Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-10
The Man Who Made Money Out Of u

The Man Who Made Money Out of 1t.
On Christmas night negro in
Washington, D. c., committed the
most hideous crime in the world un-
der circumstances so revolving that
mere aIusion to it is painful. When
the prisoner was arraisned the next
day, and the court made the formal
demand that he plead, he replied, ac-
cordins TO the account in the Wash
ington Times:
II just don't know how to plead. -
/ 5"Did you do this act or not?' inquired
Clerk Sebring, severely.
II drunk SO much liquor that night |
don't remember, replied the prisoner,
covering before the gaze of the court and
those about him.
Our idea of effective journalism
would be for the Times" to have its
reporters investigate just what
brand of liquor this negro drank, find
out the manufacturer and print his
photograph and his name, with the
simple legend: This is the man who
profted by the crime" The man, of
course, would turn out to be a highly
respectable citizen of Louisville or
Baltimore or some other of the great
whisky manufacturing .centers; at the
very moment when the tragedy that
he stimulated was bishtins family
in Washington he was sitting snugly
and happily at the head of his Christ
mas table, surrounded by his family
whom he keeps secure from crime
with all the safeguards that money
can provide. In Louisville and Balti-
more to be a manufacturer of whisky
carries no odium; wealth cleanses all.
The above is an editorial from this
weeks Golfers. What a lesson it
carries.
Suppose every crime laid at the
door of intoxication We're traced out
as Golfers suggests and laid at the
door of the makers and sellers OF
booze, what would be the result?
Does any intelligent person believe
that the men who cultivate and ex-
plot and drum up an evil traffic
should not be held responsible for
their part in the crime and suffering
they cause?
But is it any worse to be manu-
facturer of whisky in Louisville or
10 hn ha n tor. ,1f
the traffic or a seller of the goods in
other cities?
Should not the wholesaler, who adj
vertises the booze in attractive ap-
peal, share in the publicity of the
manufacturer who was at the bottom
sof the hideous crime in Washington =
The wholesaler sends his price lists
and catchy advertising into every
home in the land. He is not shut
out of the U. S, mails, although his
literature is Illegal in Maine, and a
Maine concern putting out such stuff
would be PROMPTLY prosecuted.
The wholesaler can advertise his
hell making stuff in some Boston
sheets (Which are none too good to
share the crime for the money! and
the Interstate commerce law pro-
tects him in the circulation of his
vile bid for trade in Maine against
her State laws.
Then there is the man who owns
| the building where the stuff is sold.
and contribute generously for the
heather out of the funds he collects
| in rentals from the traffic which is
| taking eighteen hundred million dol
lars out of the people of this coun-
try the present year.
Does this man who knows that his
property is being used to stimulate
| crimes such as that at Washington;
that he is deriving money with
| which to buy Injuries for his wife
and children with the blood and
| tears of ohter thousands-shall he es
cape a share in the publicity given
the Kentucky whisky maker
| And last but not least, the United
States government is in the business
| of promoting such hideous crimes as
that at Washington on Christmas
| night, sharing in the profit and lend
| ing that which gives the evil traffic
a sort of responsibility with people
who cannot grasp the portent.
Shall not Uncle Sans picture &c
with the group of those who are
propagating every degree of crime
and suffering
l