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About The Falls City tribune. (Falls City, Neb.) 1904-191? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1908)
Nebraska Newspaper Men Expose the False Ere* tense of County Optionists HOME ROLE RIGHT DESTROYED Attempt to Force State-W ide Prohibition l pon Nebraska by means of a Subterfuge Misnamed County Option Voters Warned Here Is n copy of the misnamed County option hill which was voted for by the prohibitionists In the last legislature: "If a majority of all the voters vot ing at such election on such license question shall have voted In favor of granting license, then the no-llcense proposition shall be lost, PROVIDED; That nothing herein shall be con strued to prohibit any city council,' board of village trustees, or county board, from withholding license THE SAME AS IF THE QUESTION HAD NOT BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE COUNTY, "If a majority of all (he voters vot ing at such election on such llcenso question shall have voted against granting license THEN no city coun cil, village trustees or county hoard, nor any other authority within such county, shall have power to grant license." Referring to this bill Iho Crete Vldette-Herald makes the following elear-cut comment, which will he read by every voter who wants a full un derstanding of the subject: ABLE DEFENSE OF HOME RULE. (Crete Vldette-Herald.) In 200 years we believe the most practical law devised. Is that known as* the Slocumb law of Nebraska. If this law was strictly enforced no adulterated liquor could he sold. Not a drop could be sold to a minor nor to an habitual drunkard, not a drop on election day or Sundays, nor between certatn hours of the day. Some say the Slocumb law is all right but It <3 not enforced. If you cannot enforce the provisions of the Slocumb law, pray tell us how you will enforce a more stringent law? The Vldette-Herald he lievcs absolutely in home rule and that the town or village where license is granted should he the unit and not the legislative district, Ihe county or the congressional district. Under the Slocum law each community can con trol its own local affairs In accord ance with the will of the majority. Crete, Wilber and Tobias can vote for license if they desire and Dorchester, Friend and Western have the privilege of voting no license. In each case Micro Is’ a majority hack of the law fo enforce It. A law which a large majority of the people considers vi aloys and wrong can never be en forced. and when the public begins to lose respect tor one law they very soon get careless and lax about other laws. Wtiat rigli! or tv ison is there why Me people of Tin ! ey Creek. Atlanta or Monroe, for o' amnio, should dictate ~r> s,- people of Cnte or Wilber bow *£■ ” cotbl ■ ! heir local govern r t The ■ o taxpayers In t <•-<■ r Mm* a: ’ ! • .■ e'.dom come to t :• ■ to t:•:« ' ' vve that f»5 I pel r« i t of Ci I i of these pre cincts will s«i> sit ii is none of their business, and the. ;c not in favor of county option. Again, if they could ( vote on this question, why could thpv not with equal propriety vote as to the hours of opening and dosing, vote as to whether we shall charge hacks and whether we shall grant a license to toddlers. hucksters, circuses, ntor ey-go rounds, shooting galleries, mov ing pictures and the like. For the reasons above given and more which will follow from time to time the Vl dette-Herald proclaims itself a tem perance paper—so temperate that it ydll oppose county option to Its ut most—and not follow the Intemperate doctrine of violating the principles of local self-government, and turning over to non-residents the privileges which belong exclusively to the men ■who Rie required to enforce the laws ' • ■" FARCICAL AND UNFAIR. (Rushvllle Standard.) The county option bill provides that if the county as a whole votes against prohibition, or any subdi vision or precinct in any subdivision votes for prohibition, prohibition shall be effective in every precinct or sub division voting for prohibition, not withstanding the county as a whole or any subdivision largpr than a pre cinct votes against It. In other words, If a county, votes wet a precinct or city therein may vote dry, but If the county votes dry the entire county Is dry. It Is farcical and unfair because it $s submitted to the people to vote on the Question and then say if they vote one way their votes count, but if thoy vole the other way their votes do not count. What does the submission of a question to the people imply? It would mean that the people are to vote on the question and a majority of those voting are to decide the question. That is in accordance with all parliamentary procedure, custom and common sense. The contention of the advocate of county option, ns it looks to us, Is the strongest kind of an argument for the present Slocumb law. That gives each municipality the right and pojver to decide whether it will have saloons or not. If county option carries it will mean that If a county votes dry the entire county goes dry, no town In the county can grant