PROHIBITION IN IOWA

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 387, 24 July 1889, Page 6

PROHIBITION IN lOWA

Town of 4,C00 Inhabitants Reducmj to Less than 1,500. TiuilowA correspondent of the Philadelphia 'Record' twites :— ' The little townofAicGregor well illustrates the fate 'that has overtaken many u Western community in these days ot competition and prohibition. Twenty-five years ago, before railroads i were so n umerous as they are now, and when the Mississippi River formed the great highway of commerce for the Northwest, McGregor was a bustling thriving town of nearly 4,000 people, doing- a business out of all proportion to its population. Ib was the groat trading centre for perhaps the richest iarming portion of lowa, and for a part of Wisconsin as well, and its stores and wholesale houses sold their wares for a distance of 100 miles around. The town was exceedingly prosperous and accumulated considetable wealth. The construction of new railroads, followed by the establishment of rival towns, and the decline in river commerce, were frightful blows at the prosperity of McGregor, and business ana population rapidly fell off. The number of inhabitants rapidly decreased, and the little town had a hard struggle to get along. Then five years ago along came prohibition. The most important establishments in McGregor were two breweries, and they Vere closed. This threw- a number of men "out of work, and they left the place with their families. The saloons were also clqsed, and this had a very depressing effect. The German farmers, who constitute the bulk of the population of the surrounding ' country, had long been in the 'habit of corning 1 to the town to do their' buying. A home-made sausage or two, put up by the housewife, and two or three glasses of beer at one of the taverns, made a cheap .dinner for the frugal agriculturists, and they enjoyed the mild dissipation o J f 'the visit to the town. Now, unable to get the beer, . they have taken their custom to towns [ where the law is ignored, -and McGregor j suffers. The little town presents a mournful sight to-day. The population has d\Vind7ed away, uutil thore are less than 1,500 people left. Many stores and buildings stahd, empty, and property has depreciated sadly. Buildings that cost £5,000 now find no buyersst £2,000, and apparently the bottom has nob been reached yeb... There is a steady exodus from the town, and its people 'have seemingly lest all hope for the f utir^W- ' 'TBbis spring a considerable number of them will lea\e for Washington Territory, and others will seek for homes in a more tolerant State. A small carriage factory, is, Uxe only manu--factunng enterprise left, , and there is. -bo prospect of other industries being attracted ' to the place. The dry rot will continue until only those will remain who in more prospeious times secured a competency arid" arc now able to live without working. So far as its business importances concerned it seems likely that McGregor will soon have practically ceased to exist. ■ ' That piohibition has had great influence in bnngiug about this decay of a once prosperous town is shown by the condition of Prairie dv Chien, just across th.c river in free W isconsin. After sleeprhgJmanv'vears that town now prospers- ap McGregor 'de, chnes. It has attracted much- of the custom and trade that formerly went into the lowa town, and enjoys a mild boom. • Its future' is bright before it, but lor McGregor there seems no hope so long as fanaticism keeps tfte prohibitory law upon the statute books of the State. Judge Reuben Noble, the leading citizen of McGregor, bitterly denounced prohibition in speaking to-day of its effect on the town. The Judge was the first republican Speaker of the lowa House of Representatives, and is one of the attorneys of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. He hasseen the fall of McGregor, the removal of many ot its best people, and the loss of much of its capital. This downward tendency has been especially marked in the last two or three years. In speaking of pro hibition, the Judge referred especially. to the sophistical and misleading statements of its advocates that it diminishes crime. 'The only excuse,' said he, 'offered for this outrageous violation of the rights of men (prohibition) is that arrests for crime arc less than formerly, and that our gaols are comparatively empty. The men who use this argument are wofully superficial. They seem incapable of compiehending the fact that prevalence of crime can never be measured or indicated by the number ot arrests or convictions for crime. Never in the history of lowa was there so much legal crime as now, nor do I|believe there ever was a country on earth so cursed with legal crime as lowa is to-day under prohibition. I feel sure there are not less than 50,000 crimes daily committed in lowa. ' 1 have no doubt there were more than 10,000 crimes committed daily during last fall's corn palace festival at Sioux City. I have no doubt that more than 10,000 sales of liquor oecuired daily in that city, and each sale was a grave crime under the law,yet I have not heard of an arrest for crime under the law. If all the crimes committed under this law were punished, the minimum fines would be more than §-2,500,000 daily and m one year £1,000,000,000. Anyone who is posted knows that there has not been m the State one arrest to 50,000 offences under the law. ' These mole-eyed men who talk aboub crime diminishing in lowa do not know the meaning of the word crime. They think there is no crime committed unless they hear ot some poor devil arrested or in gaol Any invasion of the rights of others is a crime, whether punished under a statute or not. All invasions of the rights of property lawfully acquired are crimes.' In speaking of the local enforcement of the law, the Judge instanced several cases of hardship caused by it. 'A respectable physician of the country,' said he, 'prescribed a small amount of alcoholic liquor for a very old and feeble lady living near McGregor. No druggist here dare fill the prescription. Luckily a good Samaritan of McGregor procured a boat, and in the night went to the free State of Wisconsin and obtained the desired medicine.' Another old lady was less fortunate, and was,unable to obtain a small quantity of alcohol for strictly medicinal purposes. In the meantime the fellows who want the liquor as a beverage ' of course, have no trouble in getting all they want. That is the usual way with prohibition. Those who are most affected by it are business men and innocent persons while the men and women whom it was intended to reform continue in their unregenerate ways.

«< §rOl?,:r Ol ?, : i" Oack !s! s out of his min^- >J Dick • well, I guess he didn'fc have very for to go. *