4 The outcome in Nebraska was a justly administered and thorough ly deserved rebuke to the fat-headed and pig-headed. managers of the booze industry. The "liquor interests," so called, got just what has long been coming to them because of their arrogance, their contempt for public opinion, their interference in politics and their refusal to consider anything but financial welfare of the boozeries. "When the "liquor interests" interfered to defeat the will of the peo ple two years ago by killing the initiative and referendum, they passed thj limit of endurance. "When they crucified Shallenberger for petty revenge they added insult to injury. Today they are reap ing the harvest they sowed with so much insolence, and they are reaping it in tears and apprehensions for the future. The brewers and distillers, having amended the confession of faith to read that the chief end of man is to "glorify booze and push its sale regardless," proceeded to follow the new rule, and in doing it they rode rough shod over public sentiment, they pro stituted the ballot, they treated with contempt those whom they could not use for their own selfish ends, they thrust soiled hands into politics, and they sacrificed the best public servants because those servants would not sacrifice the public's interests in order to ad vance the sale of beer and whisky; They have ignored the growing public demand for progressive restriction, and have had no further' thought than the sale of an additional keg of beer or a gallon or two of rum. Not content with having beaten county option in the legislature two years ago, the "liquor interests," emboldened by their success, drove their beer wagon over reform measures in which they could have no real interest, bit merely to show their arrogant power. , It is only natural that the long stored-up wrath of the people finally burst forth and overwhelmed them. Instead of bemoaning the awful jost they received last Tuesday week, the "liquor inter ests" ought to be thankful that they managed to stave off that wrath as long as they have. They have nagged the people so long, and so long have they outraged every sense of fairness, that the people now seem determined' to go the limit, and as a result of the recent election the people know their power now and they seem anxious to wield it in such a way as to not only drive the ' ' liquor interests" out of politics in Nebraska, but to drive the liquor busi ness out of Nebraska. We refused to enthuse over the county option question during the recent campaign, feeling that it was an untimely issue be cause not to be settled at this time; that the referendum would be invoked by the defeated side. For county option, per se, we did not, nor do not, care a continental. But the defeat of the opponents of county option is so overwhelming that it would seem to be sheer folly for those opponents to appeal to the referendum. And so wrought up are the people over the arrogance of the "liquor in terests" that unless we miss our guess prohibition will be the issue in this state inside of the next four or five years. We are opposed to state wide prohibition because experience has demonstrated its foolishness and its folly. Nor are we, any the less opposed to the wThole system of license. .But if we are forced to choose between witnessing further efforts of the "liquor interests" to control Nebraska politics and crucify public officials whom they can not control, and state wide prohibition, then we will be for state wide prohibition as the lessor of the two evils. Our whole system of dealing with the liquor question is wrong morally and financially. We are of those whp believe that the Al mighty created nothing evil, and that there is a place in the world and a use for everything created from the'materials that the Al mighty created. We have no condemnation for the manufacture, the sale or the use of alcoholic liquor. We have a fundamental op position to the debasement of men through the traffic in alcohol for selfish financial profit. If we proceeded straightway to prohibit every good thing that is abused by people here and there, there would be nothing left for mankind to do but wither and fade into nothingness, for every good thing is abused, and when so abused becomes a wrong. But when we establish a system which pro motes drunkenness, and which is a fruitful source of vice and crime, and salve our consciences by imposing a license fee upon it under the pretense of "regulation," we sin against God and against com-, monsense. We establish a system thaf provides for establishments that must promote things deterimental to society in order to make its profit, then because we reap just what might have been expected we fly to the other extreme and demand the utter prohibition of the traffic, forgetful of the facts that habit, andclustom, and hu man nature make the effer.v? farce. And yet there are thousands of us, opponents of: prolrC? "''m on what we consider good moral grounds as well as sensibltvninds, prefer the farce of opposition to the evils of booze rule'ause prohibition at least affords us the satisfaction of a.prqte 1g If the men who 'profit Jy3;-fwing and distilling were capable of seeing further than' the" buPaoles in their ownbeer kegs and whisky barrels they would tve seen that their plan or warfare against county option could -Ve DU one result the arousing of popular indignation to the poEr f , almost, of frenzy. Had they been content to accept a county option law, or had they been content merely with defeating county option for the time being, they would not now be sitting, in sackeloth and ashes and weeping for a lost cause as Rachel wept for her children. Under county option, they might have warded off prohibition for years to come, maybe for a generation, and retained a profitable business in a score of Ne braska counties. ' But with their usual fatheadedness the managers of the "liquor interests" failed to sense public opinion, and would have disre garded it even if they had, and proceeded to shove their nauseous doses down the public throat. The result is only what clearheaded men expected the utter rout ing of the "liquor interests" and their cappers, horse, foot and dragoons. . . The election 6f Mr. Aldrich is not a republican victory. The de feat of Mr. Dahlman is not a democratic backset. Mr. Aldrich could not have come within gunshot of election without democratic votes, just as Mr. Dahlman could not have come within gunshot of a nomination without republican votes. ' Nebraska went demo cratic with a rush on November 8. It elected four democratic con gressmen out of six and secured a United States senator. Sith a gubernationaj candidate free from the control of the "liquor inter ests" Nebraska democracy would have won a victory-all along the line. But it would not have been a victory for democratic prin ciples alone; it would have been a victory for a people disgusted with broken promises who turned to the only relief agency in sight. Had Burkett stood out fairly and squarely with LaFollette and Bristow and Cummins and Clapp and Dolliver, instead of . riding with the hounds and running with the hare, he would have won. The splendid victory of George W. Norris in the Fifth is ample evidence of the truth of that assertion. The day has come when the man who admits .that partisan ties fetter him beyond all reason merely admits that he is an ass-and every patriotic man thanks God. for the'fact. - . It was not a republican victory, neither was it a democratic vic toryit was a victory of civic decency over arrogance, selfishness and pigheadedness. The only fly in the ointment is that before we could administer the long-delayed rebuke we had to submilrlto the political crucifixion of one of Nebraska's biggest and best men Ashton C. Shallenberger. Continued on page 12