saloons, hut If the county votes wet, no town in the county can hnve saloons unless the applicant for a license goes through the same procedure to s'ecure a li cense that lie must now do under the present law. Or to make It plainer, if a county votes dry, the entire county is dry and under no circumstances can a saloon license he granted, hut should' the count} vote wet, no saloon license can be granted unless a majority of the voters in such a place where a j license Is asked for is willing to grant it. It is a one-sided affair at its best and should be killed. TESTIMONY FROM A DRY TOWN. (York 'limes.) No law has ever been passed that so persistently and steadily accom plished prohibition as local option. Step by step it is driving the liquor truffle out of Nebraska and even now it is confined to a comparatively few localities, and there it Is watched with unfriendly eyes and hedged about, with restrictions. Local option is the reasonable and practical weapon with which to combat the doughty giant, now tottering to its destruction. It in volves education, persuasion and an appeal to all that is good in men and society. Before it can be introduced into a community the popular mind must be brought to sanction it ami he popular wish must he for it. In | such cases it comes to stay. The locality should be as broad as the ex eat of the direct influence of the saloon, no less and no more, lxical option means prohibition in “locali ties" and not by states or counties, it means that those immediately affect ed, are those who pay the bills and stand the grief. Il is working well in Nebraska. Why not let well enough alone? ALLEGED PROHIBITION. Oklahoma City Wide Open and Be coming More so Dally. (Special to State Capital.) Oklahoma City, Okla., July 1.—That the lid Is being gradually loosened in this city and the number of drunks appearing before Police Judgo Hlgh ley rapidly Increasing Is shown by the police records. Police Judge Hlghley says that the prohibition law Is being violated more openly now than at any time since statehood. Twelve men pleaded guilty In police eourt to Intoxication today. All were fined without any Inquiry as to where they had procured their “joy water." “Prohibition is all right on paper, but in reality it Isn't working, as the police records show,” said Judge Hlghley today. “While I haven’t fined half the drunks since prohibition that I did before, the number is steadily increasing and there are no signs of the lid being clamped down tighter." In Oklahoma prohibition prohibits , about the same as elsewhere. On the eastern or Indian Territory side of the state, saloons arc running openly, and throughout the state at large 2,000 per sons hold federal licenses to sell whis ky. while bootleggers are plying their trade' elsewhere. WHAT OF PROHIBITION NOW? | (Beatrice Democrat.) The theory of the prohibitionists was thn( the hundred thousand dol lars which, they asserted, were ex pended over the hat's of the city, would be diverted from that channel and used for better purposes. Any one who believed that theory can Cor rect his error by oing to the depot of any railroad entering Beatrice and seeing the immense quantities of keg and bottle goods brought in by every train. While comparatively little money is being expended for liquor in Beatrice, the dealers of Falrbury, Lin coln and Wilber are profiting by the dryness of this city. Farmers and others not acquainted in the city have heen unable to buy liquor for medical purposes and they have no kindly feeling toward the present state of affairs. A purely impartial view of condi tions leads one to believe that prohi bition is not as much of a success as It was considered during the first month of the new regime. It can now be said that moral conditions are no better than they were under the sys tem of license and regulation; and a glance at the tax situation will quickly convince any unprejudiced person that financial conditions are not so favorable. Now the question arises: Wbuld it be wise to extend prohibition as is proposed by the county option law? That is a question the voters must answer, and first they should examine conditions under the present local pro hibition and decide if the test of the past three months has shown a suc cess which would warrant an exten sion of the principle. WHAT IT MEANS. (Eddyville Enterprise.) County option means that each fall the people may vote on the proposi tion of no liquor license In the county. If no license carries, no town or city In the county can grant license, if t.hg proposition fails, then the present law Is In torre, and the municipalities may or may not grant license, as now provided. It Is the same principle as state option, but is localized lo a de gree. If a county option law is passed it will be possible for one county (o be wet and the next dry. The people In one end of a county can say what the people in the other end shall not do. In other words, it shears per sonai liberty and places another bar rier in the way of license. The liquor question cuts too much figure In our elections now. It does not