IOWA. 



429 



keeping, because it seeks to hide its piratical hypoc- 

 risy under the guise of a legitimate business. And 

 we would encourage our Eepresentatives in the pres- 

 ent General Assembly to push forward the proposed 

 amendment to the pharmacy laws, so as to correct 

 the abuses now existing, and to prevent the druggist 

 from selling intoxicating liquors except for strictly 

 medicinal purposes, as contemplated by the proposed 

 constitutional amendment. 



Resolved, That we condemn the bill recently in- 

 troduced into the national Senate, proposing to con- 

 vert the revenues accruing from the traffic in intoxi- 

 cants into a fund for the education of our youth. We 

 join the virtue-loving legions of the nation in most 

 emphatic denunciation of any attempt to ally educa- 

 tion, which involves our most cherished hopes for the 

 nation's future prosperity, with drunkenness and 

 drunkard-making, the notorious, wanton, and pro- 

 lific mother of the nation's crimes, impoverishments, 

 and woes ; and we earnestly request our Senators and 

 Representatives in the council of the nation to voice 

 the sentiment of Iowa; that the consummation of 

 such an illogical and unnatural alliance would im- 

 peach the virtue and insult the intelligence of the 

 American people. 



Resolved, That while we commend the papers of 

 our State directly devoted to the cause of temperance, 

 to the earnest support of all, we hail with satisfaction 

 the action of a large portion of the political press of 

 the State who are ranging themselves on the side of 

 prohibition and good government in this contest, and 

 commend all such papers to the hearty and liberal 

 moral and pecuniary support of all the people, and 

 especially the merchants and tradesmen whose busi- 

 ness is invariably robbed by the expenditure of 

 money in saloons that ought to be expended for the 

 necessaries of life. 



floor our invaluable and invincible allies to this great 

 struggle the representatives of the Woman's Chris- 

 tian Temperance Union of Iowa, and other lady- 

 workers for the promotion of the public good. The 

 work already accomplished by them is above all 

 praise. Deprecating any attempt to impede their 

 work, or to impugn the motives or actions of any 

 member of this noble army of Christian workers, we 

 bid them Godspeed and pledge them every possible 

 assistance, only regretting that they are powerless to 

 help us at that one point where, could they only 

 strike one blow, it would exterminate this monster in- 

 famy at once and forever. 



Resolved, That we do now appeal to the intelligent 

 and virtue-loving people of the State of Iowa, and in 

 particular to the parents of the children soon to come 

 into the inheritance we are preparing for them by our 

 institutions and our laws, to improve this golden oppor- 

 tunity to transmit to the generations following an in- 

 heritance of indemnity against drunkenness and con- 

 sequent crime which shall be to them an occasion for 

 thanksgiving and everlasting rejoicing. To the ac- 

 complishment of this noble and patriotic endeavor let 

 every Christian, every parent who loves his child 

 every patriot, and every lover of his fellow-beings, 

 unite in one persistent and tireless struggle until the 

 legal prohibition of the traffic in intoxicating bever- 

 ages is finally and fully assured. 



Resolved, By this largest State Temperance Con- 

 vention ever held in Iowa, that all the churches in the 

 State, of whatever name, both Catholic and Protes- 

 tant, be hereby most respectfully and earnestly urged 

 to devote one Sunday evening in each month to union 

 and other meetings especially in the interest of tem- 

 perance and the success of the prohibition movement 

 now going on among the people. 



The twenty -third annual meeting of the 

 Iowa brewers was held in Des Homes on the 

 12th of April. This meeting, which was at- 

 tended by over one hundred delegates from 

 every city in the State and a number of towns, 



issued an address to the people of the State 

 against the proposed amendment, and adopted 

 the following resolutions : 



Resolved, That the proposed prohibitory amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of this State, which now 

 threatens the complete destruction of the brewing in- 

 terest, so entirely overshadows all other subjects as to 

 demand the undivided consideration of this associa- 

 tion. 



Resolved, That we appeal to the candid, thinking, 

 and intelligent voters of Iowa to do us the simple 

 justice ^of looking into and investigating the merits of 

 our objections to this measure before voting, anaon^ 

 which objections are the following : 



1. The only practical effects of the said proposed 

 amendment will be to substitute distilled liquors in 

 the place of beer as a beverage. 



2. Beer is comparatively a harmless beverage, con- 

 taining only about 4 per cent of alcohol, and experi- 

 ence has shown that its use tends materially to dimm- 

 ish the amount of distilled liquors required, and 

 thereby decreases drunkenness and promotes temper- 

 ance. 



3. Experience has taught us, beyond all contro- 

 versy, that men will use some stimulating drink as a 

 beverage. Since men have any knowledge of history 

 such has been the case. If we are to admit that any- 

 thing can be settled by the uniform concurrence of 

 ages, then this fact must be considered as established. 

 It necessarily follows that the use of all stimulating 

 beverages can not be prohibited, and that the good of 

 the people is best promoted by encouraging the use of 

 the milder beverages instead of the stronger. 



4. In the year 1858 the Legislature of this State 

 voluntarily enacted that henceforth in Iowa the mak- 

 ing and vending of beer should be a valid and legal 

 business. This necessarily implied that property in- 

 vested in that business should be recognized and'pro- 

 tected the same as any other property. It has been so 

 recognized, has paid its full share of taxes, and borne 

 its full part of the burdens of government. We, hav- 

 ing confidence in the honor and good faith of the 

 btate, have invested all our means in the business, 

 and now it is proposed to change all this, and enact 

 that pur said business shall be unlawful, and the prop- 

 erty invested therein a nuisance ; and that no compen- 

 sation shall be made to us for our property thus de- 

 stroyed. We insist that this is unjust, oppressive, 

 and unworthy of a free government. 



f 5. The said proposed amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion is in no sense a constitutional law, but is in the 

 nature of a police regulation, over which the Legisla- 

 ture should have full and immediate control. It does 

 not belong to the fundamental law of the State. 



6._No State has had such a constitutional provision, 

 but it has been found to increase drunkenness, pau- 

 perism, and crime : and consequently taxation, and in 

 every such State it has been repealed, or steps are 

 now being taken to that end, and a license law en- 

 acted. 



7. The said amendment, if adopted, will destroy 

 not less than four million dollars of permanent prop'- 

 erty, will deprive of employment a very large number 

 of laborers, who must seek work in other avocations 

 already supplied ; and will largely increase deception, 

 hypocrisy, and contempt of law. 



8. Said proposed amendment is of doubtful mean- 

 ing, and must necessarily produce strife and litiga- 

 tion ; and in voting for it no one can know with a cer- 

 tainty what he is voting to make a part of our consti- 

 tutional law. 



Resolved. That we will use all honorable means to 

 defeat said proposed amendment at the polls, and, if 

 we are unsuccessful, will resist its unjust and oppres- 

 sive provisions by every method known to law. 



Resolved, That we will never knowingly support 

 for any office or place of trust any one who shall vote 

 for this proposed outrage upon our propertv and 

 rights. 



