The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-07-15
Number W

II the danger 10 the people stopped
at the drinker, we might perhaps charge
| off the loss to the ''pers0nal liberty
account, and depend upon the growing
! health Of abstinence. to run away from
| the disease. But the liquor peril does
not stop at the weak and the vicious.
The bulk of it, indeed, falls on the in
nocent and the strong. We stand. or
| fall, together. My drunken neighbor
burdens his wife 5 heart, or breaks it,
leaves a trail Of defective children, de-
| faults his obligations as neghbor and
a citizen, or becomes an active agency
| OF vice and crime. But the sober and
industrious foot the bills, in money and
n misery: and the clean homes suffer
with the vile.
We have been told for many years
| that the license system is a scheme to
| Cypress and weaken the liquor trade.
| II that be true, the scheme is an out
rage, not very different from highway
robbery-to hold up with a strong hand,
recognized business and compel it
| TO pay for its own destruction.
But that was never true. The license
system was always IN effect. an endorse
ment and an encOurag cement of the Ia
uor traffic. 1t found the business in the
tap-ro0m of the tavern and the back
room Of the grocery, with the liquor
dealer, IS such. commercially. socially
and politically insignificant. Centuries
Of this OPPRESSION have so highly
specialized the liquor seller and so
strongly fortified he liquor business,
that they have moved up to the street
front and to the center of the stage,
in politicO-economic efficiency. The bar
bel-head, or the cheap deal table that
formerly served as a bar. has evolved
from the shadows and cobwebs into
gorgeous but tawdry symposium Of dec
Grafton; and the proprietor. by virtue
of his proprietorship, has become the
chartered and insolent defer of the
law and hacker of every corruption.
from crooked politics up to the red
light district
Within my own memory, the license
Oppression has been increased ten
fold, and in the same time, the political
power and the social havoc of the drink
have increased in higher ratio.
J. NJ. Atherton. president of the Ma
tional Protective Association. the fore
most organization Of distillers and
wholesale liquor dealers saws:
1.-The true plicv for the liquor trade
to pursue IS to advocate as high a IL
cense a they can in Justice to them
selves afford TO pay
Peter f. Her the most prominent
diStiller in Nebraska, saws:
hn}ia,n bfrrb
Of the grandest laws for the Iiouor
traffic and for the men interested. as
well as for people at large. there is. -
Henry s. WuhfeIdt & Co., distiIIers
Of Chicago. say:
We think the trade in any State
should favor high license"
Devereaux & Mcserve. wholesale lia-
nor dealers of Boston, gave this advice
to their patrons in Nebraska in 1890:
FAdvOcate high license and reach all
the politicians and others Of influence
Do not think You can silence the nuI-
pit, but Won can induce some of them
20 advocate high license on moral
grounds'
Bowler Bros. brewers of Worcester.
Massachusetts, say:
Your battle cry must be high license
versus prohihjtion.'
Metz & Bro. the leading brewery Of
Nebraska, wrote from Omaha:
"High license bars prohibition. We
are positively certain that were It not
for our present high license law Neb-
raSla, today, wouId have prohibition. -
During the movement for an increase
Of the liquor tax in Ohio the liquor
men outwardlv opposed its adoption but
I'll l.