Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-02-10
High license or Outlawry.
Stayton, Ore, Feb. 5, 1911

III yOuT 6alteluSQ paper I6du
communication l would like to an.
swer in your columns.
The first question that an Ameri.
can puts to the voters is what l vote
for high license and regulation, or
hypocrisy and outlawrey? My dag
nosis of this question is, we and our
fore fathers, including the courts.
have been trying to regulate the sa-
loon and the liquor traffic for more
than century in this country and
to no avail. Now the sum is, the
liquor people will not abide by law
that suits them not. Can you find
a saloon keeper who adheres to the
law, gives no drink to a minor, or
tells a habitual drunkard he needs
his money at home with his family
and can't get more than one or two
drinks per day, or that he must pay
his honest debts before he can
squander his money so? oh no,
that woud hurt the trade. We must
catch all the minors too, to perpet.
uate our business whether their par
ents consent to it or not. If we eau
get them, is argument enough.
This, an American, speaks as one
informed in the inside work of
liquor people. He says high license
or outlawery? Does he mean we
will abide by the law if you let us
do as we please, or we will be out
laws and not obey the law if you put
restraint on us? 1t is not the
Prohis that will be the outlaws.
Suppose the majority of voters de-
eide to favor liquor in the next cleo
ton and the prohis begin to howl as
do the liquor men when they are
beaten, and defy the law and blame
the vets for the trouble you would
certainly see it in a different light.
You would say the Legislators or
the voters in their wisdom thought
best to retain license and we must
obey the law.
Further on he says the main ar
gument is the liquor bill. That is
exactly what helped to open my
eyes. I myself helped such people
tried to get them on their feet, but
every time liquor got them down
they went and I never got paid for
what 1 put in the game. The liquor
men had my money and my friends
reputation too. So I decided to go
and fight on a different line. Just
look at the crimes and murders all
traceable to liquor and the immense
bill we toilers and producers must
pay in prosecuting those liquor crinl-
inals.
Further on he deplores the ex-
pense of churches and missions.
Why not take in also our public
schools. They cost enormous sums,
but he is sharp enough to not incur
the ill-will of the schools or their
friends. Evidently Mr.. American"
thinks christianity is at low ebb
and by appealing to the religious
class he may recruit followers, as he
can't hope to get many Christian,
and as for the churches they are
nearly as a whole educational, ds
they all teach the rising generation
to lead good honest and moral lives,
which is quite incompatible with the
liquor traffic. He says the church
is all right in it's place, Puts me
in mind of John at the Jordan, as
long as he preached in the desert it
was all we'll, but as soon as he be-
came personal and pointed out King
Herod's crime he lost his head. AL
so Christ as soon as he drove the
sellers out of the temple and began
to clean house among the sick and
sorrowful his trouble began, If
may call it that, The sum is, the |
liquor people with their boasted |
outlawrey have lost the respect and |
of most of the respectable
people and are fighting their last
,hance-of-existence battle.
A Subscriber.