The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-18
SOME SIGNS OF TIE TIMES.


willing to abide by the law and the expressed
will of the majority, and determined to pre-
vent the enforcement of reasonable regula-
tons and the payment of just proportion of
the public expense it is only question of
time when an immense and overwhelming
popular sentiment will be aroused against
the traffic and its arrogant lawlessness.
In this State the feeling as yet is not in favor
Of prohibition, though many are of opinion
| that it must come as the only way of Kidding
the State of business organized to defy law
and defeat justice. A majority Of the people
still question the ACCESSIBILITY Of attempting
prob ibiticn, and will not favor pro
hibitory legislation until every effort has
been made to compel the traffic to obey the
laws and to bear its just share of the general
expense. The exactions made in this
State are not onerous Compared with the
demands made by Illinois and Wisconsin, the
| license fees in Indiana are but one-ifth In
each of the States named a fee Of $500
! is demanded, while here the limit is but 500.
| With these facts before the saloon men of
| Indiana and with the evident drift Of public
sentiment everywhere, they persist in fighting
the payment of even half this amount. This
hostility to the will Of the majority, this
spirit Of resistance, and the proclaimed organ
ization to defeat all Legislative regulation Of
| the traffic, can have but one re-
! subtitle enactment and enforce
ment Of laws that will wiring
from these men the reasonable things they
are not willing to concede. The general SEN
timent, without regard to parties, is that the
saloons do not pay as much as they should. 1t
is unjust to the tax payers in general that
| they do not pay more than $50 year. Ten
the effect of such a requirement would be
good. All classes Of society are coming to
| understand this question. 1t is not one of
morals alone, but also one Of dollars and cents.
The man who works for a dollar or
dollar and a quarter day cannot be brought
to understand why man less scrupulous can
be allowed to get together hundred dollars
worth of liquors, and make IS day. The
| laborer wants the gentleman behind the bar
to help pay the expense he creates. A dollar
q week is not enough, and when even that
small sum is given grudgingly, and often not
given at all, the people grow impatient, and
must at last resent this perpetuated injustice.
In every State the experience has been
the same-the saloon element has been
lawless. In Iowa and Kansas the
saloonists drove the people into
adopting prohibitory laws. In Illinois
and Missouri it resulted in high license. In
Ohio the fight is still on. After adopting
moderate high license. and one that was ex-
tremely reasonable, the saloon men were not
satisfied with it, and had it pronounced un-
constitutional The inevitable result will be
prohibition in that State. Not that the ma
jority prefer prohibition to high license, but
that saloon keepers compel such a STEP In
| Georgia local option is the rule, and it has
brought about prohibition in large majority
of the counties. In other States, and even
the same direction, all brought about by law
lessness and defiance of public sentiment on
the part of the liquor-dealers. Instead of try
ing to make the business respectable, and
avoiding the ill-will and distrust of the people,
these men seem to have dec; in every
instance, to set law at naught and to defy the
people In this city the law is violated every
night and every Sunday by hundreds of
liquor-selers, and they have enjoyed an i'm
munity not accorded any other business.
The fight is now on in Wisconsin. For
merly the license was fixed at $50. The saloon
keepers made fight against paying SO much,
and it was raised to $40. Still fighting, the
! Legislature last year made the maximum $500
and the minimum 5000. The City Council of
| Milwaukee, under the influence of the LIQUOR
interests, placed the fee at the latter sum.
But the law, as usual, was opposed by the
| saloon-keepers, and the outcome will probably
be that the amount Of the license will be
raised to $780, as the law provides that in
event of the city's disagreement with the
councils action an election should be held in
September. The contest as usual when such
contests result in favor of the people, is not
one of politics, but one in which
the citizens of whatever partisan bias work
and vote for what they believe to be the best
interests of the community. In this city the
saloons are piling up retribution by opposing
the payment of 800 a year. They will