The Brookhaven leader., 1884-02-07
Temperance.
The Rum Power In City Politics.

In an article on the Rum Power in
City Politics. in a recent number of
The Continent, Charles j. Thwing says:
In general, then, the influence of the
liquor interest in several of the largest
and most important cities exceeds the
influence of any other single interest,
and frequently exceeds the influence of
all other interests united. You can't
draw picture of the curse of liquor
domination which exceeds in darkness
what we have in Chicago" says a we'll
known citizen. "There's only one fact
worth mentioning in connection with
the influence of the liquor interest in
the municipal politics of Milwaukee,
and that is that the saloons practically
own the city," atfirms a distinguished
clergyman. The Sentinel, of Mlwau-
kee, of November /, 1888, under the
heading, ''They want to run the city,"
declares that "a call is to be served
personally in a few DAYS upon every
saloon-keeper in the city for mass
meeting to be held within the next two
weeks to organize a political power
which shall in the future control politi-
cal legislation"
The ques ion is Temperance ques-
tioDs Dul II 10 dtSOs anu IIOlCs u IttCSbioh
of good citizenship. 1t is question
whether class of men, who are in a
large part foreigners, who are ignorant,
who pay small tax, who necessitate
the poor-house and the prison, who cor
rupt character, who destroy rather than
increase the productive power of the
State. who cause by their traffic four
tifths of all the crimes committed-the
tIA- oe id
shall rule the large cities. 1t is ques-
ton whether the worst elements shall
dictate, or whether the higher charac-
ter and sentiment shall rule. In Brook
lyn is one saloon for every two hundred
and fifty persons; in New York one for
every one hundred and twenty five; in
Milwaukee one for every one hundred
and fifteen; in Buffalo one for every
ninety-siX persons. In nearly every
city the drink-shOps exceed the food
shops by large proportion. New York
City, with ten thousand saloons, has be-
tween seven and eight thousand stores
for bread, meat, provisions and gro
ceries. The quest on is, therefore,
pressing for each city to decide wheth-
er its saloons shall control all its mu-
nicipal affairs.
Various signs are manifest, indicating
that the saloons are not to continue to
| govern the cities. What are known as
..citizen's movements" abound. The
| lines of political parties in municipal
politics are not drawn with the former
distinctnesS. Attempts are made to
govern cities on business principles.
I'VE can do nothing" says DR.. How
ard Crosby, "for a good government
of the city until sectional parties are OBJ
liberated in city affairs, and good men
un te to put down rum." This, howev-
er, is being done in not few cities.
Buffalo has Citizens Reform Associa-
TONS" composed of leading citizens of
all parties and representing all relig-
ions, who are determined to enforce the
laws. A National Law and Order
League was formed in Boston in Febru-
airy, 1888, whose purpose is simply to
secure better enforcement of the
Liquor laws. The Chicago League has
in five years prosecuted no less than
sixteen hundred dealers for violating
the law, of whom over twelve hundred
have been either fined or held to the
Grim nal Court. The first annual re-
port of the Boston Law and Order
League shows that it had entered two
hundred and twenty-five prosecutions,
and had gained one hundred and fifty
one convictions in the lower courts.
BROOKLYN has also similar league.
Milwaukee organized one in October,
1888. These movements are not simply
Temperance movements; they are also
movements along the line of a govern
ment of each city of and by and for its
people. They include representations
of all sides of the Temperance question.
Legal prohibitionists" and "consti-
tutional prohbitionists,h supporters of
local option laws and uf ''moral
suasion" methods, and even 'moder-
ate drinkers combine to thwart the
great power of the liquor interest.
Liquor sellers are organizing to protect
themselves in their constant violation
of the law. All citizens who believe in
the enforcement of righteous law, pos
sessing any Temperance principle, are
simply doing theirduty in organizing in
order to enforce law.
Along this same line of the execution
of the laws for good order, an interest
| ing experiment is tried in the city OF
Buffalo The act under which the Ex-
else Commissioners of New York pro-
| ceed requires that mo license shall be
granted unless the applicant is of good
moral character and has sufficient abil-
Ny to keep an inn" AS to what con-
stitutes ''good moral charac-
ter there are various and varying
standards; yet it is possible TO prove
even to the most ethically Obtuse that
certain men have not such character.
With this fact in view the Citizens
Reform Association of Buffalo is pre-
pairing several large volumes which
give the private history of the liquor
sellers of that city. Already these vol
umes contain the biographies OF tive
hundred men. The record is SO bad
that. on its publication, their licenses
should be either revoked or renewal re-
fused. This is potent as well as an
original weapon. Its use in every city
would reveal the corrupt and the dan
gerous character of that small body OF
men who endeavor to manage every
department of the municipal govern
| ment.
| Q