Evening star., 1908-01-12
BOOZE IN BALTIMORE
Issue Of Local Option Now
Faces Maryland.
HIGH LICENSE BILL READY
Saloon Interests Are Getting Decid-
edly Nervous.
SEND OUT A STRONG CIRCULAR
Crowd Around the Crothers Pie
Counter Is Large, Grow
ing and Hungry.
SEND OUT A STRONG CIRCULAR
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

| BALTIMORE, Md, January II, 1903.
One need not possess the powers of
soothsayer to foretell that the present
session of the legislature will witness a
hot fight between the liquor interests and
the prohibtionists and Anti-Saloon
League. The liquor trade is thoroughly
alarmed over the situation and the re-
| tailers admit that there's a rocky road
ahead. One thing is a certainty and
that Is a higher license fee The present
| fee is $3.50 year, which is certain to be
doubled and possibly quadrupled. Oppo-
| nents of the saloon are hard at work to
make this a high-license city, and great
pressure will be brought to bear upon
the members Of the legislature to pass
$1,000 license law, which has already been
drawn in the form of a bill and which
| Will be introduced early in the session.
The Anti-Saloon League will open its
campaign in this city January 26 with a
big mass meeting at the Lyric. The prin-
| cipal speaker win be Seaborn Wright.
| member of the Georgia legislature. who
led the successful fight for prohibition in
| that state last year. The Ministerial
| Union of Baltimore has sent out letters
to every clergyman in the state request
Ing that sermons favoring prohibition be
| preached to their congregations at the
| morning service January 26 and in this
way 1t is hoped that the movement will
be spread broadcast in every section.
Liquor Interests Alarmed.
| For the first time in the history of
Maryland there is widespread alarm
among those interested in the liquor bust
ness. both wholesale and retail. So seri-
ously is the situation regarded that the
distillers and brewers of this city held
meeting during the week and discussed
| measures to combat the growing senti-
| ment against the saloon. At this meeting
| sixty-five whisky houses and fourteen
| breweries were represented After a two
hour session the wholesalers decided to
| sent out the following confidential COM
| mun1cation to the saloonkeepers:
| You are aware of the organized ef-
fort that Is being made to abolish the
| saloon in Baltimore and the counties of
the state. This attack is aimed osten-
sibly only at the saloon and at the brewer
| and the LIQUOR dealer. 1t cleverly con-
| ceals Its true prohibition character. It
realizes that the fallacies of prohibition
are too well known to secure much sup
port as an out-and-out issue: but dis
| guised under the name of local option
| or local veto 1t commands q large fol-
lowing who do not stop to think what
| 1t involves. Local option processes to
be entirely fair to all parties and to be
nothing more than an expression of ma
Jority rule and home government. 1t
may be entirely fair for a majority of
the voters to vote away your property and
to confiscate nearly s75,OOO.O0O which the
liquor interests. under the sanction and
equal protection of the law. have invested
in this state. and 1t may also be en-
| tirely fair for majority to control
| the personal liberties of minority and to
| say what they shall eat and drink: but if
the far-reaching consequences of such in
| spired fairness were fully appreciated
1t would have fewer followers among
| those who wish to do as they would be
done by.
Fear Local Option.
| The important point to remember is
that local option means prohibition. It
is prohibition on the installment plan.
Prohibition by false pretenses. We be-
lieve that the legislature of this state
will recognize that all the people have
rights and that before they confiscate our
property or empower a majority of the
| voters to confscate it they will look
into the experience of other countries,
states and cities in this matter and will
refuse to yield to the hysterical appeals
| of paid agitators who in this year of grace
profess suddenly to have found a solu-
ton for question with which the world
has been wrestling for some thousands
Of wears. We cannot believe that the
legislature will make the liquor question
political issue in this state with all
the turmoil and bitterness that such
| life and death struggle involves or that
1t Will give the apostles of this new
| propaganda an opportunity in Baltimore
to parade thousands of women and in
| nocent children up and down before the
| polls
Temperance is a great moral and per-
sonal issue. and We yield to no one in
| our desire to see men better and less
intemperate. But no good can come from
misleading the public or making this a
political issue. The saloon exists be-
| cause the public needs 1t. If decently
conducted 1t has some right to public
| respect and support as the club or the
eating house or the store. The local op-
| ton movement pronounces every saloon
good or bad. a curse 1t appeals to pas
sion and not to reason. Facts have no
| weight with its leaders. They do not
care for the truth. They will not fight
| fair. They refuse to see two sides to
the question. for they believe that the
l saloon Is crime and that 1t must go,
! and that any means Justify their ends.
They are not after the drunkard or the
| intemperate-they are after the saloon;
| this attack is aimed entirely at the seller
| and not at the buyer. To sell is a crime
| to buy Is innocent. They profess to be-
lieve that with the saloon abolished the
taste for drink will suddenly cease.
| A Political Movement.
"The truth Is. this is not reform
movement, but political movement. 1t
does not try to make people better or
more temperate. it simply tries to control
their personal habits and liberties. They
i know If local option wins 1t will instantly
close the saloon and the brewery and the
distillery and that the man who wants a
/ drink will have to violate the law to get 1t.
Many people who are disposed to sup
| port local option do not realize its far
| reaching consequences. They are opposed
L tn int ha
/ the decent saloon and the brewer and the
/ distiller and the man who wants his
drink are not outlaws. They believe in
| personal liberty and the rights of the
/ minority; they are against sumptuary
and class legislation and they dislike to
| see a political question made a religious
| issue. And yet many people give this
/ cleverly concealed prohibition movement
their support because they do not see its
Significance and because, rightly or wrong
i L., they helieye the saloon has abused itS