The Tupelo journal., 1905-03-31

Alter many months OIL Iutlte eHoilS
to find practical nswers to the ques-
tions involved in the social evil | came
to the conclusion that it cannot be
eliminated. 1t is here to stay, and
after my official experiences with men
of all kinds and conditions I am not
so certain that it is no a necessary
evil. / believe there is but one way to
kill it, and that is to kill off the men
who keep it alive.
Another problem which causes may
ors to lose sleep relates to saloons. The
saloon is attacked more than any other
American institution-say what you
will, it is an American institution.
1t is the one enemy of a political party
of considerable strength. 1t figures in
every reform movement which sweeps
over large centers of population. And
yet saloons increase in number every
year, and all of them apparently thrive.
To n Who has studied the subject
from the standpoint of the chief eXecu-
tive of q large city the explanation OF
this remarkable growth in spite of con-
tinuous attacks and incessant opposi-
tion is simple. 1t is because the saloon
is a social center. 1t supplies a need,
and because of this will continue to
exist until a better substitute is found.
| had the police department group
the several thousands of saloons in my
city under various heads, and the an
alysis of the schedule showed that con-
siderably less than five per cent. OF all
the saloons came under the heading,
"low, disreputable, law-breaking." That
is less than five per cent. cast odium
and gave a bad name to the remaining
95 per cent. After studying this sched-
ule I came to the conclusion that the
proper solution of the saloon problem
lay in closing up the comparatively
small number of bad places. But after
carrying out part of this programme
I found that so Don as n tough sa-
loon was closed up some other saloon,
listed as respectable" became tough,
and then | arrived at the conclusion
that it was because the frequenters of
the tough places had transferred their
trade to the other saloon. After a time
L D6CdLIIC tOIINILICu lhCI ~ ' PNA
cent. of the patrons of saloons were
toughs, strong-arm men, thieves and
social outcasts, and they established
the proportion of tough to respectable
saloons.
l had these figures before me when
a delegation of clergymen walked into
the Office. They presented what the
spokesman called a petition" but
which was a demand on me to in
stantly close practically all the saloons
in the city. The delegation included
ministers of several denominations,
and most of them belonged to the SEN
sational school. | exhibited the sched-
ule which classified the saloons, and
said:
Here is a hard fact to face-the
great bulk of the saloons have not fig
ured in police reports. They are sa-
looms you call respectable. Less than
five per cent. of the saloons are of the
kind which you demand 1 close up, and
of this small per cent. less than half
have violated those police regulations
which give MI the right to revoke their
licenses, and their licenses have been
taken away from them. Now what am
I to do with the 81 per cent. left?"
"Close them up on general principles,
Mr.. Mayor" exclaimed the spokesman
of the delegation. Then he launched
into a speech-there were a number of
newspaper reporters present-in which
ne denounced me for trucking to the
liquor interest"
1t was hard for me to sit there
quietly while he made all kinds of mis-
statements and dashed me for not do
ing what the plain law declared | could
not do. But 7 held my peace, and when
he had finished bowed them out. That
| delegation was like scores of others
which called on me to insist that do
the impossible thing. No man should
ask a mayor to commit an illegal act,
and yet l have had committees and del
egations of honest, well-meaning citi-
Zens urge me to do certain things
which were clearly unconstitutional, il
legal and against public policy.
The saloon is the club of the poor
man, the only place where he is well
come. In the saloon he finds the cheer
and warmth which nan Graves and
the companionship which he needs. The
s~aloonkeeper does not offer these ad-
vantages from a ph~ilanthropic motive.
| It is merely a matter of business with
him, but still he provides what the ma
iority of men in a large city demand,
1900 ,Iooo whn,a fnau M ny, ~
gether to satisfy the social cravings.
Men who can afford it join their clubs
for the same purpose.
Next to the newspapers, the saloons
are the greatest molders of public opin-
ion, because they are the meeting
places of a majority of citizens. Night
after night men come together in the
saloons and discuss the news of the
day. Out of these discussions grows
public sentiment, and that is why sa-
looms WELD so much power in local
politics.
Churches, reform organizations and
political parties, singly and together.
have been fighting saloon power and
saloon influence for years, and yet to-
day the saloon is stronger than ever.
The reason to me is plain-the opposi-
ton to the saloon does not work along
practical lines. 1t proposes to abolish
an institution, but offers nothing in its
place. | say nothing" for churches,
closed six days in the week and some
times closed for weeks during the sum-
mer, are not social centers. Reading
rooms, coffee houses and the like have
not the atmosphere and the freedom