Will It Amend?

pftiii8 to get an expression of opinión from several of our prominent citizens, regardless of their political or religious Tlews, upon the pending prohiöttory amendinent, and we give them to our readers that they mayjudge of the drift of the current in respect to this important question upon which the people will vote on the fourth day of April nest. We do not cali these interviews, but inerely expressions of opinión: W. W. Beaman - I am in favor of the amendment. Sheriff Wahh-l don't care whether lt passes or not. Moses Seabolt - I am a license man clear to the backbone. lof. V. C. Vaughan-l do not think it will be effective if adopted. RegUter of Deeds Keamit - My opinión on that question is private property. Poitmaster Duffy - I believe a good, stringent high tax law is the best proliibtory law. Justice Eugene K. Frueaufi - 1 am opposed to the amendment. It mcans free whisky and more taxes. E. II. Hall-l am a temperance man, but I do not believe prohibltion will bring about the desired result. Probate Register Doty - No opinión for publication. Privately, I believe the amendment will be defeated. Ambrote Kearney - I do not think prohibition practicable. I do not believe the amendment will be adopted. Kelson Sutherland - It is not practicable. Our present tax law rigldly enforced is better than the adoptinn of the amendment. Thos. J. Keech- Unless I change my mind I slmll oppose the ameudment. I think that itwould be n dead letter if carried. Prof. J B. Davis-tto prohibition for me, in comparison wlth otber and better methods. My objection to prohibition its ImpracticHbility. Rm. E. P. Goodrich, Court Stenographer - I shall vote for the amendment, and I think it will pass unless the prohibitionists themselves defeat it. Chat. n. Richmond - As to the dcsirability of the amendment,) I shall vote against if. As to the probability of the result, I believe the amendment will be defeated. Supervisor Buttt - It would be a repetition of the history of other states whicli have adopted prohibition. Drinking would be none the lesa and all reveime would be shut off. A. M Doty-l go for getting the most prohibition possible, and the law that gives us that in my opinión is the present tax law. It is certiiinly far preferible to the old prohibitory law. Chas. II. Worden - My opinión has been formed for twenty years. It is eitber right to sell whisky or it is wrong and 1 believe it is wrong, and shall vote according to my convlctions. A. W. Hamilton - I do not think the adoption of the amendment the best policy for the people of the State of Michigan to purgue. I am and always have been in favor of a judicious llcense and shall vote against the amendment. Isaac N. ti. Foster - When I am etical to the people as is a tax luw, theu I shall vote for such an amendment, but my observation bas not yet convinced me tbat such is a fact. Supervisor F. B. Braun - I think the position of the COüRiER about riglit. Wliile it makes but little difference to us in the country, my opinión is that our present tax law is better as a temperance measure than a prohibitory Uw would be. A. L. Noble - If prohibition could be be enforced, and made to prohibit, I should be henrtily in favor of it. If it cnnuot be, then I believe in the next best thing, a liigh license Uw, I am of the opinión that the ainendment will not carry. Eider Davis - I wouldn't gire a snap of my finger for the present liquor law. I see drnnken men every Sunday, made drunk In our saloons, riglit in the face of our laws. I believe in prohibition. Our old prohibitory law was as full of holes as a skimmer, and we cannot juJjre of the effect of prohibition by lts workings. S. S. Blit2-M.y opinión of the prohibtory amendinent ? Michigan has had its experiencein that lineot business; Maine and Iowa have had theirs, and Kansas is now undergoing hers. In each case it has been a total failure. Wtiy step backward We should go forward. I do not believe the amendment will carry. Eeart II. Scott - If a prohibitory law would prove as effective in suppressing the sale of liquor as our criminal laws do in suppressing crime, I should be inclined to favor such a law. Or if this proposed amendment could be repealed in the course of a few years If found ineffective, I should be inclined to favor it. But thls, I understand cannot be done. Frederick Schmid-l think it is a foolish thing, and will not