seem proper to enact a law which will make the liquor question para mount in every campaign. The Slo cum!) law is all right if enforced, it Is useless to amend this law by a county option law. Unforce the Slocumb law and bring out ils merits, and there will be little cause to complain of intemperance. PRETENDED OPTION EXPOSED. (Coleridge Blade.) Tlie state issue which is crowding to the point and well-nigh shouldering aside the big national tight is the one Question of county option. The prohi bition forces are back of the county option fight. At first thought county option means local option. But more careful consideration shows a great difference between the two. The great majority of people believe in local self-government. So long as the liquor question remains out of national poli tics in the sense that neither of the two great parties make any declara tion of principle regarding the use and sale and manufacture of liquor and thus no vital force be given to tile discussion, so long will people turn as the next best resort to hand ling liquor sales by the community. This is why county option is taking hold so readily, because in it people are readily deceived into believing it means local option. So far as the local rights of the community are concerned, state option would pre serve them in some ways better than county option. But no option pre serves them ns would local option. Take our own county for instance. Few deny that its sentiment is wet. Now Randolph wants to be dry. If th(> county went wet. how could Ran dolph maintain her right to remain dry? A reverse condition would of course work the same way. Aside from tills, the real county sentiment, based on the county’s own needs as it sees them, would not get unfet tered expression, for the reason that the entire state prohibition organiza tion and the entire state brewery or ganization would no doubt center their whole forces on one county after another, and these-outside Influences would be undue influences shaping thn county’s sentiment, not on its own needs, but along the lines of the de sires of specially Interested parties re siding wholly outside of the county. With local option, the local com munity has a good, fair understand ing of the exact condition right where 11 can be plainly seen. If the com munity finds the sale of liquor to be abused or detrimental, it can be stop ped. without the aid or consent of any outside meddlers. Again, adjoin ing counties might be wet and dry. This would prevent any argument against local option on grounds of ex pediency, for no law could be framed to keep all the wetness in the wet county any more than all the wetness can bo kept In a wet town. LOCAL OPTION. (Beatrice Democrat.) Some of those who hope to ride Into public office upon a wave of enthusi asm for a popular measure are con demning the opponents of the state wide and county-wide prohibitory measures as allies of the whisky ring and friends of the brewery in terests. The purpose of such con demnation is to make their own illy whiteness appear all the more daz llng in contrast with the blackness in which they paint their opponents. A great many people who voted for prohibition in the city campaign would be opposed to trying to force a prohibitory law upon the state or the county. They take that position because they know that no law can be enforced which is against the good judgment and best public opinion of the community. In Beatrice, under the present sys tem of local ontlon, we have prohib ited the sale of liquor. It may be a success or it may iot. Remember that Beatrice was voted dry under the present local option system. It can be voted wet, if the majority desires, under the same law. It would be very unfair and unjust for the license people to demand a law whereby a community could be continued wet in spite of its desire to be dry. And, by the same token, it is eminently unfair and unjust for extreme prohibitionists to demand a law which will compel a community— Beatrice, for example—to continue dry, in spite of the people’s desire to have saloons under the Slocumb law. If prohibition stands the test and shows net results which warrant its continuance, it will be continued in Beatrice next year. Prohibitontsts who have no faith in the auecess of the scheme are trying to cinch It and to make it very dlffloult, almost Im possible, to effect a change from dry to wet. BE ON GUARD. (Deshler Rustler.) If county prohibition (option) car ries the sale of liquor Is .orever for bidden. But if It is lost, the prohibi tionists have another chance to vote their towns dry. They have two shots to our one. Be on guard. A VOICE FROM MAINE. (Lewiston, Maine, Sun, August 9.) There is a prohibition that makes part of a man's manhood. The one good prohibitory law is the law that the sensible, self-respecting, self mastered citizen imposes upon him self The law that will not allow his opportunities for being of some good to the world to be compromised. One's own narrow selfish comfort is reason enough for a self-imposed prohibitory law. Even a sensible financial pru dence