New-York tribune., 1901-11-30
GERUAN-ANERICANS EXCISE VIEWS

A correspondent Of The Tribune the other day
urged that the solution of the Sunday liquor
problem to be found not in repeal OF the
present Sunday restrictions, but In sensible
enforcement of them, so that during hours OF
church service the saloons might be rigidly
closed. and after that treated other evils
which cannot be suppressed are treated, so
long as order Is kept and public decency is not
offended. It is interesting to note as sign
OF the tendency OF opinion on the subject that
similar views are expressed by prominent Ger
man-Amercan who is quoted in The New
York Evening Post 1t might be thought that
n German would sympathze with movement
for a Continental Sunday but this man does not.
He thinks it well enough for Europe but be-
lieves the social and temperamental conditions
here such as to make open Sunday danger
ous In Germany liquor selling is respectable
and beer drinking matter of course Here the
traffic is less respectable. and the open Sunday
would mean a legal bid TO youth TO indulge in
what tllev themselves would many of them
gard as wrong rather than the extension Of
liberty to indulge an innocent custom. He
thinks TOO that Sunday opening would be voted
down even in Manhattan: for many people
would oppose it for the sake of their children
and public appearances who favor quiet, I'M
legalized sale, patroniZe Sunday saloons ana
would turn out any administration closing them.
In that case a result OF local option we
should have the same problem 70 face as now
And if would he complicated with stronger
obligation 70 enforce the law most vigorously.
This German American says that the immedi-
ate necessity is a radical reform that can be
made without any change in the law. the reform
of the police and the destruction OF the black
mailing system. Moreover. he would be con
tent with that achievement, and not even
recommend legislation after honest police man.
agement had revealed more exactly what the
defects of the excise law were. He thinks the
plan followed by Mayor Low and afterward by
Mavor Schieren. in Brooklyn. meets all the re-
nuirements of the situation, and describes that
plan as follows:
am told that the Police Commissioners under
both ~ those Mayors made the saloonkeepers
shut their front doors and keep their places
quiet on Sunday but they were allowed to Sell
to people who went in by the side doors, and
they were not obliged to pay the police for the
privilege OF course, you may say that this Is
? ytoieti of the letter Of the law, which says
that LIQUOR shall not be sold Sunday; but it
does not violate the spirit of the law. which
aims only prevent disturbance OF the peace
II would be no TO try stopping all sale of
iouor on Sunday by shutting everything up
tight as Roosevelt did six years ago. for the
people would turn against any administratio ton
which attempted it. The best practicable way
of solving the problem is that Brooklyn system
hone that the legislature Will not make any
change in the law. and that MIR Low viii apply
that system throughout the city
Whether one agrees with the views of this
German American not, it is certainly helpful
to know what men who have his point of view
think. The Germans are commonly spoken of
as favorng the open Sunday, and probably all
of them would IL they could have il as they
knew II at home, and tendencies to excess and
riotous conduct were not so strong as they are
here. But there may be thousands of them
who like the one quoted. do not want an open
Sunday and all ii may mean TO American
youth, with their nervous and excitable temper