The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1893-10-14
THE QUESTION sOUARBLY PUT.

Sytem IN tnS county.
This is where the fraud comes in.
THE QUESTION sQUARBLY PUT.
The order loving people of Cecil
county have contest of importance
before them in 1894, to which, as we
have repeatedly demonstrated, the
present campaign is but the prelude.
Upon the result OF the contest OF
next year will depend the question,
whether or not the prosperity, and
the peace, the good morals and the
good manners of our people, shall
be handicapped by the burdens, and
the iniquities of perpetual liquor
license system in Cecil county.
This will be the substantial issue.
This question was at issue in 1890,
but was not fairly or honestly settled.
We say not fairly settled, because
the money of the Liquor Dealers
Association was then freely used in
the county, to influence sufficient
number OF voters to absent them
selves from the polls, to allow that
contest to 60 by default, the election
returns of that year showing short
age of 1I47 votes.
Now it is fair to assume, that the
Liquor Dealers Association, through
its legal representative in Cecil, Mr..
c. c. Crothers, will have quite as
much money to spend in 1894 as it
had in 1890.
Ia fact, it may very reasonably be
expected to have more in 1894,
because the liquor traffic in Cecil has
more at stake in invested property
The commercial value of the traffic,
the cost of the liquor machine "plant"
SO to speak, will be in jeopardy next
year, and the whole Liquor Dealers
Guild, embracing distiller and brewer,
wholesaler and compounder, retailer,
broker and political boss, will each
be put upon his metal, to defend the
Cecil county market, and to perpet-
uate the traffic in Cecil county.
That this is fully realized by the
license managers, can be readily
understood by their willingness to
Put money IN tie last Democratic
primary contest in the county.
From what source other than from
them, what other business guild or
corporation had any interest or suffi-
cient interest in that primary, to
invest the large Suns that were used
to bribe and purchase votersi
There is no reasonable theory,
other than this, that the gentlemen
who have money at stake in the
liquor traffic in Cecil, were willing and
did, back money with money, in the
hope OF securing the ascendency of
their agents and friends at the polls.
Now just here comes the applica-
ton of the object lesson, taught by
the rampant bribery recently wit
messed in our county, to the general
question of the prosperity and peace
OF our people.
Here are two antagonistic ele-
ments,-on the one hand, that o.
the monied interests of the Liquor
traffic in Cecil, and on the other,
that Of our people at large, involving
the peace, good order, good morals,
and good habits of our communities.
If the liquor interest has business
shrewdness, and business forethougfit
enough, to take steps to get its
friends to Annapolis this winter, in
view Of preliminary legislation for
1894, by every rule of reason barring
only methods of operation, why
should not the anti license and anti.
saloon people of Cecil, be they
Republicans or Democrats, q. what
not, do the same thing, and see to It
at the polls in November, that Cecil
shall be represented at Annapolis by
their friends, by men who are op
posed, first, last and all the time to
any form OF license, high or low, in
the county.
And isn't this only what people of
ordinary intelligence generally do?
If majority OF the reputable
voters of Cecil county, as we believe
there is to day in the county opposed
to the license system, want their
views and sentiments On that ques-
ton carried out, and embodied in
local legislation, which will they elect
to Annapolis, Senator, and Dele
gates friendly to their views, or a |
Senator and Delegates unfriendly to
them?
The former they have in Mr..
Haines and his colleagues on the
Republican ticket, and the latter in
Mr.. Crothers and his associate can
didates.
Do the advocates of any doctrine
political or otherwise, make law
makers of those known to be un-
friendly to those doctrines, and then
look for friendly legislation from an
unfriendly source?
Certainly not
Yet this is the precise attitude that
anti-license Democrats put them
selves in, when the Crothers combi-
nation ticket-every man on which
from its head to its tail is openly and
avowedly a friend of license-asks
them to vote for it for partizan
Democratic reasons.
We put the question squareiy.
How can any man who is sincere
in his opposition to the saloon and
to license, vote for Mr.. Crothers and