El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-25


ticism-men of experience, men free
from clerical domination, men pledged
! to work for the enactment OF honest
! laws, men opposed to cOnfisca ton with
cut compensation, liberal minded, edu-
Gated men. who viii have the moral
ability and standing to secure rational
legislation.
Prohibition.
Prohibition is on trial today at the
bar Of public opinion. The jury Of your
cOuntrymen is weighing the evidence
J and for the first time in our expert
ence the jury Is fearing the evidence
on both sides; our arguments, our state
ments Of facts; our claims and pro-
/ testatiOns have at last found willing lis
| tenerS; we are proving our case; we
! have shown by official statistics that
prohibition does not prohibit; We have
! shown the increase of lawlessness in
! dry territory, and the jury is pre-
pared to give US time to prove concru-
sively that license and regulation
! make for temperance.
Some would devote our energies and
| our finances to legal bureau; some
urge a concentration against our COM
mon enemy-the Anti-SalOon League.
| Because of these diversities we waste
much strength in struggles among our
selves; by mutual concession we should
| be compromising. but it would be COM
| promise among friends.
I'VE are enlisted for the war"
"HiSh Glass Men,
| ". J. Friday, of Pirrsburg, Pa. chair
man western branch Wholesale Liquor
| Dealers association. of Pennsylvania,
| said
considering the sta,e as a whole. the
] liquor business is probably better con-
n cd and n fcrfaa o1nc Of
gagged in it, than any other state in the
union. 1t is rare to hear any COM
plants of licensed place being dis
orderly. 1t is also rare for any licensec
to be accused Of selling to minors
habitual drunkards. or on Sunday. II
has been stated that it is as difficult TO
secure drink in a licensed place in
Pennsylvania on Sunday, or on election
days. as it is for the proverbial lien
man of the Bible to get into heaven.
In the state of Pennsylvania we have
had strong agitation from the Anti-Sa-
loon league and kindred organizations,
during the past six years. for the en-
actment of a specific local option law
1t is well understood throughout the
state that the object OF urging local
option bill in the state is to lay the
foundation to later secure a county OPP
ton bill, and finally statewide prohibit
ton. OF course, the character of IL
cense laws that we have in the state,
and the kind of places that are con-
Quoted under the lash of its provisions,
have assisted in preventing the at
tempts of the anti-saloon league in that
direction SOcalled temperance agitators
prefer disOrderly to orderly LIQUOR
places.
Always a Prominent Question.
T NJ Gilmore, president of the Ma
tional Model License league, Of Louis
vile. KY, said:
For nearly one hundred years the
liquor problem has held a prominent
place before the voters of the country,
sometimes as a local question, then
again as state question, but always as
a source of tremendous agitation, al |
ways as means of splitting comtnuni- |
ties into factions, always bringing a |
heavy financial burden on the people, |
in many cases wiping out tremendous !
revenues and destroying privte prop |
erty, and as a question it has ebbed and /
flowed from time TO time in what have /
been termed prohibition waves, but |
after all of this agitation, and after /
costing the country hundreds of mil
lions of dollars 1t remains with us today |
In practice an unsOlved problem, and
one that has vexed cur writers and re-
formers and doctrinaries as no other
problem ever vexed them within the !
history Of this government.
F1el0 Tor AgitatOrS.
There is no doubt that the liquor
problem has furnished the most fertile |
field ever offered to agita .o~s pro-
fessional reformers, discredited preach
ers, emotional orators and conscience
less grafters, or that the laws that they
have brought into existence during the
past century have proved to be the
most expensive ever adopted in this
country and the most stupendous fail
ures in the history of legislation.
State after state has tried prohibi-
tionS properties worth hundreds of mil
lions of dollars have been conffscated,
revenues worth hundreds of millions of
dollars have been lost and the problem
n practice is no nearer solution than
t was fifty or one hundred years ago,
and the consumption of alcoholic bever-
ages, instead of being decreased, has in
creased within the last fifteen years
like fifty percent
Must Oppose Churches.
We must oppose the Anti-Saloon |
eague because it has undertaken to be- |
and up TO two years ago was, the most |
dangerous political movement that this
country has ever known.
1t is movement referred to as the
Church in Action and this SO-called |
Church in Action has undertaken to
iictate to every legislature in the Unit
I'd States; it has undertaken to name |
|
md members of our various legisla-
ures and city councils; and I do not !
hink that I exaggerate when 1 say that
lnder the lash of this organization the I
public men of this country up to two ,
7ears ago trembled, and in many states ! ,
we're driven to the passage of laws that | !
hey abhorred, and that they voted for |
,nly through fear of political destruc-
ion.
The National Model License league
las never hesitated to condemn the An q
i-Saloon league before the public, and !
believe that today the press and a s
arge part Of the public agree with US {
hat it should be discredited and shorn
f its power, and that as quickly as
possible it should be forgotten.
The people are bound to find out in
ime that it is impossible to enforce
law where 80 percent of the people
re determined to violate it
Have Been FuIIied
Emil Nathan, wholesale liquor dealer
f St. Louis, Mo, formerly of Memphis,
'enn., where he was actively enga ged in
work as head of the Jew
lsh charities of that city, said:
I'm my Judgment We have been en-