The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-09-21
PATRIOTISM OF

UuuIIuO tObuU W
CONTINUED from Page One)
the liquor business are up for consid-
Grafton in Washington, do you think
that an official representative of the
brewers or distillers' or liquor deal
ers' organization is usually there to
look out for their interests? No, they
depend almost entirely on DR.. Hexa-
mer, national president of the German
Alliance.
Opposes Liquor Stand.
I am saying this because l want it
understood that it is the liquor part
of the Alliance that am opposing and
not the German. and also for the
reason that there may be some who
have affiliated with this organization
without knowing the chief thing for
which it has been contending. This
] want also to add that to make it APP
pear that the paramount thing in the
mind Of our citizens who once were
German in the perpetuatiOn of the
saloon business is libel on many of
our best citizens.
But" says somebody, while the
German Alliance does stand against
prohibition it is an earnest advocate
form that would materially curtail the
consumption Of liquor. 1t surely will
not be claimed that the liquor inter
ests are backing up an organization
whose purpose tends to injure the
business.
The fact is that the liquor business
is sick 1t is in a bad way in many
parts of this country. 1t has been
driven from many towns and counties
and states, and is threatened now from
Washington. 1t has been driven from
the Navy and the Army, and a con-
stitutional amendment is proposed
driving it from the nation and several
states are voting this fall on banishing
it from its borders. Life insurance
companies have launched campaigns
against it and many large manufac-
turing concerns have condemned it. l
cannot take time to specify. The fact
is common knowledge. The liquor
business is sick, and is anxious to con-
cede some reforms! 1t is trying hard
to appear respectable. Why those
beautiful and expensive posters COM
polling such men as Lincoln and Grant
to decorate beer adds with their pic
lures? 1t is all part of a movement
to rehabilitate a business that is very
badly alarmed over the state of it's
health.
Liquor Business Sick.
II anybody thinks the liquor bust
ness is getting good, just remember
that it is scared.
Some of our local advocates of re-
form, (and l do not question the sin
Serity of many Of them) say, Give us
the German saloon with its screenless
front and it's friendly tables. Take
away the convivial bar and the glitter
ing sideboard." Now know very lit
tie about the German saloon | think
a place it may lack some of the
Objectionable features Of the typical
American barroom. But if it is to
make the public drinking of intoxi-
Cants appear as respectable as public
eating, then | can see in it more
possibilities for harm than the place
the entrance to which is looked upon
as a thing to be ashamed of by many
OF the young people of our day.
But | want to take little more
notice of this advocacy of the German
system of drinking. Surely it is not
claimed that there is no drink evil in
Germany! ] am sure the advocates of
this system cannot be ignorant of the
fact that several years ago the Ger
man Emperor declared himself a total
abstainer, and became an ardent advo-
cate, not of true temperance which
is always the phrase of the liquor man,
but Of total abstainance on the part Of
his people.
Fundamentally our drink problem is
not in the saloon but in the drink.
1t is a saloon problem because the
saloon is the agency through which
the liquor business reaches most of it's
patrons. The only reform that could
be effective would be to stop the thing
that does the harm. That is, to stop
the dispensing of the drinks.
Liberty Plea Selfish.
But" says somebody when you
make it impossible for me to get a
drink of Intoxicating liquor, you inter
fere with my personal liberty
Now, honor bright, my personal
liberty friend, do you really consider
personal liberty the supreme thing. the
sacred thing in civilization. When
you claim it in the name Of a German
IS it because there was no such free
dom in the Fatherland that you never
can get accustomed to the restraints
of America?
This is the first thing have to say
about this personal liberty claim. The
one who sets 1t up as an individual
right against the community welfare
exhibits remarkable Obtuseness
about civilized government or else he
is saturated with the quintessence of
selfishness. That personal liberty
claim is drenched with selfishness, it
reeks with it. 1t is selfishness per-
sonified. 1t has not one iota of public
welfare in it. and the one who sets it
up as the reason for his stand on any
question of public concern, must con-
sent to being counted out of that
class who consider the public welfare,
he counts himself out.
When the day comes that the cry