The Republican journal., 1912-04-18
THE ANTI-ALCOHOL CRUSADE.

"The saloon element and their friends
will have to conjure up some new mater.
ial with which to meet the anti-alcohol
crusade, now moving on to national VIC
tory" said Sanford B. Horton, assistant
secretary of the Religious Liberty Assoc
iation of Washington, D. c., to repre-
sentative of this paper. '"They have
told us that prohibition does not prohibit,
and therefore the business of whiskey
drinking should be licensed. They tell
us that prohibition laws make possible
blind tigers speak easies, bootleg
ging, etc., ad nauseum. Moreover, we
are told that the only way to have a law
abiding system of dispensing whiskey is
to license it as business.
'In reply to these specious arguments
put forth by the liquor interests we
would say: first, prohibition does pro-
hibit, or there would not be so much said
along that line; second, the saloon peo-
pie are not able to show that licensing
the traffic insures it's conducting itself
in lawful way, such as the elimination
of the blind tigers, the 'speak-easies,
etc. What is the record? Take Chicago
for an example, where the saloon is IL
censed. There are in that city 1000 IL
censed saloons and at least 5000 places
where liquor is illegally sold. In Pitts
burgh not long ago the licensed liquor
dealers appealed to the city government
to close up some 1000 blind tigers, but
these have not as yet, am informed,
been closed. In Philadelphia the police
report that there are as many speak
easies' as there are licensed saloons.
1.-THE fact alleged that one million dol
lars worth of alcohol is consumed an
nually in prohibition Maine is also held
up as a reason for repeating its article
the sale and manufacture OF
alcohol in the State. Supposing that to
be true, if the traffic were licensed, ac-
cording to United States statistics, Maine
would spend nearly $l3, 1000, 900 per year.
Thus from the standpoint of economics
Maine is better off by at least $12,OOO,-
900 per annum under prohibitory law.
"There is method in the madness of
King Alcohol's friends. They are face
to face with the fact that King Alcohol
is an outlaw in. Maine and other States,
and it is intended by the saloon people to
break down all legal barriers and permit
him to associate with other business en-
terprises upon an equal footing. But
there is no way TO make the alcohol trade
Alcohol is poison, mar
cotic, an evil agency, under the influence
of which men are unnamed and become
friends of lawlessness. 1t is so held by
scientists, by jurists, by business people,
by students of economics, besides by the
church.
"In 1908 Judge Kimball of the Fed
eral branch of the police court of Wash
ington, D. c., said: Many years of close
observation as judge of the police court
has convinced me that the largest per-
centage of crime is directed traceable to
drinking. was at the Jail recently and
asked Warden Harris for his opinion
on this same subject, and he asserted
that his talks with criminals of all types
had shown 80 per cent of them had
reached their downfall because of whis-
key drinking
'"The United States Supreme Court
has declared: The statistics of every
State show greater amount of crime
and misery attributable to the use of
ardent spirits obtained at these liquor
saloons than to any other source. 1t is
therefore proper and right that the State
should treat alcohol as an outlaw and