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Show J GROWTH OF TEMPERANCE. j People can say what they will about the growth j of tno temperance movement, and look upon it as I 1 another evidence of the radicalism of the American people. But from the steady and ever increasing I growth it must become a power in the land before j may ypars have rolIwl around, even if it has not already assumed proportions that entitle it to such I , consideration. The vain efforts of the early tem- perance agitators by which it was hoped to carry I ihe country against the saloon and the comparative (weakness of that movement have been the cause of much merriment among the saloon and liquor men, but the early mistakes have impressed their lesson on the people, and the temperance cause has pro- I fited by the lessons taught. ! The present movement has more than an hyster- ical aspect to it. It differs from the movement as j ! i ' ; : - . ; ... --v represented by the national prohibition party in the early campaigns. Xow, instead of trying to impress the people with the" possibility of carrying the whole country against the saloon, the efforts of the temperance people are directed to molding public opinion in certain limited territories. It is in itself a reaction against itself. It represents the mature judgment of the people as against the saloon. The saloon element has been compelled to take notice of the movement, and resolutions condemning con-demning about everything that the temperance followers fol-lowers condemn have recently emanated from the associations of brewers and wholesale and retail liquor dealers. Xow this movement, instead of being national in its scope, is strictly local. It has its greatest force in the home. It does, indeed, represent the public opinion as represented by the home. From the homes of the people, it spreads to municipalities, municipali-ties, from municipalities to the townships, then to counties and to states. It can be but a short time till it embraces the nation. The public mind is not inflamed. It is rather disgusted with the manner of conducting a business that ought never have been permitted to spread and take to itself the powers of legislation and law enforcement that it did. It also represents a decadence of the popular notion that a man could starve his wife and family and give his earnings to the saloon man. The "personal "per-sonal rights" which make such a strong argument in the hands of the saloon men has received somewhat some-what of a setback in the new order of things.- The assumption that '''personal liberty" was something higher and mightier than public morality is not very generally held in these latter days. We have outgrown that. The view of governmental functions func-tions has greatly chanered in the development of the ages. Society finds new problems as it pro-grosses, pro-grosses, and it is one of the duties of society to protect itself from its enemies, whether internal or external. The result is that the nation is just now undergoing a change from the old methods of controlling or regulating the liquor traffic. It is a change that has been coming for a long time; for a long time it could not be discerned, but now it is beginning to bud, and in a few years it will be in full bloom. Already it has taken in half of the nation. And it is confidently believed that another an-other year will find Utah has joined the movement and that the sumptuary legislation which the people peo-ple have been slow to place on the books of the state will go there, partly because society demands protection pro-tection from the liquor traffic and partly because it needs protection from the political activity of the saloon element. Public opinion is ripe for the change in 'Utah, and the wise politicians are get- ' ting on the water wagon, at least with' words, if not with actions. |
