Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-15
JUDGE WHITES PLEA.
His Final Speech in Favor OF the
Prohibition Amendment
INSISTS HOME BEER is VILE
Sees Some Good in. High License, but More
in None at ALI.
THE LEGAL PHASES OF THE QUESTION

The descending rain pattered viciously upon
the roof of the Union Rink, on Allegheny ave-
nue. Allegheny, last evening, but the Prohi-
bitionists took to it just like ducks; not a whit
deferred from crowding the edifice. His
Honor Judge White arrived simultaneously
with q tremendous gust of wind that shook the
edifce, but His Honor was apparently in his
element, and having deposited his reeking um-
brella and wiped the glistening rain drops
from his hirsute appendage, he pro-
ceeded to fire invectives and epigrams
at his friends. the enemy. There
was a long platform, along which the judge
paced necessarily, and when he reached the
extreme end and balanced himself on his toes
good point came out and the audience got to
expect it and applauded accordingly. FROM
first to last there was no demonstration OF nos
tility, and no one had the temerity to take up
the speakers oft repeated challenges He had
things his own way and swayed his audience as
effectually as if he were convincing Jury.
His Honor commenced by an eloquent picture
of the liquor man sui geneTis, and drew with
careful eXactness an oral sketch OF a mlSnly
monster with whom pattle roSdi y ao loT
waged next Tuesday. Proceeding, the speaker
said: Now lam willing tosbe contradlcteo on
any proposition l advance. l am mere 70 ao-
vance arguments for prohDltlon, ana II am
not exact In my deductions shall welcome cor
rection. Does any one dispute the TACT that
the liquor people are stronger now thah at an!
license of one kind or another has always
been in vogue. II thls Is the caSe LAST
Incense is failure; s, VINO no ,ioo%sa VIII
will control the evils of intemperance Inc
excess of drinking is largely the result OF
foreign ideas transplanted from Germany anu
implanted here. Three years ago nine-tenths
of our saloon keepers were foreigners Ihough
they have been weeded out In the past TWO
years-Ilaughterl- l-the foreigners are still IN
the majority. Because this was free country
they imagined they could break oown all
bounds and override our laws selling on Sun
day, election day and all other days
BREWERS SET THEM UP.
"Men who cannot:speak a word of English
have been set up in business by brewers on con-
dition that the beer brewed by the capitalist
should be sold exclusively. Why, brewer
came to see me during the License Court session
with pathetic plea for a man who, he said,
would be ruined if he didn't get a license be-
cause he had so heavy a rent to pay. Upon
inquiry found that the poor man was paying
this heavy rent to the brewer whose creature
he minister OF the gospel-you
know some preachers are black sheep
came to beg me to give license to
church. l said to the minister: My friend
don't you know that they would put your
saloOnkeeping friend in jail in Germany if he
sold such vile adulteratlons there as he sells |
here?' / told the brewer that the beer he
made was impure. oh. no it isn't said he. 1 |
make goot very goot peer MY friend, sad !,
eryT oh not much, not much, not much |
said he, and then l told him that didn't be- !
lieye IN giving Germans a monopoly. lthought
the Irish and Americans should get chance. |
And yet these Germans talk about their per |
sonal liberty being invadedr'
THE LEGAL STATUS OF IT.
Il don't believe that license law is a sinful |
piece of legislation for license laws do do some
good after all But 1 think it is unwise and in |
consistent for the State to grant licenses. The |
sale of liquor is the greatest evil in the State,
ruinous to individuals terrible in its effects |
upon families, and yet you ask me to concur IN |
the action OF the State in giving sanction to |
such an evil. We seek to prohibit th.' sale and |
use of liquors as a Beverage common drink,
because it confers no benefit upon the people
but actually the reverse. There is another in
consistency The people are taxed to keep up
courts police forces, workhouses and prisons, I
when if there was no liquor sold in Allegheny !,
county-and 1 call beer thu meanest kind of I
liquor. although some of our German friends |
disagreed with me in License Court believe |
that our jails would be empty, our Criminal |
Courts unnecessary, ana our police force di- |
minished. Ana who are to be benefited? Not |
our young men who play pool and billiards in |
our gilded saloons; not the workingmen of Al |
legheny county who poured million dollars in !
the till Of saloonists last year; not our homes |
or our families. but two sets of men, saloon |
keepers and manufacturers. Who are to be |
benefited? That's the naked question!
ROUGH ON THE BAR.
You all saw long list of Philadelphia law
yers and a little list of Allegheny county law
vers who signed their names to an opinion that |
the proposed amendment was unconstitution-
al Now don't you know that when any lawyer |
gets good fee he can scrape up an argument in |
favor of any side of a question? Laughter |
These lawyers say that it is unconstitutional to
amend the Constitution! Why, there are so |
things in the Constitution not one-tenth as i'm
portant to our well-being as this great question.
Why IS it not proper to amend our Constitution
and take away from the State its sanction of
this wretched business. The liquor
people have money and they are
ALWAYS fighting LIQUOR laws, They
shrek for high license and yet go into our
Supreme Court with protests against the
workings of the Brooks law. They are never
satisfied. Do you remember the local liquor
act of 1872? Why, it was a deluge upon our
community as severe as the Johnstown flood,
doubly infamous because secured by corruption
of legislation. This question must be taken
out of politics. 1 don't know much about poll
tics, but 1 am told that at every municipal
election here each of the saloons has to have so
much campaign money. Before Mayors can be
elected in either of the twin cities they have to
make certain promises. The liquor men are
after free trade. and the corruption OF pollti-
clans is a means TO an end. This question
must be taken out of politics. Put the amend
ment into the Constitution ana you'll then
have something which can be changed only by
the power that put it there. You and know
that for years the men who have run for office
IN this county nave naQ 10 uuckle TO the Sa-
loon element. The work Of License Court in
the past two years has broken the backbone of
the animal. Go to the polls on Tuesday and
kill it.
They say it will hurt business. l pray God
Il will hurt one kind of business l don't think
it will hurt fellows who take in $4,000 in one
wear. The liquor men can get out of business
They'll have time enough. The manufacturers
may suffer, but it will only be an incident in
the progress of society. The law didn't tell |
them to build breweries. They went into the
business at their own peril knowing that the
State could limit their rights. They had their
ewes open, and mustn't be surprised If the
State taxes away their business.
This personal liberty talk is all bosh. If man
starts a gambling he'll the law will not only
shut up his place of business, but hne him and
jmprison him. If man starts a schindery on
Western avenue he may own everything, but
he must not maintain a nuisance or his per-
sonal liberty will melt away in jail Men can
not sell obscene books or immoral pictures. |
Men must not bet, SO the law saws. All of
these are 1nfractions of personal liberty.
The factis the individual must yield to the pub
lie good, and SO 1t is with the liquor traffic By
the way, have you seen the liquor literature?
It's worth preservation. l have some of it in
my pocket now. When man tells lie there
is something heroic in telling big one. These
men are all heroes We must make LIQUOR
selling disreputable. Drive it off our main
streets and on to back alleys and secret places
and men will be ashamed to sell or drink it.
Prohibition does prohibit, for there are
boroughs in Allegheny county which not
represented on the Criminal Court calendar.
q regard the coming election day as the most
important event in this State in my lifetime!
Did you see that crowd at License Court?
IIaughterl l wish / had a photograph of
them. 1 am little prominent in this license
business but l shall thank God when cast nv
vote for prohibition. Go home and work for