The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-12-26
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

IT, A. Deans Paper the Liquor Traffic.
To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
There has not been more valuable con-
tribution to temperance literature for many
day than the very able paper from T. A.
Dean, in the Journal of Dec. "a. Mr.. Dean
is one of ourmost esteemed wholesale dealers
in liquors, and the paper shows that he has
given no little attention to the traffic and its
results. 1t is no disparagement to him that
his suggestions will not receive the unani-
nous assent of all who think and write upon
the subject no suggestions do and probably
none ever will, as to details. The most that
can ever be hoped for will be preponder
ance of opinion in certain general directions.
Nevertheless, there are some views held in
common by all who think and Mr.. Dean
enumerates three of these: it is wrong to
sell to minors, wrong to sell to drunken
man, and wrong to sell to one in the habit
of getting drunk. There is also a
general acquiescence in his proposition
to have an asylum for inebriates.
His picture of the descent of sober man
to the character of dead-beat is graphic,
and his suggestion that there ought to be an
asylum for these outside OF jails and poor
houses is crditable to his head and heart
Now, inasmuch as we have law forbidding
these three things, and as drunkenness never
was more rampant than now, is it strange
that some people are clamoring for some
thing more? True, if this law were enforced,
some good would come of it; but it would
require the constant presence OF policeman
or two at every saloon, and that would be-
come expensive, besides it might require
somebody to enforce the police. Would it
not be cheaper and better to close the sa-
looms entirely?
But the enforcement of such laws is met
by insuperable difficulties. First you can
not always tell whether the customer be a
minor or not. If he looks like an adult
the court says you may sell to him. But, if
liquor is good for man over twenty-one,
why is it not good for one under twenty-one?
Or if we must say what man shall eat or
drink before he is twenty-one,
of him after that age? And who
is to tell whether the man is drunk
or not? There is no legal standard, and opin-
ions so differ that not half of the drunken
men are arrested by the police. And thsn
what constitutes an habitual drunkard is an
other unknowable thing. True, if the wife
of drunken man decides that he is drunk
ard, and goes to the four hundred saloons
and drug stores and serves notice on the pro-
prietors, there is a strong circumstance
against the man; but Mr.. Dean is too humane
a man to require such humiliation Of any
wife. As substitute for all this, propose
law that shall not allow the saloon-k keeper
to sell to sober men, and think if l can get
such a law the question will be easily de-
termined. u+
I agree with Mr.. Dean that man who gets
drunk disgraces himself and he should 'bs
punished in some way; but would suggest
that the better time to quit was long before
he lost his situation from drunkenness
Whenever he became aware that liquor
would intoxieate, then he should
quit. There is no sense in first spending
his money and running his morals and health.
However, this liquor question is an open
one, and 1 am glad that one so capable as
Mr.. Dean has contributed so ably to the side
of the question that has hitherto done but
little in supplying literature on it. There is
almost a surfeit of books and papers on. the
side of total abstinence and prohibition,
while there is hardly the scratch of pen to
show how much better and happier the ruar
is who drinks little or much. The world is
full of books to show how saloons fasten vice
and crime while there is not one that proves
that they promote virtue and happiness
Statistics bristle everywhere to show that
jails and poor-houses and court expenses, and
murders and arsons and assaults, and per-
sonal sufferings and family discord all null
tiply as saloons multiply, while there is not
a book to be found that shows that domestic
happiness, personal health and prosperity,
national wealth and the general welfare are
promoted by saloons. 1t is to be hoped that
in the very near future books will multiply
on that side of the question, for the people
are moving in the NATTER and one side or
the other will come out on top, and it will
be the side that gives the strongest reasons.
T. A. GOODWIN.