pass. I shoulil like to see the government take hold of this questlon, and allow a certaln inunber of saloons accordi u to population - 8ay three to a place of 10,000 inhabitants. Then have a license made furfeitable if the keeper broke over certain provislons. Then the business could be controlled. Qilbcrt BlUs - For several years we have been told by a cluss of people: "Jupt give us prohibition and we will show you that we will enforce it." Now, I should like to have a prohibitory law for a few years to test tlie sincerlty of these people. But ïf this constitutional amendment meaiis a law tliat cnnnot be repealed if f'oiind to be impracticable, that puts a different face upon the matter. John F. Lawrence - The passage of the prohibitory law would resiilt in tlie unrestrained sale of liquors in all cities of any size and would have no tendency to diminish intemperance in snch Iocalitie9. Experience has demnnstrated that sumptuary legislation of this character is and has been a fiiilure. A law cannot be enforced unless a large proportiou of the people coii8ider that its violation Is a crime. The carrying of the anicndment would resul! in no good and would aimply be a dead letter. Cha. 8. Afilien- I think the amendment may carry, but I am afraid if it does the result wlll be a free tratflc in liquors, with no restrictioii9. It may be wrong to license an evil, but it is better to keep it well under control than to jllow it free swing. Our present tax law, with perhaps a few amendnient, Í9 n my opinión, far preferable to prohijition in the congtitution. I believe in ïigh ltcense and strlnjjent reeulations. Drugjiists who sell liquor by retail do in hurm than the open saloon. In :itles prohibition Is not possiblc. W. K. Chüds-As a principie prohlbltion is right. I have never favored a tax luw only as a mcans to obtain a desired etui. But how can we ask for more stringent law, wlicn it Í9 difBcult to secure the enforcctnent of tho luws we already have on tlns subject ( What basis have we on whicli to ask for prohlbition if public sentiment wlll not back upour present law? J. Q. A. Pensions- I think the time has come lor us to adopt such an amendment and begin to wipe out the saloon business. I don't expect it to be done in one year or five year?, but it is time to stick u stiike. This argument that prohlbition does not prohlbit beciiuse it fails to close all the saloons is no argument. My preference w'ould be a local option law, but we cannot get the legislature to do anythiug. W. W Whedon-l am in favor of a law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of liquor, but am not In favor of the amendment to the constitiition as submitted. The amendment, I am afrald, means free whisky. Let the legislature enact such laws as we need, and then if tlioy are defective or inoperative they can be changed and made effective. A constitutioual provisión is permanent, whether good or bad. Prof. 11. W. Rogers - Doubts the wisdom of adopting a prohibitory law inasmuch as in certain portions of the state it wlll certainly be a dead letter. He believes tliat a much beller plan would have been for the legislature to have passed a high license law er a local option law. The ability to enforce moderate laws should be denionstratedbefore we undertake to enforce extreme measures. The question is one of measures. There is no doubt of the necessity of doing something to curtail and regúlate the trafile. Prof. W. J. Herdman-l think we have reached a state of sentiment tlmt would render prohibitlon more effective tharï it proved to be under the old statutory law. I think, also, tliat tite agitación of this question will help the cause of temperanee. This temperance question Is a progressive one; we must commence with less than we desire and keep working for the end in view. Lcgislation should be in keeping with the moral sentiment of the eommunity. I shall fiivor the amendment, and hope to see it carry. Mnyor Sobuon - If experience is worth tnytbiog the people of this state will show under the proposod prohibición amendment so deep that ut least a generatiou will piiss aw.iy before ils frienils will bring it to view again. Before the present plan of taxing the liquor sellers was kdopted we had "prohibition laws" and we all know during that time we had free whisky Pellers. There werte no arrests for keepiug saloons open after certain hours. Ko arrests