Show PROHIBITION RETROGRADING IN 1887 it really began to look as asif asif asif if a number of States would engraft Prohibition upon their State constitutions constitutions constitutions In many of them it was the all-absorbing all issue in local poli- poli politics tics tiCH Workers in favor of it dis dis- displayed displayed displayed played remarkable enthusiasm the churches operated co-operated with a strong sentim sentiment nt was shown by the populace in favor of a constitutional ban on the liquor traffic Since the defeat of prohibition in Tennessee where it came so near Dear winning a gr great t triumph it has steadily lost ground The struggle between it and the great foe it seeks seeke to destroy waxes less determined on OLits its part in Georgia Rhode Island lately voted against constitutional i prohibition after having tried the th experiment Connecticut has done don the same thing and in almost all parts of the Union the prospects are less encouraging than they were two y years ago The two Dakotas have however adopted it at the outset of their 1 career of statehood but Washington Territory refused to embrace it In its State charter While the success of constitutional prohibition in two new States is encouraging to Its ad advocates the effect of that success is bythe more than counterbalanced by bythe bythe the retrograde course public opinion has taken in many of the older States The argument w which hleb seems to be prevailing is that a provision of the constitution ot of a State cannot be enforced any more easily than a 1 provision of law yet it cannot be repealed amended or adapted to changed conditions without gr great at trouble whereas a law may be Local option is also succeeding con con- constitutional con constitutional prohibition in the favor favors s of many thousands of votes A cause which has with vast effort been rolled roIled nearly to the top of the mountain of success but which unable to reach the summit begins to roll down again is in dan dan- danger danger danger ger of reaching D i aching a lower level lev l than that from which it started on its up up- upward upward upward ward course The American char char- character character acter which is so prone to marked reactions makes this result more probable in regard to prohibition and it need not be surprising to seethe see seethe seethe the liquor interest g gain in within the 1 next few years a greater strength socially and politically than thaB it had before the widespread movement in f favor of prohibition which is now on the wane had its rise |