The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-08-28

commanded SO as to do by the Legisla-
ture.
1.-THE people of New Jersey are to
settle their W question as they please.
The excise question is at best a difficult
one. When it is entangled with politi-
cal conditions and political ambitions
the difficulties increase. The settlement
must be reached after real debate and
serious consideration. Any settlement
made at the point of the bayonet would
be farcical in the extreme, n the Gov
ernor of a State in a condition of frenzy
really does more to contribute to that
spirit of lawlessness and anarchy, OF
which the Governor speaks, than a con-
siderable number of breaches OF the
law in some holes on the back streets
of Atlantic City, however much they
are to be deplored.
"There is, no doubt, lawbreaking III
Atlantic City. The Investigations of the
Governors Excise Commission show
that the law is also evaded in Asbury
Park, in Ocean Grove n in every
place visited. Nobody pretends to him
or to say hat those places are 'satur-
| nalias of vice. Such, however, is be-
coming the impression with respect to
Atlantic City under the rule of hysteria.
The impression is wholly groundless.
Atlantic City is today the most Won
derful resort in the world. 1t is posi-
lively silly to suppose, because the COM
mission is issuing alarming state
ments, that visitors see any vice or are
confronted with rampant crime. A mil
lion of people from this neighborhood
who have visited Atlantic City this
summer are the living witnesses to the
absurdity of the charge that the resort
is a vile place, dangerous to men or
women or the child in arms. Tt is sheer
sensationalism.
There has never, perhaps, been a
spectacle of order and decency any
where in the world comparable to that
furnished by the crowds in Atlantic
City. 1t has always been so, and is
equally true now. The good nature and
good humor of the people, the absence
of drunkenness or rowdy conduct OF
any kind or of offensive demeanor. or
of any attribute, habit or practise that
could by any possibility give offense
to the most circumspect and most sem
sitive, are the really phenomenal ex-
hibits of Atlantic City, where the most
~prodigious holiday crowds on the con-
tinent constantly present an exhibition
of good conduct that universally elicits
the utmost wonder and satisfaction.
There are some gambling places,
perhaps. hidden from view; there is,
no doubt. infraction of law, but the at
tempt to picture Atlantic City-the
most orderly resort in the world-as a
sink of riotous iniquity is an affront to
the common experience and to the COM
mon sense of the people who hav
visited the place. 1t is the last gasp OF
a pernicious and destructive sensation
alism.'
The Philadelphia Inquircg makes the
following observations:
at is a d%eplorable situation sand is
brought about primarily by the refusal
of the city to obey the Sunday closing
law. The law says that liquor shall mo-
be sold on Sunday. The hotel-keepers
say that it shall be. because public
sentiment demands it. The facts are
that plenty of evidence of la~w-breaking
has been collected in the past. but grand
juries have refused to find indictments,
Should they do so it is believed that a
jury could not be. found that would con-
Wet.
1--WE wonder just how Governor Fort
would go 10 work with his troops
should he really send them to Atlantic
to enforce the law. Would he turn
his Calling guns on the side-doors OF
hotels and blow them up2 Would he
sweep the streets with his artillery?
Would he shoot up the town and try
to shoot III morality? or course not,
There wouldn't be a gun fred, but