Every election has its hot issues. Deficits and radioactive waste may confront us now, but
here’s what voters in 1890 faced:
“The greatest question ever before the voters of Nebraska will be disposed of at the general
election a month hence. On that day will be decided whether the sale of liquors will be
prohibited in this state, under an amendment to the constitution, or whether the saloon is to
continue its licensed work of destruction.
“We fail to discover any reason why the liquor traffic should be legalized any more than any
other known blight, contagion or disorder. As to prohibiting the traffic entirely, of course
that is not possible; but it can be made an outlaw from society and driven as a criminal into
hiding.
“As the election approaches, nearly everyone is anxiously inquiring, ‘will the amendment
carry?’ The people have made up their minds upon the question. And Nebraska will be a
state where the school house and the home are given precedence over the man traps created
by a licensed whiskey traffic.”
Despite the writer’s optimism, a state prohibition amendment was not passed until 1916.
