The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-09-18
New Haven Editor Makes Not
able Address at State Ban
quet Of State Liquor
Dealers Association.
HOW THE IDEAL SALOON
SHOULD BE CONDUCTED

ANO "OPdpCI11OH OCdIl 0uIl Z d.
pers and Liquor Dealers Sa-
looms Better Than Their Crit
les.
A notable address was made by
Philip Troup, editor of the New Ha-
ven Union, at the twentieth annua,
banquet of the Connecticut Retail
Wine. Liquor and Beer Dealers AS
ISOLATION at the Winthrop Hotel, Mer-
iden, Monday evening, in responding
to the toast, 1.-THE Press Mr.. TrouE
had not been assigned to the topic
The printed card called for James j.
Walsh, collector of internal revenue
to make the speech. Mr.. Walsh was
unavoidably detained, and Mr.. Trour
in making reference to it, said it was
proper that he should take the place
of the collector, as his own father once
held that post
Mfr. Troup's Address.
Mr.. Troup spoke as follows:
congratulate you on this TWEEN
tieth annual banquet, marking, as ii
does, twenty years of real improve
ment and achfevem ent for real tenn
perance in the trade you represent.
am especially pleased to be here
tonight because of the opportunity it
affords me of giving my approval to
the ideas and purposes for which your
organization stands. I realize only
too well that I have not always been
classed by some of those engaged in
the liquor business as a friend of the
trade, although have to a, limited ex-
tent been a patron of your wares.
I feel, however. in this connection
like the after-dinner speaker who was
accused of insulting his friends. He
I'm sorry for, If you'll come around to
my office tomorrow I'll reiterate it,
No, my friends, no man, much less
a newspaper man, need be any more
ashamed of what he has said in good
conscience than of what he has drunk
with a eleeE@head.===-4s
Position of Editor.
A newspaper editor holds a unique
position in the community he serves.
He is something of a town crier and
critic, commenting upon everything
from soup to nuts, from Dan to Beer
sheba, from heaven to the other place,
and then some. He can make more
enemies in ten frank, honest lines
than he can. make friends in ten
w1shy-was11y columns. IF he is a trim
mer, and I am sorry to say we have a.
fair sprinkling of this species Of
genus homo in our editorial sanctunns,
he usually makes his choice between
saying something that has severa
meanings or several things that have
no meaning. If he is on the level
andtthinks out loud he hits out square
ly from the shoulder, hews straight
to the line, letting the chips fall where
they may. There is one thing the
newspaper man soon learns in his
work, that those engaged in a, business
are the best Judges of the needs of
their own trade.
keepers should attempt to run and
cItned to the opinion that they would
make almost as bad a mistake as the
ministers are in attempting to run
and regulate the liquor business. I
do not mean by this that suggestions
from any source. especially from good
church people, should not be welcom-
ed; but do mean that in the final
analysis the liquor business, like ev-
cry other, will be just as good and
just as bad those engaged in it.
and it's improvement has depended
and will continue to depend largely
upon the efforts of those whose all IS
staked in it.
There are a great many people in
this country to-day, too many, in fact,
who are making a sorry mess of their
own affairs, about which they are
presumed to know something, by Civ
ing up too much time and effort tell
ing other people how they ought to
run affairs about which these busy
bodies know little or nothing.
It does seem sometimes that the
less one of these Paul Prys knows
about his own business the more he
feels inpelled to tell the other fell
low how he should run his business.
Shoemaker Should Stick to His Last.
Ismay be mistaken, but think the
newspapermen can run the newspa-
pers better than their critics who
have never been in the newspaper bus
mess, and for a like reason, I believe
the liquor dealers can run the liquor
business better than their critics who
have never been in 1t.
1t is a peculiar thing, but there. are
people who imagine that the liquor
dealers want to run the liquor bust
ness on as low a plane as possible,
when every meeting and convention of
those engaged IN this business clearly
indicates that their real object is to
run this legitimate trade on as high
a plane as possible.
The worst enemies of the liquor
trade to-day are an impure and adul-
terated product and the very few
black legs in it,. who violate the law.
Nobody knows this better than you
gentlemen here and nobody has fought
these evils harder than you have.
I have and shall continue, in the
pursuance. of my function as news
paper editor, to inveigh against those
who sell impure liquor and violate the
law wilfully and deliberately
In the past L have hammered this
sort of thing as hard as I could and
I have not spared those who thought
were shielding these blacklegs from
the punishment they justly deserved;
but want to say this, that the rec
ord will be fair and complete, and I
want to direct it particularly to my
friends, that even when I
have INDUCED myself in such criti-
cism I have found more real support
and received more sincere comm enda-
ton for my efforts from the men of
this association than I did from any
pastors union.