Show IN THE INTEREST OF temperance there are a number of cities in this state in which the sentiment of a large majority of the people favors curtailing the evils of the saloon and of the liquor traffic by means of stringent ordina ordinances noes and in some of them there to is a pronounced sentiment in favor of prohibition in several cities in the state the city councils are now struggling with the great liquor problem the sent sentiments imenes of the news in regard to the liquor traffic are too we well 11 known to need aneed repetition at this time for nearly half a century this paper has whenever the occasion has been appropriate expressed the view that strict regulation of the traffic should be enforced everywhere and that prohibition Is a good thing where popular sentiment sufficiently supports the legislative and executive departments of the municipal governments in the effort to enforce it but conditions have arisen in this state since division came that call for a modification fi of the policy in dealing with the liquor question which was favored by a strong majority of the inhabitants 0 of f many of its towns and cities aides in former years before the voters of utah were divided on national party lines the liquor problem at times figured prominently in connection with the government of some of the larger towns in the then territory but memory does not recall an instance in which it was ever made a party question or a vehicle on which a political party sought to ride into power by catering to either the saloon or the temperance vote mei favored or opposed i antiliquor anti liquor legislation on other grounds than Part partisan leAn advantage or from other motives than the spoils of of offee c 13 but u i unhappily ht aptly for mity many municipalities n in the state a very different status czi exults in n now party fauja ruas so high and aad the dastre or to IB so ao intense that mentho men who are themselves among th the ebest beat patrons ox of the OW rum seller axe are more than willing to come before the suffragists of the town in the garb of pronounced aavo advocated ons of temperance if by so doing they aarn secure office and on the other hapa hand there are good church people who however are none too good to v alliance with the saloon element it IM such a course they ban insure ahee the eie tion of their party ticket petty iward politicians are ready and willing adjo t degrade the great moral issues involved in the saloon question to the level ot t partisan strife for pelf and power pad aad the extraordinary partisan i coal tua no harsher term which the people nsf play and their seeming willingness willing nees ao ato ww sacrifice every consideration on tb theia I tar of party make it easy for 4 the ir ROA iticia iti olans to divide the ranks who were not their partig Ism aroused would be the true and cothre friends of temperance the existence of the tre here described is certainly to be deeply 1 l fretted gret ted it to is deplot deplorable able to see ee veople who all their lives have been opposed to the saloon and the Sig gigantic aki that spring from it stand ready tomu tojin to jin hands with its supporters for thab sake of electing their party ticket and aad aale turing for themselves or their dw acne question questionable abie honors of the minor offices that go to make up the government of the town but the moment that sees the saloon question beckma a political issue in either of a number of utah cities will also see ee what ha bas just been described it follows therefore that the ahe true friends of temperance and the genuine opponents of the saloon should bert themselves to prevent the liquor question from becoming an issue in muni cipal politics when it to is made such an issue it is inevitable that at least a portion of the friends of temperance will be found working in behalf of the saloon after as well as before election if the temperance party wins at the polls former friends of temperance under the influence of ward politicians will be found trying to harrow harrass it and to discredit and prevent the success of its policy while if the friends of the ba saloon loan are successful victory will cement ceba the friendship and strengthen the mutual obligations existing between betwee nAbb the saloon element and the erstwhile sal at vacates of an opposite policy who have been made bedfellows bed fellows by the exigencies of ward politics the saloon vastly increases its it power for evil when it succeeds in making itself a political issue in a small town men and women who have befriended it by supporting at the polls the candidates who were its friend shave placed themselves in n a position in which they cannot exert an influence against it without the inward consciousness it if not the open charge of in the cases of many young raen men the gu gulf if between this position and the door of the saloon may easily be panned with a single step while mony many SP an older man finds himself i prepared re pared to 0 o the triumph of his hid and the saloonkeepers saloon keepers party until party feeling wanes a little in utah temperance workers who with wish to see the liquor traffic either curta curtailed led or prohibited would do well to labor among all the people of the town and by persistent missionary work educate them up to the moral standard that will cause them to bring such a pre pressure to bear upon the local authorities end and politicians as will se secure albre the desired i reforms without making the saloon a noil tiep issue and 1 g into hostile camps the fa ends of t of both s ask for the politicians and office holders tor for obvious reasons reason are an pretty sure to grant graat be sides this thia kvantae advantage this plan has baa the further one of converting the people them themselves pelves the source alike of power and immorality to correct views on a creat moral subject |