In Line for Prohibition
By Editor
ONE of the most interesting and at the same time one of the most vitally important things before the people of the United States for the year 1914 will be the campaign in the state of California to put this great commonwealth within the ranks of the prohibition states. The climate of California, and its many natural advantages, draw thousands of tourists, and make it a very desirable place to seek health and pleasure. The vendors of strong drinks would take advantage of this by working to keep it a "wide-open state." Debaucheries and revelings and drinkings and carousings would be made popular, and this sort of thing would be held up to us as essential to the pleasure and prosperity of the commonwealth. But there are many thousands of the good people of California who see things in a different light; and a law has been introduced, through the initiative, to prohibit the sale and the manufacture of strong drink within the confines of this state. A well-organized campaign is under way, and notwithstanding the difficulties in overcoming the vote of such cities as San Francisco and Los Angeles, it is confidently hoped that the effort will be a success; for there is a large population in the smaller towns and country districts, as well as a great many people in the larger cities themselves, who know by experience and observation that the liquor traffic is a curse and only a curse, and they are sick of it and are willing to do all they can to blot it out. All people who have the good of their fellow men, as well as their own good, at heart, should join in this movement most earnestly and heartily. It is a movement that should not only interest the state of California, but it should interest good people throughout the nation, for every state that can be added to the prohibition ranks makes the cause of temperance just that much the stronger.