The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-03-16

the liquor people strangely admit, for
alcoholic liquor to be sold in a blind
tiger it is just as harmful for it to
be sold in saloon. 1t is the same
stuff, in either case. Thus, there can
be no evasion of the logic that it is
the duty of community to rid itself
of both. At this point in the discus
sion we hear the astounding dcclara-
ton from the liquor interests that the
people in their sovereign power can
not get rid of both. We hear the
, statement that this traffic intends to
| fasten itself upon community, legal
| ly if possible, illegally if necessary.
| Any saloon advocate by this asser-
ton classes himself confessedly
among prospective law breakers.
mond nor their advocate may intend
to operate blind tigers (although
| statistics show that most blind tig-
| er" operators in dry territory are
| former saloon keepers, and Mr.. Cor
| don has given interesting information
about the unlawful tendencies OF one
of our own model hotel and saloon
proprietors) Yet who, | would ask,
will be in control Of the blind tiger?
1t is self evident that it is product
Of the same liquor propaganda Of
which the licensed saloon is part.
1t may be an illegitimate whelp, but
nevertheless it is fostered by the
same organized traffic that fosters the
Richmond saloon. II the liquor in
terests were sincere in their strange
position they would kill the blind
tiger" by cutting off it's consisnments
| of liquor.
Thus the argument from a liquor
source that Richmond must retain the
saloon legally only on the ground that
otherwise it will be forced upon US H.
legally, ceases to be an argument, and
becomes an ugly threat that should
mako dry votes in every red-biooded,
: law-abiding home. 1t is sheer upon
/ our citizenship to claim that the same
majority which prohibits the traffic
cannot also enforce it's demands.
| Granting. however, that, owing to
the prediction of our liquor friends
! by their own confession, to break the
! law, there will be blind tigers just
/ the same as their are murderers and
burglars. The assertion that the
! youth of the town will more readily
acquire the habit of drink in such
| places is palpably absurd. According
to Mr. Gordon's argument the "aver-
! age boy, raised in family that
teaches it is wrong to drink X
and to shun the saloon as mad dog" ,
will very naturally go down an alley.
up pair of stairs, and feeling like a
! law breaker. enter the doors of this
illigetimate offspring of the thing he
Ie.h u-h thn a
bility of legal sanction.
Such distorted human nature is
now existent in the average boy"
i In conclusion ] desire to give, as a
citizen of Richmond, my observations
concerning the consumption of liquor
in the three prohibition states of
Kansas, North Carolina and Maine,
merely to add another small item Of
evidence to the crushing total. In the
first two states I heard frequent COM
plants from travelling men and 9th
| ers in hotels and on trains that they
could not find a drink anywhere. l
| was a resident in Maine in 1912 dur
ing the loosest enforcement of the
! law in its history under Governor
! Plaisted. But even though blind tig-
ers were allowed to run openly. they
did but little business as compared to
| that of a saloon Having a deep inter
est in the problem of law enforcement,
visited four or five easily ascertain
able bar-rooms near Monument Square
in Portland at the hour when such
business is naturally at its height.
In one there We're no patrons. and in
each of the others only about half a
half dozen men. According to the
advertisement these places should
have been filed with young men and
women learning to drink, but the ma
jority were seemingly sailors from
tramp vessels or lumbermen from the
woods. The truth is the fact that the
residents of Portland have gradually
lost the habit of drinking, and the
consumption is largely with the large
floating population.
Now for fear that some brain. fever
ed by alcohol or charmed by the CLINT
of liquor gold, should misConstrue
this into an argument that prohibition
cannot prohibit. will further say
that with the advent of Gov. Haines,
the law has been enforced. Through
| the Impeachment of several sheriffs
and a series of wholesale arrests,
! Maine is becoming dry in fact. In a
signed statement Gov. Haines says
that the commitments for intOXication
have been during the past year hall
the number during non-enfOrcement.
Thus in Richmond. if a majority of
our citizens declare that this traffic
shall go, that same majority can see
that it does go, despite the threats
of the liquor advocates that it will
stay in any case.
Respectfully,
VINCENT D. NICHOLSON.
229 College avenue.
March 10. 1914.
Answer to Bennett GOrdOn's refer