for selling to minors oroomainn drunkanfa ; no revenue to our treasury; no bonds for falthfully living up to the law, etc. It's hard work lo properly entorce the present liquor laws, iind the attempted enforcement of entire prohlbition in our cities ind large villages espeeially, would be folly. A law ilmi culi nnt be enforced is worse tlian no law. All meo except the anaichists have a natural regard for law. But if we pcrtbtently insist upou placinj; Upoa ooruatute books laws that caunot be enforceil, we so far encourage mei: to viólate such laws as seem to -i ;nnl between ihi'iii auiJ tlieii deslres. Col. II. S. Detin - This proposed prohibilury iimeuilmeiit is a delusiou and a. snare. In the first place we have got a Bnl-mm Mn a.lljna ,¦ ¦ntlll HH if the people desire it ; all the people have to do is to elect a lejiislature üfcToring the qiiestion, and a majority - not two-thirds - of th.it body can pass laws grantlng it. If tliis aineudment ia carried it will be a dead letter until a legislatura ia elected havlng a najorlty that favors prohibtion, tor until that body passes a law to enforce t, t will be of no effect. If we thouM elect u legUlature opposed to prohi bition - wliich is altogether probable then there will be ao law upon our stutute books to rejrulate or control the UqnOf traille, for cooslitulional provisions do not enforce themselves. Twenty years of prohibition proved worse tliau a failuie. I cun remember when Ann Arbor had 85 saloons under prohibition , open all day and all night and paying no reveinie. Now, under our tax law, there are less than 40, open day times and closed nights and Sundays, wliich slionld Ue argument enough for most reasonable people. I have been in Mainc, lowa and Kansas within the past two years, and I took particular pains to look up the working of the prohibitory laws in those States, and I say what I know to be true when I say thut the law is not enforced in any of tliose states, nor Is drunkenness lessened. You uiight as well try to stop people frota eating strawberries by passing a luw preventing their sale. Wouldn't people ralse them and have them uM the saine? It is the same with liquor. Until the people are dilt'eientiy coustituted trom what they are to-day, niany of Uiem will have liquor, even if they have to run illict stills In their own cellaii'. Oonsequently 1 ara in favor of laws that control, rentrM and brin in revenue. Judge Jodyn - For the past 45 fean, or ever slnce prohibition was adopted in M dm-, I have been studyiuff ttiis question, and I unhesitatingly say that it is a dnmiige to any stilte to enact a law either by the legislatura or in the constitution, that the mass of the people will not sustain. I have voted against prohibition every time it has come before the people, for the reason thut I do not believe the people are prep;ired for it, and no law can be enforced when public sentiment does not sanction it. And althouh I never use ardent spirit, yet my conscience will not allow me to vote for proliibition, now, for the mass of the people are in no butter condition to enforce it if enacted than they were thirty yean ago. There was a time when the red ribbon clubs had workftd up quite a stronjf teinperance sentiment, but that bas laro-ely die'l out. It' tliis probibitory law wa8 to be a statutory law it could be clianged if fonnd impracticable at any session of the legisliiture, but to place it in the constitution Í3 to put it wliere changes are rarely effectfd. Tt is a ttojpriw fact that electora wlll nt vote upon constituti na] kmendmeott unlttfurgöl todoso.aml t is a matter of lilstory that only about 25 per cent. of the voters have ever rêted upon sucli an ainendnuiiit. Tlic boiisf, of (ov. Martin, of Kansas, that "the open saloon is beinjr b.uiialied," is misleading. The open saloon is preferable to secret drinkIng The evil.-t of intemperance become quadrupled when drachni drinking is forced Into private or secret pluces. Liquor alioulil be sold, if sold ut all, openly, Without KKena, shades or frosted wlndows, the same as U a pound of tea or a plug of tobáceo. Uiitil the public is better prepared (han it is to-day to enforce prohlbitlon, In my opinión, the adoption of this amendmmt means free whisky the same as of old. There is one drufrgist in the city wlio saya tliat he will vote ulamst liis own interest and consequently votes agalnst the umendment.