The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-10-21
The Liquor Dealers Alarmed.

The friends of Temperance who ars
seeking to stop the tide of crime and
wretchedness that flows from the use
of intoxidat NO liquors are taking heart
from the present attitude of those who
are engaged in the manufacture and
sale. The growing sentiment of the
country in favor of Prohibition. and
especially the astonishing majority by
which this defensive measure was
adopted as the constitutional law of
Iowa, has struck terror into the hearts
of those who have been not only bold
in pursuing the traffic, but defiant in re-
sisting all laws designed to diminish the
evils connected with it. Some of the
dealers are now ready to make a COM
promise, and offer to support License
laws, in the hope that the friends of hui
manity will be satisfied with such meas
ures. Even Saul is found among the
prophets. Out West the whisky manu-
facturers are advocating License law
with Sunday restriction; but there is
grave suspicion that this proposition
does not proceed from any special re-
gard for the sacredness of the Lords
day, but from conviction that more
whisky and less lager beer will be sold
if such a restriction is enacted.
The Liquor Dealers and Manufact-
! urers' Protective Association held their
third annual Convention at Rock ISL
and, Ill, on the 10Th, and took very
gloomy view of the situation. Their
report declared that 1.-THE business of
Illinois is threatened" (What is the
business of Illinois?) A New York
| aUnniOOr Nonar which hoe pava,. booy,
! known as an advocate of Temperance
principles or measures, has the follow
ing severe remarks upon the proceedings
of this meeting and the course of the
liquor dealers generally:
The Liquor Dealers and Manufacturers
Protective Association held its third annual
convention in Rock Island, ILL.,, yesterday. 1t
was in the nature Of a funeral ceremony. The
report of the Trustees is a most lugubrious
| document. On every side the whisky trade
| sees itself menaced or hcmmed in. The Pro-
| hibitton movement is sweeping down upon it
from all points of the compass. Alarming or
disco raging reports reach it from Iowa, Kan
| sas Nebraska, Missouri and many portions of
| the South. Even in Illinois, the citadel of the
| corn diStillerS, The whisky trade is likened to
Samson in the hands of the Philistines These
| reports let it be borne In mind, come, not
| from the craZed brains of some Temperance
| fanatics but from the cool, deliberate, logical
and acOhol-preserved faculties of the liquor
|
| seem to be one or two obvious lessons to be
! drawn by the great national whisky interest
| from its melancholy and perilous situation.
| Let it adopt less aggressive and less chal-
| longing policy. Let it stop trying to buy and
| bully CONGRESS into perpetrating seventy
| eight-mili on-dOllar steal from the National
| Treasury for its benefit. Let it stop trying to
| displace Senator David Davis by its notorious
and disreputabe tool Comm ssoner Raum.
| Let 1t abandon its ridiculous and abOrtive at
| tempt to array the spirit of nationality on the
part of German-Americans on the side of ag-
gressive and offensive liquor selling. Let the
| liquor interest learn its place in the general
| economy of things and keep it, and it may yet
escape the war of determination with which it
| is threatened
The New York Tribune, commenting
on the mournful attitude and utterances
of this convention, says:
1.-THE liquor men throughout the country as
rule have resisted in the boldestand most in
sOent manner all efforts to regulate their traf-
fic. They were not content to do business like
other mel on six DAYS in the week, but always
denounced any attcmptto close their places on
Sunday as IL violation of personal rights. Their
trade is obnoxious at best to great portion of
every community, and it seems as if the deal
erS and manufacturers ought to have had tho
| wit not to arouse too strong Il feeling against
| it. They would not hear of regulation; now
| they have to submit to Prohibition. 1t is like
ly that the liquor men of Ohio and Indiana will
soon be added to the melancholy band"
N T. Observer.