The Washington times., 1907-12-13
Putting Business" in Its Place.

business" has no place in politics.
Government should be a matter of
men, not of property. Men have
an undoubted right to their earn
ings and that Government would be
an utter failure which did not Sc
cure them in what wGs rightfully
their own. But the security must
come as a right vested in the man,
not in his property.
So business" has been getting
the ak. In Oregon it is the land
grating business. In Philadelphia
(where the AK has not yet struck
deep it has been the gas business.
In Louisville it has been the whisky
business. In New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania, Nebraska, and other States
it has been tie railroad business
Now there is testimony that, in a
score of cities widely separated,
the next to be thrown out viii be
the brewery business.
The Blade, of Toledo, puts the
case in these words:
II IS a question II, at this Iete date,
! the brewers can save their face The
country districts are lost 20 them be-
yond recovery. And apparently. the
cities are going the same way. The ap-
plicatiOn OF local option legislation Is
rapidly reducing the territory I'm the
municipalities. and sentiment Is COM
pelling the enforcement OF regulative
laws and ordinances
Cities IN which brewers have felt
themselves firmly intrenched are putting
on the lid. The Sunday saloon is being
I forced out OF business In such cities a.
Baltimore Seattle Atlanta. Louisville.
Philadelphia. Pittsburg. and St. Louis.
/ Even Chicago Is catching the infection,
and there is but Httle doubt that the
vigorous campaign being waged by the
Law and Order League viii compel
Mayor BUsse 10 take notice.
The people are out OF patience with
beer lo5bles and beer politics. They
! know that they can suppress the dives
without the aid OF the brewers and now
they are demanding that the liquor In
torests ceasa interfering I'm the political
affairs OF the State. Anything short OF
I this will be without avail.
This agitation is coincident with
the present spread Of prohibition
sentiment. but not necessarily fea-
ture Of It. As the Indianapolis
News says: 'The present attitude
is that the brewers shall hereafter
be brewers, making and marketing
a product according to law, and
shall no longer be saloon keepers
ar5 politicians pushing their wares
in defiance of law and controlling
State and municipal governments
in behalf Of the lawlessness of their
traffic" This is, significantly. the
view expressed by President Busch,
of the Anheuser-Busch brewery, of
st. Louis, at meeting in Kansas
City, which Western newspaper
epitomises in this fashion:
He said he had long known that tho
J LIQUOR business should be regulated. lie
had been waiting a turn in public sentt
| ment with which regulation could come
| Now he was ready Cor the new fight
| which woUlc ignore the mere bushes.
competition tnat had ruled IL the past
II having been merely a question OF
dOllaDs and cents-and would strive tC
| the uLLeIlDOSL lC eliminate the abuses
of the business His business house wa
| the pride OF his life. and he could no
view the opinion Of his feIIow-country.
men with Indifference Hereafter, Fl
| the sign OF his house were found 81 am
disorderly place, 1t should come down
and he would join with the officers o.
the law In eliminating such places.
No need to question this speaker.
sincerity. No need to indorse the
movement toward absolute prohibi
tion. 1t is enough to note that an
other business" Is being put bacl
into its proper position as bust
ness and made to feel the gray,
danger to it, as an Investment, o.
Opposing the law of the people. The
sign is good.
A new lid certainly seems to be com