The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-13
HANDWRITING OF THE WALL.

The liquor traffic is the same everywhere.
"Whom the gods would destroy they first
make mad" said the ancient Greeks. The
maxim must have resulted from study Of
the saloon-keeper in old Athens. The Journal
and other papers have for years been endeav-
oring to impress the liquor lords with the fact
that they could not 60 on forever in their
high handed defiance of law. We have told
them there would be an end tothis arrogance,
and the end would be in only one way, and
that in the subordination of the traffic to the
will of the people, whom they have been and
are outraging by their lawlessness and impu-
dent attempts at domination. We have told
them they would find it better to obey hon.
estly and sincerely the mild restraints put
upon their traffic by the existing law, which
they themselves had enacted for their own
benefit, rather than to keep on in their
reckless criminality and finally find them
selves crushed out of all recognition between
the upper and neither millstones of public
opinion. But the liquor dealers in Indiana
have been deaf and Needless as they have
been everywhere, and the result is that there
is such universal upheaval of public in
dignation as to threaten the legal extinction
of the whole ''business." If the Liquor
League were not blind and maddened they
would at once cry halt to themselves, and
quietly and with as little ostentation as posi-
bic, get within and keep within the limits of
the law.
In Massachusetts the periodical voting Of
'1icense' or no license" under their local
option statute has just been held. According
to the Boston Journal nine cities, Fall River,
Haverhill, New Bedford, Gloucester, Spring
field, Waltham, Northampton, Brockton and
Cambridge, which voted last year for license,
vote this year against it; ''and the fact that
the vote was taken upon the most inclement
day of the season emphasizes the result
and adds to its significance. When citizens
rally in the interest Of good government and
against the rule of the saloons in the midst of
a binding snow storm, it indicates that they
are pretty thoroughly in earnest The reason
for their earnestness is not far to seek. 1t is
simply that the saloon forces in these various
municipalities have grown SO audacious and
arrogant that it had become a plain issue
whether the cities should govern the saloons or
tho CHI fba oiti P,-
large majority the people have voted in favor
of the former alternative Three cities may
be mentioned in particular as illustrations of
this issue. In Fall River last year, the ma
jority for license in a total vote of ,746 was
l. $50. The saloons gave this vote the broad
est possible Interpretation, and lawlessness
and drunkenness have run riot until every
decent citizen was stirred with indignation.
Fall River is manufacturing city, and has a
population which, some might think, it would
be difficult to arouse upon such a question.
But what is the result9 Against these heavy
odds "no license has carried the day; the adj
verse majority of nearly nineteen hundred has
been wiped out, and majority of about three
hundred on the other side has been registered
The actual increase in the "no" vote in single
year was over two thousand. Springfield
voted for license last year by majority of
about five hundred The saloon keepers, not
content with license, organized the club sys-
tenn, and under its operation they have been
able TO run their places seven days in the
week, and to bring in what the Republican
has characterized as an era of free rum. The
result is that Springfield, by majority
of $50, votes to close the Saloons"
In Cambridge, near Boston, the liquor inter
ests had things their own way. In four out
of the five wards the saloon interests captured
the regular citizens caucuses, and then, not
satisfied with that, they had caucuses and put
out ticket of their own. The result is that
majority Of $50 for license last year is
changed into a majority of 566 for no license
this year-a net gain of about /, 100 votes.
These are but specimens but they are the
handwriting on the wall. When will the
liquor bosses learn the lesson2
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a FOOL COMPTROLLER.
It seems likely that DR.. McGilicuddy, late