New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-07-30
CONSPIRACY IN CINCINNATI.

The experience of Cincinnati liquor dealers
with the officers of the law on Sunday is likely
to be useful to them and to others in that line
of public order Everybody knows that laws
against Sunday selling are dead letter In many
cities and only Systematically enforced in most.
Unfortunate as this contempt on the one side
and official neglect on the other may be, hither-
to violation of the law has rarely been the out
come Of a deliberate agreement. II has been
matter of individual determination, and has
lacked the element Of conspiracy, which makes
the Cincinnati outbreak most fragrant and Of
fensive The authorities of that city did good
days work, and if their energy lasts through
few successive Sundays the saloonkeepers
will become exceedingly tired of the conflict
which they provoked Most of them, indeed,
appear to have learned prudence before the day
of action came, for Of 1000 who resolved IN
convention last Thursday to defy the law and
| keep their establishments open only about zoo
had the effrontery to carry out their agreement.
Making allowance for possible exaggeratlon,
| il nevertheless appears that these oOnspirators
are directly responsible for throwing the city
into turmoil which at various times and
places assumed riotOus character. The pros
pect of exciting scenes filed the streets with
curious lookers-on, who were not violent and
who. for the most part, disclosed no special
sympathy with the lawbreakers, but here and
there a gang of ruffians who had possibly been
| jnHamed by free drinks had to be dubbed into
submission, and it is evident that only the
courage and persistence of the police kept the
I. l., .lnt +ppl
In the early evening a hard rain came to the
assistance of the officers, dispensing or keeping
at home the concert garden public from winch
they had feared the most, so that the day
closed peacefully Numerous arrests were
made but bondsmen were ready in most cases,
and the number of persons who finally remained
in custody does not appear.
The authorities of Cincinnati will make a
serious mistake if they neglect to push this
business through to a conclusion. There may
be some excuse for an indispoSiti0n TO attempt
the enforcement of an excise law where eX-
pelience has shown that it is practically i'm
possible so to police city as to prevent its
violation with any degree Of completeness or
that convictions under it can seldom be OBJ
tanned. But it would seem comparatively
easy matter to secure permanent results OF great
value from this conspiracy of Cincinnati liquor
dealers. They did not agree to make test
case for the courts to decide, but to open their
saloons to the number Of /, 90 on Sunday in
defiance Of the law and to keep them open at
all hazards. They did not agree, in terms, to
resort to violence, to enlist every scoundrel IN
the city in their service, and to bring on riot
and murder. But those were precisely the
consequences which their resolve encouraged
and would have accomplished if the police had
not done their duty with unusual skill and de-
termination. 1t will be strange if conspiracy
entailing such probabilities cannot be 50 pun
ished as to teach a lasting lesson.