Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1894-06-07
THE LIQUOR PROBLEM.
AN ANSWER TO .WHAT To Do WITH
THE SALOONS

devoted to showing that the Gothen-
burg system, now quite generally
adopted in Scandinavia, in the districts
where prohibition does not yet prevail,
would, if adopted here, be great adj
vance in solving the liquor problem,
because. he claims: ~ high license
is worn QUITS failure; and (2) pro-
hibition is weak,-is at present inn
practicable and impossible of attain
ment.
| admit the worn out, good-for-
nothing condition of high license, but
contend that the Gothenburg system
is only an attempt to put new gar
ment of responsibility upon the hide
Gus carcass which high license can no
longer cover or hide from the public
eye, nose and conscience. The Goth
enburg system no more attempts to
deliver the publ ic-the nation-from
''this body of death" than does high
license. In fact, as | have already
pointed out, both are only different
methods of conducting the license
system.
Prohibition is radical; it says, ave
have compromised long enough; we
have learned that there is only one
right, one logical and reasonable way,
to solve this question, viz: to absolu-
tely destroy runs corrupting body,
and bury the foul remains in eternal
oblivion, without shroud or casket,
funeral pomp or monument. y
The very fact that prohibition points
out one clean-cut path, straight to
saloon destruction, so narrow that
avarice, compromise, hopelessness and
sluggishness cannot walk therein, is
its great element of strength, so vital
izing that it viii yet stand monarch
of the field, with one foot on high
license and the other on the Gothen-
burg system and all other forms of
state control, while below is buried
the dead Bacchus and Gambrinus; and
this victory will come, not because we
have spent half century or more in
trying to find out chow not to do it, =
but because a loyal army has ever pro-
claimed, with faith in God and the
right, The truth will prevail; WE'LL
MAKE IT PREVAIL What our friend
calls prohibition weakness, is its
strength; and what he attempts to
build on as an element of strength is
the real weakness that delays prohibit
tion-the sandy foundation which,
like that of high license, shall yet
crumble and bring down his structure
in ruin, with burden of shame and
disgrace as great as blackens, to-day,
the records, the names, the memory
of slavery's apologists.
With the above INTRODUCTION. Inow
come to the vital point attempted to
be established in the articles | am
answering, viz: that the Gothenburg
system offers present answer to the
question, .What to do with the Sa-
looms; that it presents a wide depar-
ture-a different method from our
license system, SO radical that, if
adopted, it would pave the way for
prohibition; that this method is so
easy and reasonable that good men
will adopt itwhere they will not adopt
prohibition.
While our friend does not point out
why,-in fact ignores the power in
herent in the liquor traffic Co protect
and perpetuate itself. -he seems to
assume that saloon men would lie
down and allow the jealous advocates
of the Gothenburg system to "walk
all over Them and destroy their bust
ness, while this same saloon army will
fight prohibition cranks with money,
pitch-forks, butcher-knives and bull
let's, when we attempt the same thing.
can feel that his argument rests
upon few assumptions like the
above, which need only to be pointed
out to the average mind, for it to dis
cover how groundless are his conclu-
sions. Among these assumptions are
the two: (1.) that there is radical
difference between the Gothenburg
system and our license system; and
% that the former eliminates the ele-
ment Of greed which the latter fosters
as its chief source of strength.
In his second article. he says: In
dealing with the saloon, there are two
factors to be reckoned with. greed and
indulgence. If by an algebraic pro-
cess or by military strategem, one
of these factors can be eliminated. the
problem will be very much simplified
if not halt solved . with this state
ment we have no controversy, but
would simply add that if by political
campaign the same thing could be
done, the result would be better than
by an algebraie or military solution,
and, we prohibitionists believe, much
more probable and easy.
The trouble with the Gothenburg
system is, as j have already pointed
out, that it eliminates neither of these
factors but only transfers to, and di-
vides that portion of greed that influ-
ences the seller with the tax payers
and citizens generally. The same
greed and indulgence are still there,
and out of them little more money is
made BY ''respectablizing" both, that
is, rendering selling an honorable,