The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-12-31
WITH THE EDITORS
Our Anti Saloon Crusade.


The reasons given for the spread Of
the anti saloon movement in Indiana,
By the professed engineers Of that
movement. include several considcra-
tions in all OF which the principal or
sole thought is that the saloons, and
largely the brewers. have brought all
this trouble on themselves by their
own actions.
With this assertion. SO far as it goes,
we have no quarrel Brewery politics
and disreputable saloons have brought
trouble to the liquor traffic, just as the
high handed acts of railroads have
brought reprisal, just as the overween-
ing presumption Of political spoils-
men engendered the spirit that brought
civil service reform to pass just as
municipal corruption at the hands of
traction, gas and lighting companies
has aroused our cities against them.
But the anti-saloon promoters choose
/ to ignore one very potent influence
without which their efforts would prob
ably have been vain That influence is
the bitter hostility aroused against the
liquor traffic by women and boys now
grown to manhood. who have suffered
from its ravages. The anti-saloon
movement very largely rests upon this
feeling, which is not greatly concerned
with the political activity of brewers
or the enforcement of early closing
ordinances.
In word, the crusade is chiefly
one of sentiment, and only incidentally
one of logical reasoning processes A
very good evidence of 1t is afforded in
the Fundamental attitude Of the re-
Their hope is. if one can elicit from
them the truth, neither to make the
saloons obey the law nor to confne
them to one part Of town more than
another but to exterminate them;
and not only them. but the stuff In
which they deal
If all the saloons in Indiana were
to obey the laws and ordinances to the
letter tomorrow and if the brewers
were to abandon at once and for all
any efforts to protect their business
from hostile legislation. it would not
stay the ant-saloon movement in any
degree: 1t would only encourage its
tdevotees to fresh activity.
There is one act that can render a
brewer a desirable citizen in the eyes
of his opponents. and only one; and
that is to stop making beer. There is
one course OF rectitude and decency
BY which a saloon can acquit itself
blameless in the eyes of its antagon-
lists, and only one; and that is to close
its doors never to open them.
We have said that nothing short
Of extinction can satisfy or appease
the movement Of the saloon. The as
sertion should be qualified Nothing
short of that extreme penalty viii sat.
isfy the directors Of the present move
] ment; but there comes a point in cru
sades of this sort where the average
: disposition of the community begin:
to fall away from the ADVANCING
ground of the leaders. Some who re
sent distillery or brewery Hobbies L
pursue those interests further, once
these activities are abandoned; SOM
, who regard the saloon as an evil are
nevertheless, unwilling to see the opeI
drinking place superseded by the GOV
ert and demoralizing regime witt
which prohibition states disgrace them
selves; some who practice total alb
{ stinence themselves would revolt a
d proposal like that of Oklahoma, Geor
= gia and Alabama. to make the llquo
traffic an outlaw and conhscate tn
property accumulated by it under ex
listing laws.
1t is the danger of every such cru
sade as this that the community
/. wearied at length of it's own abando
Of zeal sinks into lethargy and reac
i, ton. The great Puritan reforms i
= England. which made all men model
> OF prim virtue so far as eXternals ar
! concerned. was followed in the reig
of Charles H. by the widest riot q
: RIGHTEOUSNESS that England had eve
II een.-Indianapolis Star.
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