The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-18
DRUGGISTS ARE SCORED
DIR. j. F. CALLEN ADDRESSES A
SMALL ANTI-sALOON MEETING.
He Says They Daily Violate the Mich
olson Lava Plea for the
saloon Keeper.

esting diatribe directed against the drug
gists of Indiana, and especially of Indian
apolis. by ]. F. Callen, ex-secretary of the
State Liquor League. According to state
ment made by DR.. Callen. the State is being
cheated every year out of more than $500.
by retail liquor dealers who have evaded
paying thheir licenses required under the
Nicholson law.
He said there were IT'S liquor dealers
who paid a government license every year,
which should yield to the school fund Of
the State s717,SO0 but instead of that, the
report of the superintendent of public in
struction for 1899 showed that the State
had only collected s4O9,244.0S. He said this
deficit could be attributed to the fact that
nearly one-half of the retail dealers who
took out a government license were drug
gists, who could run 365 days in the year
and sell whisky all day and all night, and
yet, under the Nicholson law, they were
not amenable to the law because they were
supposed to sell by prescription. He said
he would like TO inform his audience that
on last Christmas day he visited forty
five drug stores in Indianapolis and in ev-
cry one of them he purchased. without
any false pretense that he was sick. a
bottle of whisky, ranging all the way from
four ounces TO pint.
DR.. Callen said he presented the figures
showing the shortage in the school fund TO
Governor Mount, who expressed himsen
as being very much surprised, and, said
DR.. Callen, II was very much surprised
that he was surprised, because had told
him these facts on previous occasions"
PREDICTION BORNE OUT.
DR.. Callen said the shortage in the school
fund bore out the prediction he made in
1895 that the Nicholson law might do away
with part of the saloons, but it would
cause hundreds of drug stores to sell whis-
ky, and the State would not receive any
benefit in the way of licenses. Said he:
IF it were not for the Nicholson law
there would be no excuse for the drug
stores to lay In four or five barrels of whis-
ky at a time. One of the best evidences
that the druggist is evading the law of In
diana," said DR.. Callen, "is the govern
ment license you tackled up in his
store" He said that before the druggist
could procure a license from the govern
ment 1T is necessary for him to make an
affidavit that he was a retail liquor dealer.
DR.. Callen said that in many of the drug
stores 1t was common custom to carry
on dice game behind the prescription
counter. He said three bills were intro
duceo in the last Legislature. any one of
which, had it passed, would have caused
police surveillance to be exercised over ev-
cense, but like all the rest of the bills
which were not wanted by the politicians,
they were defeated.
He said that during the last session of
the Legislature he was called before the
temperance committee of the House and
invited to make statements of his obServa-
tions, and when he entered the room he
found about a dozen of the druggists of
this city. He said he made a truthful
statement of the conditions as he found
them, and when he had finished the drug
gists arose in great indignation and apos-
trophiZed his remarks as an insult to the
druggists in the State of Indiana, saying
that there might be few who would sell
without prescription, but that was to be
expected, as there were INSCRIPTIONS men
in every walk of life. DR.. Callen said that
he asked them if they could point out the
honorable members of the profession who
would not sell without prescription, and
when they declined TO do this, he asked
them If the very officers of the State
Board of Pharmacy were above doing such
thing, and when they emphatically in
sisted that they were, Or. Callen said. he
brought into the room a basket containing
number of bottles of whisky, the very
first one of which he had purchased from
member of the pharmacy board at his
drug store.
THE CLUBS.
Said DR.. Callen: "Our honorable Mayor
says that he don't believe any law should
be enacted that would interfere with the
respectable clubs in the city, for it seemed
just like invading a mans home, but 1
want to say that if Mr.. Taggert had seen
the sight / saw the other night when a
certain prominent gentleman was being
driven home from one of the fashionable
clubs. so beastily intoxicated that he could
not recognize his own wife, be might have
entertained a different opinion"
DR.. Callen said that for some reason or
other there seemed to be a Discrimination
on the part of the State, county and city
officials to interfere with the drug store
trade. Said he: 'Since the facts before
alluded to were placed before the Governor,
ne has had several consultations with the
attorney general, and that gentleman has
informed me that Governor Mount intends
to impress upon the next Legislature the
necessity of taking some definite action In
the matter, but there will be another
Governor when the next Legislature con-
venes L doubt very much IL that function
airy will consent to Governor Mount giving
advice in a matter in which he might have
taken some definite action when he lad the
opportunity
DR.. Callen said that too much attention
was given to the saloon keeper. who was
being prosecuted by the misguided members
OF the Anti-Saloon League and other tenn
perance organizations, when their efforts
should be directed to the party most bene-
fitted in the liquor traffic. which was none
other than the government.
ARE PROSECUTED.
He said the saloon keeper made less money
than any one, and yet they were perse-
cuted by the government, the breweries
whose vassals they are, and by the tenn
perance people, and all the time the drug
gists who sold more liquor, kept open $50
days in the year and paid no license TO the
State were treated with reverence by all.
Said he: 1.-THE question may be asked why
IL Is that the work OF reform has never
produced the results expected of IL, and
l think the answer is simply that we who
profess TO be doing something for the bet
terment of the people, have forgotten en-
be done; We have forgotten to follow n
the steps of the Christ who taught us TO
take our brother by the hand and show
him the error OF his way, and have sought
10 drive the saloon keeper, who is the
possessor of as much heart and soul as
any of US, into complying with our de
mand." DIR. Callen said that the salooi
keeper did not have to go far to see the
fallacy or our religious professions 10
even in the window of a room owned by the
Y NJ. c. A was to be seen a sign adyer-
Using a gambling scheme, in which a BIZ
cycle was to be rallied off at some future
date. He said the work Of the present tenn
perance societies was like killing a sturdy
oak by chopping off a leaf here and there I"
The only way to get at the root of the
matter" said he, lis to become master of
the political situation, and / want TO say
that the conditions to be met with in this
city are as bad as those TO be met with in
any city of the United States"
For No n Hnne