The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-06
INDIANAPOLIS, MONDAY MORNIN

solution of it. The simple fact about the liquor
and beer question is this; Had there not been
a Republican party to labor on the line of the
national obligations, the pubic debt the cur
rency, the tariff etc, matters of moral reform
would have been prominent in this country long
ago, There is no security for any business in
America which does not obey the law. If it dis
Obeys the law and is still carried on there is q
certain degradation and sense of social obligation
attending it.
The saloon may keep open all night and pay
the policeman but what is to be expected OF the
influence of that saloon or of the children and
family Of that proprietor! What the liquor ques-
tion wants in our country is, above all things,
regularity, legality. There should be no good
reason why man who sells beer is not we'll con
sidered except from the fact that he is lodging
the law living beyond the law, living like
mistress and man. without ordinance.
That certainly is not the social aspiration
of the respectable man who keeps a
house of entertainment. The Puritan
spirit would never have been aroused on the
liquor question but for the Indifference of the
law which sometimes marks the publican.
Everybody sees that in this country, unless
there Is some regular precise regulation of the
liquor question, there will presently be tre-
mendous revolution against it. and all the money
the brewers can put together will not amount to
enought to affect the matter two weeks when
the political passions are deeply engaged. The
idea of brewer or brewers making President
OF the United States is repulsive to every inborn
beer, not Presidents. He highly exaggerates
the few millions he has acquired if he supposes
that this race, which has driven tyrants from
our shores and suppressed a million men in re
volt within It, will ever submit to deceit. treach
cry and betrayal for the sake of selling kegs of
beer. Indeed, the brewers have got to that idea
represented by DR.. Johnson who made the die
uonary, when he sold out Mrs. Thralls brewery.
and said; 1--WE are not here to sell a parcel Of
vats and barrels, but with the potentiaity of
growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice"
They must get down to their vats and barrels
speedily and drop the potentiality business. But
the brewer has got a vote; he can make as many
OF his hands vote as will. / doubt verV much
whether he can compel the intelligent saloon
keeper who very well knows that thousands of
respectable Americans go in to take their little
glass of beer, behave themselves well and do
not expect to vote for the glass of beer vote
Is far more sacred than the fermentation in the
beer-cask. Indeed, prohibition or anti liquor
mas risen to great proportions in the United
States because of dishonorable, uncomfortable
men in the saloons. Some thief gets little
place in town and uses it to make men vilely
drunk on poisons, and then he raises a great
howl because somebody is murdered there Have
we got down to that condition when the taking
OF life will not arouse the respectable instincts
of mani
On the other hand, the professional temper.
ance voter in presidential years is a fool Sup
pose while you are talking about your cold wa
ter or your beer the foreign enemy comes up to
our snoEeS ana makes toothOld and
plants his batteries and puts up a big fort
somewhere, and keeps your railroads from get
ting to the shore, and keeps his cruisers on
your coasts. You say: "Oh, no, that can never
happen, and again you are fool The richer
country is and the more it is engaged in miser-
able intestinal strifes between beer and cold
water the quicker advance the foreign enemy
makes upon your works All that can be ex-
pected of this liquor question is regulation Pre-
hibitlon will never last any considerable time
1t will always be evaded and make the observ-
ance of the law ridiculous
have no desire to pursue this subject except
to say that if it is thrown in the face of the
American people-these great mixed races
German Irish Scotch, French, Hungarian,
Sclavonic, Portuguese, etc.-that they must be
governed rom the brew houses, God help the
brew houses. We have seen slavery vaunt itself
and go down on the battle-i field. The fight
against the brewhous will hardly be street
riot There are some men, however, who have
aceumulatsa half million or a million in this
kind of business, who think it will control a
country which numbers its productions by the
tens of thousands of millions. l hardly recollect
an experience where the Germans in America
have been maltreated in the Northern States