The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-04-30
fIhe Peasant Saloon Keeper Ruler
of American Cities.
(Editoriall

Inc great wave OF temperance
\ which is now sweeping Europe and
\ America has its chief impulse, no
doubt, in ethical and religious senti-
ment. But new force is operative
the force Of an exact knowledge
of the evil physical effects of alcohol.
1t would be impossible to exagger-
ate the Importance of this new ele-
ment in Temperance Reform.
The stroy of the modern series Of
scientific experiments with alcohol,
begun about twenty-five years ago
and still in progress, is given by DR..
Henry Smith Williams in this num-
Der Of "McClure s Magazine These
investigations, largely conducted in
Continental Europe, include expert
ments on the senses, upon the muscles
and upon the different human intel
1ectual activities, from the simplest
to the most complex Without ex-
ception they show that every function
Of the normal human body is injured
by the use of alcohol-even the mod
crate use; and that the injury is both
serious and permanent.
This knowledge is Of concern to all
the world. But there is in America a
particular and special concern over
a condition which may be believed
to be unparalleled in human history
certainly in modern civilizatlon!:
the power Of the saloon in American
government Of cities.
The fact is notorious; yet the con-
dition is not clearly understood. Six
ty years ago, with the first flood OF
European immigration, the character
of American city governments charged
suddenly and entirely. A great pro-
portion of the peasantry who arrived
| here from the farms of Europe stop
ped in our cities. They were isolated
from the rest Of the population; their
one great social centre was the saloon.
And out of this social centre came
political leaders and the manipulators
Of their votes. The European peas
ant saloon keeper, for more than half
a century, has been the ruler Of a
great proportion Of American cities.
The case of Tammany Hall, for so
\ many years the real governing body
Of New York, is most familiar. It's
politicians for half a century have
graduated into public affairs through
> the common school Of the saloon. Its
leaders at the present time are perfect
examples of the European peasant
saloonkeeper type, which has come
to govern US. The same condition
exists to large extent in nearly ev-
cry one Of the larger cities in the
country. An analysis of the member
ship of the boards Of aldermen IN
these cities for the past few decades
shows a percentage Of saloonkeepars
with foreign names which is aston
ishing.
A government necessarily takes the
character of those conducting it. The
business of saloonkeeping, which pro-
duced the present management Of our
cities, involves from the conditions
which surround it, disregard for
both law and proper moral ideals.
Ordinary commercial motives urge
the proprietors, as class, to increase
the sale of a commodity which the
State everywhere endeavors to re-
strict; and savage condition OF COM
petition drives them still further
till a great proportion break the pro-
visions of the law in some way; while
a considerable number ally themselves
with the most degraded and danger
Gus forms of vice.
The government by this class has
been exactly what might have been
expected. A body Of men-draWn
from an ancestry which has never
possessed any knowledge or tradl-
tions of free government; educated
in a business whose financial Success
es are made through the disregard OF
law-are elevated to the control OF
the machinery of law and order IN
the great cities. Another type OF cit
izen-men of force and enterprise
unsurpassed in the history of the
worldly adapting the discoveries
Of the most inventive century Of the
world to the uses Of commerce, have
massed together in the past half cen
tury a chain Of great cities upon the
face Of half savage continent, and
left them to the government Of such
people as these. The commercial en-,