The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-26


environment and subServes the great
tyrant of all, the public will and need.
DEFEATING THEIR OWN ENDS.
| It is not open to dispute that the laws
of most of the states regard ng the sale
Of liquor are offensive to the intelligence
/ OF the mass of the people whom they
concern. No plan of action thus far pre-
scented seems to have sufficed to enable
! the people to secure any serious modifca-
ton or reform of those laws.
The theory of all such legislation seems
to be that the pretense must be main
tanned at all hazards, that the SAFE CT
! liquor is so obnoxious to the people that
/ the laws must be framed so as TO make
the business of liquor selling disreputable.
whether or not those laws are ever de-
/ signed to be enforced. or whether the
mass of the people take that or the
! opposite view of the sale and consump-
| ton of liquor.
No one will hesitate to admit that the
! business. of retail liquor selling has been
conducted by many of those engaged in
it so as to bring it into disrepute with
large element of broard-minded and
well-meaning people, as we'll as with the
class who think they have some moral
[
of their fellow creatures Neither is it
to be denied that more intolerant at
titude could hardly be taken toward a
! business which, properly conducted, is
perfectly legitimate, than that which
the laws OF most OF the states indicate.
The wholesale issuance of indictments
against Liquor dealers in MINNEAPOLIS
directs attention to one feature of this
| subject. Instead Of taking any such
action against those who have beniehtcd
by the failure of city officials TO enforce
the law those officials themselves should
nave been punished and. if the. action
proved to be warranted should have
been dismissed from office. The indict-
ment of a number of men who for do
ing that which they had been suffered TO
do for years, and which never occurred
to most of them as being in violation Of
law, represents but a poor endeavor to
reform existing municipal conditions f-.-
Another feature of this general-ques-
ton which occasions great outbursts OF
reform emotion from time to time is
the practice which prevails so generally
of selling liquor on Sunday ilr Violation
of law 1t can be said without the
slightest possibility of successful dispute
or disproof that the unreasonable attt-
tude taken by the anti-saloon element
it is which is chiefly responsible for the
open violation of law which Is seen
| everywhere on this score, just as they
are for the immoral and degrading con-
diticns which prevail i'll the matter OF
| liquor selling in every prohibition state
in the United States.
Within a few days Dr. Farkhurst, of
New York, was quoted in the New York
! papers as declaring against the folly OF
such an attitude, regarded from the
| standpoint of municipal betterment or
reform. Here is in part what the doctor
is reported as saying:
81 most earnestly wish that some means
! could be found of conciliating the ele-
! ment that wishes to have the saloons
| kept open on Sunday. The saloons will
! be open anyway-they will be open, no
| matter what the reformers do-and 1
! don't see why the additional harm should
| be done Of alternating SC large body of
! voters who would otherwise vote for de-
! cent government. L suppose shall be
| attacked for saying this. But l have
| been attacked before, and I guess l can
| stand it,
! In DR.. Parkhursts state they have
what is known as the Raines' hotel law,
which enables anybody that pleases to
open and maintain a hotel. in which
| liquor may be sold on Sunday on the
theory that the persons drinking the
liquor are guests of the hotel. Hence
! the existence of what is known as the
Raines' hotel saloon. This Institution is,
looked at from the moral and ethical
viewpoint, little less than an infamy.
| That it exists, and that it is what it is;
and that it prevents any regulation what
ever of the Sunday liquor selling is due
solely and entirely to the anti-saloon peo-
pie.
1t is surprising, although it ought not
! to be, that such a sentiment as this
| should find expression by such a man
as Dr. Parkhurst. That it VII bring
trouble and criticism to him from those
with whom he has been acting in mat
tiers of social and political betterment,