would save the expense of in dulgence. The only tolerable liquor law that we have heard of is the local option method. We have no doubt that the prohibitory law of Maine has done tar more harm Ilian good. It has not made drunkenness less common nor less respectable. It has been used for political prostitution. It has been used lor blackmail money-making. It has long since passed beyond that de gree of respect when a considerable | body of citizens are eager to make i sacrifice and take some financial and social risk to compel its living up to. It's a nasty thing. The only liquor law we have heard j of ttiat seems to us to be tolerable is | some sort of local option. LET WELL ENOUGH ALONE. (Alma Record.) i Why all this agitation for the en | actment of new laws in regard to the control of the sale of intoxicating liquors when we already have the Slocumb law, one of the beHt along this line ever put in the book? Would it not be better to light for the en forcement of the laws we already have rather than to ask for the en ; actment of more laws just to have j them violated? We have good laws, j but by falling to enforce them we de i rive no benefits therefrom. I _ COUNTY OPTION IS LOADED. (Kearney Democrat.) County ojition is going to be the chief issue before the people at the election of tlie next legislature in Ne braska this fall. In view of this fact It Is well enough that the people be thoroughly informed regarding the many concealed features contained in ihe misleading title of the Issue. County option is not the counterpart, or an enlargement upon local option, ns a great many have been led to be lieve. It is exactly the reverse It is simply a negative proposition. Tt is an imitation of the old trick, “heads I ! win, tails you lose.-' The only point in the issue is this: if county option should carry in Buffalo county no sn loon licenses could be or w'ould be I granted in any city or town in this I (county, no matter if every voter in | these cities or towns believed in the license system. But. on the other hand, if county option should be de feated, those who believe in the li cense system will have gained nothing I under the proposed county option plan, because the mere defeat of county option would in no way affect the present local option system, and Kearney, as well as every other town in the county, would still be required to submit to the will of the people upon the matter of license, and, al though county option was defeated in the county, it would not carry with it any assurances of affirmation on the issuance of license. Therefore, it is simply a negative issue and a one sided proposition, carrying with it alt solute prohibition of license issuance if successful, and permitting nothing whatever to be settled in regard to the same question if county option is defeated. To be n fair and honest proposition it must carry with it as much force upon one side as upon the other. That is what makes issues and sys tems fair and honest. It is a system of flini-ftaui to propose a plan which settled a Question upon one side, but fails to settle the same question upon the other side. In other words, It is unfair and dishonest to permit all of the voters of Buffalo county to say that the city of Kearney SHALL NOT regulate the sale of liquor by the li cense system unless the voters of the whole county he permitted to say that the city of Kearney SHALL reg ulate the sale of liquor by the license system. And even then It would not be tolerated by law because the county has no legal or lawful right to vote upon or determine municipal ques tions. But here Is a plan which is proposed to permit the voters of the whole county to vote upon settling a municipal question, and settling it only upon one side, while the question apon the other side, if the vote Is ad verse to the plan, leaves it still wholly unsettled so far as the municipality Is concerned and Is still open to dis franchisement. At present any municipality, by a majority of voters. Is privileged to deny license within Its limits, and by the same methods the municipality is permitted to grant license, but by county option licenses are denied to any municipality within the county, yet It does not provide for the Issu ance of license. Our present Slocumb law provides for prohibition in every instance when the people are ready j for it and want it, and it ought not to ; be changed for a plan that is simply a negative plan and presumes to con 1 trol the actions of municipalities only upon the negative side of the ques tion. PLEA FOR FAIR PLAY. Discussing the claims of a candidate for the legislature, the Kearney Demo crat says: "Mr. Culley is not in any sense In favor of so-called county option and tells us that he will not support such a measure as was pro !