The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-09-28
Danger of the Saloon
IN Politics.

The Birmingham News, one of the
leading papers in the South, and a
strsng advocate of Prohibition in the
fight being waged against the Saloon
in Birmingham, contains the follow
ing relative to the danger of the
Saloon in politics:
A writer in the Atlanta Georgian re-
Gently said: 'Fhe city councils and IL
quor men in seven Georgian cities have
been controlling the Georgia legisia-
ture for years" Whether or not that
be literally true certainly the whiSkey
people spent vast sums in Georgia pol
itics during the recent campaign
against the saloon in that state. And
the whiskey people are already spend
ing large amounts of money, and VIII
spend a great deal more in Jefferson
county in their efforts to defeat pro-
hibition here
1t would be interesting to know
how much money the dFstillers, the
brewers and others who are engaged
in the liquor traffic will spend in at
tempts to control votes in the election
for prohibition. 1t would be still more
interesting TO know how much the
itics during the last ten years. As a
special interest bidding for special
privileges and often directly or in
directly purchasing more or less i'm
munity from a rigid enforcement of
the law the whiskey people have spent
millions of dollars in the South in the
last few wears. They have taken ac-.
tive part as an organization in the
election of legislators, mayors and
councilmen. They have purchased
votes by the hundreds. They have
done more than any other influence,
not excepting the railroads, to de-
bauch the election. They have contrib
uted more largely than anything else
to the lowering of civic virtue and
political standards. And they have
done so through one of the most dam
gerous means in existence.
Herein lies one of the worst evils
of the traffic, an evil which strikes at
the very manhood Of our citizenship,
an evil which is insidious in it's meth
DDS and lasting in its injury. Imagine
the kind of government the people
would be called upon to tolerate when
controlled by. the liquor interests. Try
to imagine the enforcement OF law
and order under administrations DOM
mated by whiskey. Is it possible TO
conceive of reasonable protection to
life and property under such condi-
tons? With a record for the corrup-
ton of officeholders, the creation Of
sloth, the fostering of crime and the
debauching of the ballot which wills
key has made for generations, are
the people willing TO entrust the man
agement of the public, affairs TO men
who are dominated by this enemy of
civic and material progress?
AS a business proposition the con-
sumers of liquor could better AFFORD to
burn the millions of dollars which
they pay for it annually in Jefferson
county than to spend 1t for a crime
breeding, sloth-producing, false stimu-
liant; for in that event there would
be only a direct loss without the per-
manent evils resulting from the drink
demon, and not only would the men
who are addicted to the whiskey
habit be better of. but their families
and those who are dependent upon
them would be spared the humiliation,
distress and suffering that follow the
course of whiskey wherever it goes.
Much has been said of the corrupt
ing influence of modern day politics,
and 1t IS at best anything but edifying.
SaIurate II win hnISASy anu Certainly
there is cause for discouragementa and
alarm among law abiding citizens who
expect protection for life and property
1t is hard TO imagine a more uphill
fight for peace and prosperity than
that in a community whose official
life is dominated by the liquor infiu-
ence. Professional politics is distress
ing, but a mixture of politics and
whiskey is deplorably hopeless.