Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-07
HEAR OF BETTER
LIQUOR METHODS
WIPE DIVE KEEPERS OUT IS
SPEAKERS ADVICE
CAPT. D. M. SMITH SPEAKS TO
SALOON MEN
Tells of objects of Model License
League and Urges Liquor Deal
ers to Clean Up 7usl-
ness

"Clean up your business or be wiped
ont of existence" was the text of an
address delivered by Capt. D. M. Smith,
general counsel of the Model License
league, before liquor dealers at Eiks
hall yesterday afternoon.
wipe out the dive keeper, stay out
of politics that does not concern you'
and run your business like the butcher'
the baker and the candlestick maker
rim thefrs' was some of the gOou au-
Vice Captain Smith gave his audience.
"There is some misapprehension as
to what the Model License league
stands for" said Captain smith. MY
organization does not work IN opposl-
tion to other organizations which exist
az. fba hetterment of the trade. When
we find such organizations we are
ready to stand shoulder to shoulder
with them. 1t has been asserted that
we are opposed to the liquor interests.
such a statement is absurd. All the
officers of the Model License league are
liouor men, and all our members are in
some way interested in the liquor pusl-
ness. ~
I'VE are fighting for the life of the
liquor business. The dive mas prousnI
such disrepute on the trade in general
that the finger of scorn is pointed at
every saloon keeper. If l were rep
utable saloon keeper I would make up
NV mind to bring this business up to
standard where / could conduct my
business without being ashamed, and If
/ couldn't do this I would get out.
Burdens of Liquor Men
mOf all the men in the world who are
bearing the burdens of some other per-
SONS sins there are none so heavily
burdened as the saloon keeper EVERY
decent saloon keeper has to suffer the
contempt that has been brought on the
business by the five or ten persons out
of each hundred who conduct dives. 1t
is the dive that Is held up as horrible
example when we have our wet and
dry elections. 1t is not the saloon that
has obeyed all the laws on the statute
books. and which has been conducted
in such a way as to bring credit to the
owner, which are shown us. 1t is the
dives that are responsible for the wet
and dry elections. When communities
vote for prohibition they do so to get
rid of these dives. The American pub
lie is tired of the dive keeper, and is
Offering up the ninety decent saloon
keepers to be rid of the ten indecent
ones.
iiBut YOU ninety decent men can save
your DuSlllcpo w 6SSNAAAS A-A
ten dive keepers yourself Don't wait
for an outsider to clean you up; do 1t
yourselves The American people have
got to the point, through the dive keep
ers' violation of law where they do
not discriminate. Raise your business
to the standard maintained in Germany.
Why is it the saloon business In Ger
many is respected while in America it
is scored? Because in Germany they
1aof raorf1lqtpc They
do not have the regulation that under
one administration everything is wide
open and under the next everything is
closed to the point of absurdity.
1T am not afraid of Los Angeles going
dry. because the saloon business in this
city, as a whole, is decently conducted.
1 found one place in this city that is
the most model saloon I ever saw. We
have got to do something in this city as
well as everywhere else to clean up the
business so there will be no necessity
for calling wet and dry elections.
"And another thingl Stay out of
politics. Every liquor man has right
to vote. Every liquor man has right
to run for office and to get out at the
polls and work as hard as he pleases.
That is the right of every American
citizen, but when the liquor men, as an
organization, get out and fight political
battles in Wnlcn tney can nave no posSl-
BILE interest, it brings down the wrath
of the American people. So long as
some pothouse politicians can crack the
whip over a saloon keeper, that saloon
keeper must get out and do politics,
whether he likes it or not, but it is our
business to emancipate the liquor BUSH
ness so the saloon keeper will not have
to go into politics. The butcher or the
baker do not go into politics as organi-
cations. I'VE want the liquor business
on the same plane as the business of
the butcher and baker.
I'VE must try for an honest plan for
an honest business. If our business has
evils in 1t we must get rid of the evils. ;"