>osed in the last legislature, although he might favor a law which placed county option on the same principles ns our present 'ora! option, i. e„ that the majority should rule, or in plainer words if county o; carried in a county. t!i re should i e no licenses granted, but, if county option failed then there should be licenses granted In every portion of the county, regard less of local sentiment. He does not. believe that a man in Cherry Creek township ought to place a restriction upon the cit y of Kearney \vhiot\ could only be enforced by electing municipal officials in sympathy with the law, while the voter of Cherry Creek town ship cannot under any circumstances be permitted to c ist his vote to elect the municipal official. This is not only ■m unnatural but an un-American prin. ciple, and so unreasonable that it would tie impossible to enforce it In any community where the local offi cials were not in sympathy with it.” BUSINESS IS GOOD. (Fullerton News-Journal.) It. is said that there were 227 packages of liquor shipped into Fullerton in two days last week, and the Fourth of July supply was probably not counted in oti this shipment. Qver $200 in orders were taken In one day this week. It cer tainly looks like closing the saloons does not stop the consumption of red liquor. NO TIME FOR SIDE ISSUES. (Plainview Republican.) The national conventions of the two great. political parties hav ing ignored the liquor question it is probable that the state conventions will do the same. This is presidential year and no side issues will be taken up if it. can be avoided. Many people are convinced that the liquor interests are sincere in their efforts to put their business on a better basis and demand that the retailers observe and obey the law. EXPRESS THEM OPENLY. (Talmage Tribune.) In this issue of the Tribune will be found several columns of matter dealing with the county option issue. This matter is print ed at the request of the Merchants & Manufacturers Association of Omaha and explains itself. While it may not represent your views along that line it does theirs and they express them openly and fearlessly. POT CALLS KETTLE BLACK. (Red Cloud Commercial-Advertiser.) Karl Spence, editor of the Bladen Enterprise, slammed Red Cloud this week, by saying that there was a large number of drunks in the city. We are afraid that Karl was looking through green goggles, as there is not a town in Nebraska, dry or wet that has as few drunks as Red Cloud does, besides Bladen isn’t so slow for fights, etc. and it’s dry, too. FROM KANSAS TOWNS. Dexter, Kan., May 31, 1908. Gentle men—In answer to yours of the 29th, will say that I think an open saloon, run right, is better than having the liquor sold by drug stores and boot leggers. and having it shipped in by car lots. You can't buy any liquor that is fit to drink in one drug store out of fifty, and of course the drug gists pay no license. There are more “drunks” than when we have a saloon. I have been Mayor of our city two terms, and know what I am talking about.—Yours truly, D. A. Hale. Beattie. Kan., June 16, 1908. Gentle men—As per request, I will give you my personal view on prohibition, and it is simply this: prohibition does not prohibit in Kansas. In my opinion, the only way to enforce the law would be 'either to stop the manufacture, or stop the government from issuing license for the sale of Intoxicating liquor in a prohibition state. I will say further that I lived in Nebraska ten years, and I consider the Slocumb law far nhead of prohibition.—Yours truly, W. W. McMahon. Beattie, Kan., June 18. 1908. Gentle men—In regard to prohibition In Kan sas will say prohibition does not pro hibit,—here at least. We have never had prohibition in this county. We have always had at least two dives selling booze in this town, from which the city derives ai solutely no benefit. I believe Mr. Wilson is right in every particular, and that nine out of ten business men prefer local option and license to prohibition.—Respectfully yours, Joseph Baer, Cashier. Altoona, Kan., June 1, 1908. Gentle men—In reply to yours of the 29th, I am not familiar with the Slocumb law, but I am constitutionally opposed to prohibition that does not prohibit. The C. O. D. packages have been stopped at this point, but now bills of lading are sent to the banks and the wet goods expressed or freighted. While, personally, I am a believer la law enforcement, yet la this state, in my opinion, the prohibitory law is damaging to civilization, because it fails to prohibit.—Very truly, C. A. Noll, Manager. PERSONAL LIBERTY. Many men believe that prohibition Is an infraction of personal rights. Discussing this point, Dr. Lyman Ab bot, in his book, "The Rights of Man," says the majority cannot impose Its conscience upon the minority. It is well for Americans to remember that the greatest civic fight waged by the KngllBh people was for the attainment of the writ of habeas corpus, which in effect meant a guaranty by the gov ernment of the fullest measure of per sonal liberty. The issue was won by the English upon fhe grant of Magna Charta by King John. Liberty was so dear to the hearts of the English that many of them left their native country in order to attain it. It v/.