The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-28
There Is Death in the Pot.
To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:

To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal:
Among the interesting stories in the Bible
is one that tells of dinner party given
by distinguished man of the period to
number of invited guests. The menu was
of the best material the market afforded,
and it was served in proper style, but the
guests had not been eating long before they
discovered that a deadly poison had been
mixed with the food, whereupon they
sounded the alarm by crying out, There
is death in the potr' OF course, everybody
stopped eating, and through the prompt
action of convenient antidote no lives
were lost but it was a narrow escape. The
story is not only interesting in itself, but it
serves to illustrate events. Men are often
induced to do thus or so, but they find be-
fore they through there is death in the
pot, and fortunate is he who makes the dis
covery while yet an antidote may avert
fatal results. For example, the brewers of
Indiana have invited this Republican Legis-
lature TO a feast Of marrow and fat things
if it will only so emasculate the Nicholson
law that 1t cannot be used to inter-
fere with the saloon business There is
death in that pot, sure.
Now, that Nicholson law is a compromise
measure, nonpartisan in its origin and quite
acceptable to the saloon people for several
years. Its basis is absolute prohibition, but
promise to strictly obey all the laws relat-
ing to saloons, such not selling on Sun
day and the like. and who will divide the
profits of his business literally with the
State, to be used for purely moral purposes
may have n license unless a majority of
any given ward or township shall refuse TO
go into partnership on those terms and
shall so notify the county commissioners;
and that is all there is in the law. A few
wards and townships gave this notice early
in the history of the law with satisfactory
co nrlfn md
expensive that many became tired, and re-
monstrances had almost ceased when the
scheme of delegating some trusty man to
act as attorney in fact for them was sug-
gested. The brewers say this scheme is
very distasteful to them, and it is TO get
rid of it that they have appealed to this
Republican Legislature for help.
personally, / am prohibitioniSt of the
most pronounced type. most devOutly be-
lieving in the deliverance of the Methodist
Episcopal Church that the only right atti-
tude of Christians to the saloon is that of
relentless hostility and 1 further believe
that 80 per cent. of the members of that
church, male and female, believe the same
and L believe that an equal per cent. of
every Protestant church in America ex-
cept one and every Hebrew church agree
with this deliverance. Two-thirds of the
men, though the laity not yet with
them in as great numbers as with the
Professionals and the Hebrews, but their
number is increasing annually.
Though so ultra a prohibitionist that
regard the saloon question as paramount
to every other political issue when the issue
| is joined, L have no sympathy with the
measures of that little handful of men who
constitute the Prohibition party. simply be-
cause, in my opinion, they retard the cause
OF prohibition; and that this Is the general
opinion of prohibitionsts is seen in the
| fact that in thirty-one years il had only
| per cent. of the aggregate vote of Indiana
| in 1902. even though its vote that year was
a gain of 30 per cent. over the vote of 1900,
while the aggregate vote of the State fell
| OFF III per cent BY so much therefore as
/ hope for the ultimate triumph of prohibi-
| ton / deprecate any movement that will
| give them such a boost as the passage OF
| the brewers bill WILL at the expense chiefly
| of the Republican party If passed by a
| Legislature so emphatically Republican as
| this is.
And 1 may as we'll say that I am Re-
| publican from away back, holding all the
party's tenets second only to my prohibi-
| ton sentiments L have never asked il to
proclaim prohibition one of its tenets
| / should be sorry if ii did. more because it
would damage the cause of prohibition than
| because il would harm the party and
| spit upon the deliverance which was foisted
| into the Methodist Discipline in 1900 by
strategy, that no party is entitled to the
! support of Christians that does not in its
| platform set itself against the saloon, and
| 90 per cent. of Methodist voters do the
| same; but this is quite a different thing
| from cooperating with a party which in
| fact legislates in the interest of the saloon
or conniVeS at its interest in the admins.
| tration of law. The damage which any in
| dividual may sustain in his political as
/ pirations by voting for that bill does not
| concern me nor what effect il may have
| on the Democratic party, but / do plead
| that the Republican party may not bt
| stabbed by a Republican Legislature ac.
| cepting the invitation Of the brewers 10 the
proposed dinner. There is death i'm thai
pot u. L. SEE.
| INDIANAPOLIS Jan q