Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-01-24
cARR0LL'S TRAGEDY,

"A county olllCldl IN SaTTOll county
drank himself into trouble financial and
otherwise, and coming to the end of his
rope. shocked the community with a
tragedy The story has been featured
in the newspapers of the state. He was
a likable man who had friends and
sorrow, pity and horror mingled over
his taking off.
Now the newspapers of the town are
inveighing against the drinking joint.
The inference is that the late county
officer did his drinking elsewhere than
at the saloons of which Carroll has the
legal number.
But what particular difference would
it have made had the man drank him
eeld to despair In the saloons instead
Of outside? Whisky is whisky and a
dead man with deficit in public funds
with which he had been entrusted, are
the same things whether whisky got
him" in a saloon sanctioned by the
payment of the nnulct or in a drugstore
or Joint" Perhaps he bought booze
Of druggists or bootleggers He might
have bought his supplies over the bars.
1t would have had quite as much dis
grace and tragedy and heartache and
horror at the end Of it all. The outcry
over the joints and the fierce assault
upon them all along the line is we'll
in IN he
cleaned out; but back of them rs the
legalized traffic, the lowering of public
opinion on the liquor question which
is one result Of legalized public drink
ing places, the habit. cultivated by the
readiness with which it can be appeased.
and the booze. The mulct is only a
screen before the doors Of tragedy, a
sanded pane which hides the horrors
within. The joint didn't do it alone.
The system and sentiment Of the COM
munity which resents interference with
an imitation personal liberty" did it
That's the real fact and the RESPONSE
bility must be divided. joint. saloon.
A tiger with dog collar about it's
neck IS a tiger just the same.
The saloon is different" But the
booze isn't. The results are not diff
fereat. When the man has reached the
point of descent to the BLACK list"
where else is he to go but to the joint
and the bootlegger? This idea that
youth shall have full personal liberty
to become drUnkards and must then
exercise sslf-restraint, that men may
properly assist him along he descent to
Avernus until the crossroads are
reached. and that other men will not be
1 found with the same greedy impulse to
supply his craving for price. doesn't
work out in practice. 1t isn't even a
good theory.
And why do we rush against the
joints and bootieggers ard drinking
places when the victim is county Of
fetal more than when the common
la horer or the clerk. the minor man in
.
booze and tragedy destroys a humble
home? What is there Of divinity which
should hedge against the betrayal by
booze the popular man more than he
who is unknown? Human lives are
human lives. whisky is whisky. and the
results arrived at the same whether
q he Nf a
street intersection for the privilege. or
adds to his responsibilities by violating
the law. Back Of it ALI is the habit and
| the inuences legal or Illegal which pro-
woke and supply it.
/ 1t might with propriety and in the
face Of the free plate and press bureau
! of the liquor interests be asked how
comes it in well regulated saloon
! town that joints and bootleggers -four
ish to the extent asse rted by the Car
roll newspapers against the assertion
that the regulated saloon is the only
method of suppression Of illicit liquor
dealing? 1t is fair question. Why is
/ it? Another and as fair a question
| is: Isn't it true that no Kelley gradu-
ate, drunkard or imbecile need go sober
in any saloon town when he has the
price and desire to get drunk?
Isn't it time to actually inquire into
the facts Of these matters instead OF
accepting assertion and outcry which
cover an ulcer as a cloth may cover 8
cancer? This man at Carroll is blu,
one Of an innumerable throng Of like
able and useful men. community assete
that have been squandered. to enrich
the hugest graft and greatest outrage
of human history. CAROLS tragedy is
an incident in a greater tragedy.