The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1914-11-13
Concerning Crime

employed several hundred more policemen. Now, these new
men know that their employment by the city was made pos
slble by the increased revenue from the liquor business. Is it
reasonable to suppose that the man on the beat will voluntarily
do anything very disagreeabe to the mar back of the business
that yields the fund from which that same policeman is paid
his salary? Is it any surprise that there is a friendly feeling
between the saloonkeeper and the policeman? If there are such
friendly relations, neither is to be blamed, the public brought
about that relationship.
1t is easy to see that the seven or eight millions of dollars
each year have no small influence on the average man in keep
ing him quiet concerning the frightful crime and vice flowing
from the saloon doors. It is also easy to understand how the
average patrolnan is either friendly with or Indifferent toward
the saloon.
Then, too, it must be remembered that we have grown a
kind of politics in the saloons that can flourish only SO long as
the saloon endures. Therefore, a telephone message from a
saloon has many more times the influence in the city hall than
a telephone call from one of the churches. How long do you
think a groceryman could stay in business whose place is
shown up to be the regular meeting ground for a crowd of
criminals? How much influence would such a man have in the
common courts at law? But the case is all different with the
saloonkeeper. You see, we have grown a certain kind of poll
tics in the saloons, and SO long as we have saloons we shall
have that same rotten sort of government.
There is a crowd of men at Joliet that know more about
the saloons than any one company in this state outside those
grim walls OF the state prison. Those men have played around
the lights of the bars and have been burned. They have paid
their cash and their character over the Shiny counters. They
nave staggered from the saloon doors into the crimes that have
landed them within the prison. These men know whereof they
speak. The other day they wanted to speak and did speak.
They tried to petition the legislature, but NO, they may not
appear in the halls of law at Springfield. They are no
longer with name or standing there. They are mere numbers,
from one to 1900 of them. They wanted to tell the state gov
eminent OF this commonwealth that 70 per cent of crime is due
to strong drink. They wanted to say that if the saloons were
closed, in a little while there would be about 500 men in that
prison instead of the great multitude now there. They doubt
less might tell of the poverty of wife and child, of the heart
break of father and mother, of the blighted hopes and ruined
fortunes of themselves. All this woe they would like to tell.
and insist that 70 per cent of it can be prevented, can be
actually stopped. But they may not be heard. Our big city
reaps SEVEN MILLION, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY
w THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM THE RUM SHOPS
that turn out that sort of man. Why, then, should the man be
heard? We have cornered crime, we are making money. Let
the poor devils howl, the legislature will not hear them, the
prison warden says SO.
But, thank God, due to a wide-awake and unafraid press,
the PEOPLE have heard that piteous petition, and the people
have something to say about that sacred legislature. If the
lawmakers are wise they, too, will hear and heed.