Prohibition That Prohibits.
By Editor
IT is quite the custom to inveigh against prohibitory laws. We are continually hearing that the law in Maine is a "dead letter," and that in Kansas a person can get all the whisky he wants if he is willing to pay a high price, and can escape detection. Recently an Iowa politician stated that in that State prohibition is proving an utter failure. He believed that the enactment of the law was not an expression of the sentiment of the majority of the people of Iowa, but owed its adoption to the zeal of the prohibitionists, and the passiveness of a large element of the Republican party. This utterance was copied in the papers of the coast while the Iowa Press Excursion, consisting of representatives from a large portion of the newspapers of the State, was in Oregon. In reply, the following appeared in the Oregonian:— "The undersigned members of the Iowa Press Excursion to the Pacific Coast, have found one report here which is unjust to the State which we love and honor.
"It is that the statute incorporated in its laws prohibiting the common sale of intoxicating liquors as beverages, is not and cannot be executed. Representing different parts of the State, we testify that the prohibitory statute, considering the short time since it was enacted, is as well enforced throughout the State generally as other laws, and it is daily growing stronger in public sentiment and will become the permanent policy of the State. We ask the attention of the press of the Pacific Coast to this correction of erroneous and unfair statements." This statement, signed by forty-eight editors, certainly represents the prevailing sentiment of the State of Iowa, and ought to forever set at rest the charge that prohibition is a failure.