The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1892-01-08


porary newspapers says:
THE managers of the Worlds fair al
Chicago have decided to allow liquor to
be sold on the grounds, aud that reminds
rs Of what anothercontemporaTy had to say
a few weeks since in regard to the prohib-
tied districts within the limits of the city OF
Chicago. As the letter is highly interest
ing just nos We give it entire.
Il is not generally known that there are
several districts within the huge area en-
braced in the corporate limits Of Chicago,
in which absolute prohibition IS not only
the law. but it is well enforced. Illinois
has q local option Law, and the districts,
before annexation 10 Chicago, adopted pro-
hibition under it. When the city extended
its boundaries, ii was expressly provided
that this state of things should not be dis
turbed. Que of these prohibited districts, =
as they are there termed, is Hyde Park, in
which is the principal portion ofthe square
mile upon which tue Worlds Fair of 1893
will be held.
No sooner was the location settled, than
the liquor interests OF Chicago went active
~ to work to upset prohibition IN HYDE
Park. The idea that there should be no
intoxicants sold in the immediate vicinity
Of the great exhibition, which will last six
months and will attract millions Of visitors,
not only from all over the United States
but from the civilized world, was simply
intolerable to them. Money was occurred,
good lawyers engaged, and the case
was prepared and taken into the courts. 1t
was hotly pushed and stubbornly contest
ed. The result was a complete defea of
the rum element. The validity of the pro.
vision of the annexation act, which provides
that the prohibited districts" shall so re-
main, was fully affirmed by the court.
The situation is an extremely interesting
one. Chicago is the only large city which
has within its limits area in which prohi-
bition is the rule. These prohibited dis
~tTicts'' are suburban villages, but the city
is steadily growing around them; their
streets are continuous with those of the
main city, and they are in all respects in-
tegral parts of Chicago. But the saloon
does not exist within their borders, as 10
license can be granted for one; nor are sur
reptitious saloons allowed to exist. 1t is
thus shown to be possible that thriving por-
lions of our most driving and progressive
American city shall prosper without
saloons, and hat without any detriment TO
their growth and their prosperity.
The worst feature Of the rum trafic is the
saloon, because of the evil influence it ex-
erts upon the masses, especially the young.
There are thousands Of confirmed drunk
ards in the United States today v no would
never have touched liquor had it not been
for these k~indergartens Of evil, giving OPP
portunity for the beginnings of this vice.
It may be said that the absence of saloons
in these Chicago prohibiting districts" is
of little Importance, as those who wish to
drink can so into the city proper to obtain
liquor. This is true; but only a man who
is a slave 10 the habit would take the
trouble to do SO. The others will not, and
the temptation to drink is removed from
the pathway Of boys and young men.
1t is a point which the apologists for
the liquor traffic carefully avoid, that in the
prohibition statesthe only men who take the
trouble necessary to obtain liquor through
evasion Of the Law are those who are
already addicted to the vice-meE who are
slaves TO the habit. Other men do not; and
where prohibition shall be maintained I'M
Til the generation welded to the habit shall
nave passed away, the violation Of the law
will largely cease, because of the lack OF
the demand for rum. The abolition Ct the
saloon as an ins~titution-that is, the prohi-
bition OF any sale Of liquor in small guam
titles, to be drank ON the premises-would
be one Of the heaviest blows that could pos
sibly be dealt in the effort 10 pulyerize the
rum power.