-is to gain the priceless boon of personal liberty that the Pilgrim Fathers immi grated to America. Going back a little farther, we find that the basic principle of personal liberty was carried to the English and developed in England by the Anglo Saxons. The books tell us that the principle was early adopted by the English and put into effect by local communities, which later became in corporated cities and towns. Very na turally the idea led to local home rule, which hits distinguished English and American towns for generations. It I dates from the time of the Anglo j Saxon invasion of England, and the preservation of the principle Is due *o the ancestors of our German-Amerl cans who are today contending for that principle as applied to their in herent right to the enjoyment of the fullest measure of personal liberty. A BUSINESS MAN'S VIEW. (Ravenna News.) It is a significant fact that with very few exceptions those residents of Ra venna, some of them temperance men In personal habits, who have within recent years lived in prohibition states and in communities where lo cal prohibition is in effect, or who have means of knowing the actual con ditions as they exist in such states and communities, are favoring the li cense plan in Ravenna and will vote accordingly. Shelton lias tried local prohibition during the past year, and within the past week we have seen a letter writ ten by one of Shelton’s best known and conservative business men, from which we quote: “I do not believe the experience of the past year would in itself induce the people to continue the policy of local prohibition. Local prohibition has a tendency for the better, al though it comes far from being effect ive, but taking all things into consid eration, license, with the saloons well regulated, is much preierable to no license and the continual turmoil that the people of a small town are always in under such circumstances, and I am of the opinion that the majority of our people will he of the same mind on election day.” BUSINESS REVIVAL. (Fullerton News-Journal.) The saloons at Belgrade opened last Saturday and it Is reported that the town resembled a Fourth of July cele bration. Merchants report as much business as they have done on any two Saturdays since the town went dry. Fullerton was well represented at the opening and those who were there re port that the streets were sure enough crowded all day. A FEW FIGURES. (New York Morning Telegraph.) The figures of the Internal Revenue Department, which are Incontrovert ible, show that the consumption of al coholic liquors, so far from decreas ing, has steadily increased in every part of the country. These figures, which render a terrific indictment against the Anti-Saloon League, de serve your attention. "The Anti-Saloon League was or ganized in 1893. In that year the con sumption of distilled spirits was 97, 424,825 gallons, or 1.46 gallons per capita. In 1907 the consumption of distilled spirits was 134,031,066.7 gal lons, or a per capita consumption of 1.58. “During the same period of time the consumption of fermented liquors per capita increased more than 5gal lons. Thus it may readily be seen that prohibition does not prohibit, but is a farce.” WHY TOWNS ARC INCORPORATED, The law books tell us that towns aril villages were :ncorporated almost solely to insure I he greatest degree of home rule in local government. A study of the subject makes it clear that such incorporation within nar row limits as to territory was abso lutely necessary, for it would be un just to compel the taxpayers of an entire county to pay the cost of pub lic utilities of service only to resi dents of the town. This basic idea of home rule was inaugurated In Colo nial days, and has always distinguished town governments of America. Now come the imported agents of the An ti-Saloon league who have set to work to change this ancient order of things, and by giving the power to ru ral voters to control the domestic af fairs of villages and towns, they de stroy this time-honored principle of home rule. The scheme is inviting to the farmer because it gives him a voice ia village affairs without re quiring him to pay taxes for maintain ing village governments. Yet it is quite as unjust to permit any town to pool with several country precincts in an effort to control the policy of another town in the county. I^et every tub stand on its own bottom. FOR BETTER ENFORCEMENT. Hundreds of Business Men Have Joined the Merchants' and Manufacturers’ Association Under the Following Conditions. "As business men and tax-payers we favor the movement to form an Associa tion of Merchants and Manufacturers for the purpose of adopting measures to bring about a better enforcement of the Bloeunib liquor license law throughout the state—a law making it optional with the people of a town or city to say whether or not liquor shall be sold. Wa believe the said law has been of great benefit to the state nnd that there can be no better means for regulating the sale of intoxicants. We stand for its striot enforcement. We ioin this association with the understanding that no distiller, hrewer, liquor deali or saloon keeper is eligible to membership. Our object is to protect properly interests from the ill ef fects of unwise legislation."