The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-07-25
ALOT OF TOMMYROT
ConTnected With a Recital That Our
Prohibition Does Not Prohibit"


prohibition does not prohibit.
When a fact is a fact, it can not be
eontroverted with sophistry, nor with
ridicule.
1t is a fact that prohibition in Shreve-
port prohibits to greater degree and
more satisfactorily than had been antici-
pated by many of the most sanguinc
and the most ardent of prohibitionists,
and to the dismay of the liuqor traffic.
No sane man ever expected the to-
tai exclusion of intoxicants from
Shreveport, nor is any rational indi-
vidual surprised if there be visible on
the streets now and then a man intoxi-
Gated from the effects of near-beer or
other stinulant
The fact that drunk is rarely seen
in public and that very few are ar
rested by the police for being drunk or
disorderly may be accepted as being a
practical demonstration of the effective
ness of prohibition, at least in its in
f1uence of restraint on men who have
been noted for their intemperant indul-
gence in whiskey and in beer.
Since the open saloon with its whis-
key and its beer is no longer counte-
nanced, and as the near-beer saloon is
not as enticing nor as seductive as the
open whiskey or beer saloon, where
there may be oBtained intoxicants under
disguise and stimulation, hundreds and
thousands of men in Shreveport who
were the regular patrons of saloons are
rarely seen about saloon and are en-
joying the benefit of temperance.
| In this change for the better, the
saloon and the brewery are the loudest
in their brazen TRADE against prohibi-
ton, which has operated in great losses
to them. It is therefore neither singu-
lar nor strange that the liquor traffic
and their allies are everlastingly pratine
about "our prohibition does not pro.
hibit," hoping in this delusion to arouse
contempt for the law which will leae
to its repeal and to the return of the
open saloon with all its debauchery, de.
basing and defling influences.
Where is the self-respecting citizer
who will openly proclaim his champion
ship of the saloon and the brewery a
agencies for good; as progressive devel
opers and upbuilders, as creators o
wealth and general prosperity and hap
Ipiness?
Where is the self-respecting citizei
who will assert that the saloon and th'
4 brewery, or to be more direct, say th'
i Itrafickers in intoxicants do not affec
public order and public health, publ
morals and public decency, and impov
erish the people?
Let any fair-ninded, honest mai
compare the actual conditions of toda,
as to drunks, as to debauehery an
crime, revelry and ruin in ShreVepor
since January I, 1909, when prohibition
became effective, and the record pre-
! ceding this operation of the law.
4 Hundreds of men, wage earners, VIII
were in the habit of wasting their earn
ings in intoxicants and going hom
drunk and penniless, now enjoy tn
comforts and the blessings of hom
| which they could not appreciate Will
they were ever tempted to indulge i
the stimulants which degraded them an
kept their loved ones in want.
Not only this, but the benehcent et
feet of prohibition has been felt in trad
and traffic as may be attested in man
quarters.
Instead of squandering the week.
earnings in riotous misconduct, result
ing from intoxicants, it is applied
family needs and to comforts as well.
It may be true that as much whiske
, and as much beer is drunk now by
class of men who are connected wit
, social clubs, or who have it handy b
the gallon jug or bottle, quart or pin
! but the majority of this class were M
the profitable patrons of the saloons an
! the beer shops.
In the estimation of some of tt
!; allies of the liquor traffic, as well as
the men directly concerned in the trait
| in intoxicants, prohibition in Shreveport
is "a huge joke" but seriously, who Q
January 1, 1900, would have venture
: the assertion that men prominent
} traffckers in intoxicants would hay
: been convicted and assigned to the goo
/: roads or to jail, besides paying heaN
/, fines in money!
i 1t is not denied that intoxicants ca
be obtained in some, if not all, the nea
: beer establishments in this city, and
is possible that some men can obtain
pint or quart from some druggists c
prescriptions, but the boldest OF Il
trafickers dare not sell openly, as the
did before January l, 1909.
q The man who expected or who ma
4 now expect to have prohibition SO. dl
, that not drop of intoxicants could
/ obtained is Iaborinp under an balfucin;