The Anti-Saloon League Mobilizes in Colfax
Local church leaders and temperance activists hold a preliminary meeting to launch a campaign against the town's liquor trade.
The story, cleaned up
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A meeting of the Anti-Saloon League was held last Sunday night at the Presbyterian church. The league has a membership of about 80 persons who are antagonistic to the saloon, and more especially to such as may violate the liquor selling laws. Rev. H. P. James explained the objects and desires of the league. Sheriff Canutt spoke by invitation, noting that people were unreasonable in demanding that officers turn their offices into detective bureaus. He expressed willingness to proceed against violators when proper complaints were filed but refused to act as 'judge, jury and executioner.' The league, a new organization, is getting into shape to make a campaign against the saloon interests.
“He is unwilling to appoint himself judge, jury and executioner.”
This meeting highlights the early 20th-century friction between moral crusaders and the civil authorities tasked with enforcing complex or unpopular laws—a dynamic that pre-dates the eventual passage of Prohibition by sixteen years.
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