Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-29
A WORD TO THE LIQUOR
INTERESTS
TT HAS come to the knowledge of
i The Herald that an effort is heing

ment are perfectly we'll aware of its
falsity. Honest liquor dealers who per-
nit themselves to be influenced by it to
oppose honest and decent government
for the city of Los Angeles are doing
more harm to their business than their
worst enemies could do.
The Herald has taken occasion here
tofore to say that it does not believe
in prohibition for the city of Los An
geles. There is no doubt that pro-
hibition is a most excellent thing for
any community where public sentiment
is sufficiently in the majority and ag-
gressive to sustain it. Any community
a fair majority of whose citizens ia
vor prohibition is entitled to have it,
just as a majority is entitled to rule
upon all other questions. But expert
ence has demonstrated that prohibition
laws in a community where they are
not enforced by a fair preponderance
of aggressive public sentiment is the
most ineffective way Of dealing with
the liquor traffic.
Some time ago vote was taken in
the city of Los Angeles which clearly
demonstrated that a large majority of
our citizens-at least two to one-were
against prohibition. That in the minds
Of reasonable people settled the matter
and demonstrated that the proper
fethod of dealing with the liquor traf-
fic in this community was to be found
in regulation and not in prohibition.
Mayor Alexander in every utterance
that he has made on this subject has
pat himself on record as favoring rea-
sonable regulation and not favoring
prohibition.
In an interview published in a morn
ing newspaper the day after the pri-
mary election he stated:
"The people of Los Angeles are not IN
favor of the closed town. 1 have found
out this fact. If L am elected shall be
the mayor of the people. 1 am not an ad-
voeate of blue laws. 1 am ready TO give
the people the unclOsed town they desire
but a line must be drawn between licensed
and unlawful conduct. The latter Is not to
be countenanced in any way, and the peo-
pie do not want it,"
Any man who, in the face of this
explicit declaration, states that Mayor
Alexander favors a closed town is
either imposed upon or is indulging in
deliberate falsehood At the same time
Mayor Alexander has put himself upon
record as favoring laws properly reg
ulating the conduct of the liquor busi-
ness so that it shall not degenerate
from business into a public scandal, |
and he and the men whom he has ap-
pointed to the police commission have
shown their determination to enforce
these laws.
If the liquor dealers of Los Angeles
could only realize it, every one of
them who opposes the proper regula-
tion of their business is the worst pos
sible enemy of that business.
There is no question that the tremen-
dous growth of prohibition sentiment |
in this country, which has become ef-
fective by giving prohibition to a large |
part of the United states, is owing |
more To the abuse than to the use of |
alcoholic liquors. The low doggeries
and dives maintained in the south,
where ignorant and vicious negroes
could indulge without restraint in the
poisoned liquor which made them |
ready for any brutality, has been the
cause of putting the majority of the |
southern states into the prohibition |
ranks.
The injury inflicted by the low sa-
loon upon society in our American |
towns and cities and its use as an ad-
junct to corrupt municipal politics has |
made more enemies to the saloon than |
anything else, and is largely the cause
OF the prohibition wave that is sweep
ing over the west and some of the east
ern states. The fact that the unregu-
lated sale of liquor, or the sale of Ii
quor by the low saloon and dive in de-
hance of the law, is menacing the exist
ence of the business in this country
has been recognized in many forms
within the last year or two by associa-
tions composed of the more intelligent |
class of liquor dealers of the country.
A short time ago the New York State
Liquor and Beer Dealers association
passed a resolution favoring the limita-
tion Of saloons to one for every 750 in
habitants and denouncing the dive.
The chairman of that association
warned its members that the continu-
ance. Of the dive rested largely with
themselves, and urged them to take
steps TO abolish it,
The association at this meeting |
passed a resolution declaring it to be
the duty of its members to refuse to
sell supplies to disorderly resorts.
The brewers of Milwaukee some time
ago formed an association for the sup
preston of the dives in that city, and
more than two hundred licenses of low
saloons and dives were forfeited by |
the city authorities upon information
as to their character furnished by the
brewers association.
The Herald desires to impress most !
earnestly upon the liquor dealers of
Los Angeles the fact that in cam
raign where the lines between decent
and its opposite are so
closely drawn their business may very
easily be put on trial.
Liquor dealing in Los Angeles as Il
business received more injury from the
vile resorts maintained by Goings,
Dunno and men Of their stamp under
the late wide-open Harper administra-
ton than it could possibly receive from
Mayor Alexander or any number OF