The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-08-28
TO THE INTEREST OF SALOON
MEN TO ENFORCE THE LAW

MEN TO ENFORCE THE LAW
From Ell Paso Herald.
| The saloon men of Ell Paso have
awakened at last to a realization OF
what the Herald has contended for a
long time-that if they do not observe
the law and attempt to make their
resorts places of decency instead OF
filth, prostitution and vice, proaibi-
ton is coming to Texas as sure as it
has come to Kansas and will come to
Georgia and other states in the union.
The saloon in Texas is in reality Oh
it's last trial and it is in a large meas
ure for the saloon men to say if it
will remain. If the saloons obey the
Iaw and their p~roprietors show a dis
position to make a livelihood and what
well conducted place, free from any
snares, by simply selling liquors and
| cigars the same as a groceryman sells
groceries and a dry goods man sells
dry goods-because the people come
and call for the stock-then the sa-
1 IOOh Id d Cud1ISS III 1CIId1L11hSy Duk
if the saloons continue in the future
as they have in the past, to violate
the law f1agrantly by running gam
bling games when they have a chance,
operating these nell-holes called wine
rooms and selling liquors after regu
lation hours, permitting minors to en-
ter and loiter about their places, sell
ing to already drunk men till some
body gets killing drunk and shoots
down a few innocent men-if this is
continued the saloon is doomed as
surely as gambling was doomed and
had to go.
1t is not license but RIGHTEOUSNESS
that kills h saloon; it has plenty OF
license for a legitimate trade, but the
public will not stand for the licel-
ti%ousness; that has to stop. The state
law says so, and if the saloon keepers
do not live up to it, they will have
till more rigid ones put % the stat
utes and then will come prohibition
altogether; maybe prohibition will
come with the next step.
Ell Paso is not a prohibition town
in sentiment and the people have al
ways demonstrated a willingness to
allow considerable leeway in the mat
ter of moral right or wrong, each man
to do his w choosing, but When it
comes to a point where the immoral
and the promoters of immortality
f1aunt it into the faces of the decent,
the breaking point is reached and El
Paso would choose prohibition as the
remedy for the disease.
For years Ell Paso permitted the
gambling table, but the gamblers and
saloon men got so brazen hat they
had to be checked and it was a real
check wnen it came, too. The gamblers
ran. their games wide open in plain
view of the street, beckoning to the
young man and the boy to enter; they
Haunted their vices and their il1-se-
element, they put their money into
the political funds and by ~con1iving
with INSCRIPTIONS politicians, elected
whom they pleased; they took the
running of the Town into their own
hands and to dare oppose or criticise
meant a threat of bodily harm. Then
there came the uprising of decency,
n gambling was swept from the CT
ty to remain forever.
-Four years ago the town was wide
open and the people were being ia
suited by the arrogance of the gam
bier; the saloons remained open "a
hours out of "a and there was a muir
der almost every night; an embezz1e-
ment on an average of once a week,
and the disappearance Of the sole sup
port of some family, ruined on a turn
of the card, just about as often.
Today there is no gambling and the
saloon men are shutting their places
If business at midnight on week days
and all day Sundays-those who will
see the handwriting on the wall, and
that means the majority-and Ell Paso
Is a community free from crimes. EN-
bezzlements are never heard of, kill
ings are so uncommon thai they excite
comment and few of them occur in
saloons; the peace officers are not
elected by the contributions Of the
thugs q dregs OF civilization and
Ell Paso has taken such a step forward
that nobody Ave years ago would
have dreamed of the accomplishment
of such results In this time.
---aN-A~ &#