The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1914-08-29
PEOPLES COLUMN
Registration And The Liquor Question

Editor the WING:
Your recent notice to voters that
they must register this year, or they
cannot vote, should be needed with
especial care by the voters who do no.
wish the saloon system restored in
this county. Naturally the saloon
people will see that every man who
favors the sale of liquor is properly
registered. If the opponents of the
saloons neglect to register, and my
of them will do so unless the matter
is closely attended to, the county may
again have saloons. A large number
of voters will be slow to understand
that, having voted in past years with
out attention to registration they can
lose their vote this year. Those who
favor the temperance side should be
careful 10 explain the situation to any
one who may be in doubt about the
matter, and remind them to register
at the first opportunity.
Without any wide knowledge of the
situation / incline to the opinion that
the men who hope to profit, directly
or indirectly, by the saloons, if they
are licensed in Cecil county, are ex-
pecting some very substantial help
from outside hte county and are hop
ing for victory won by gum shoe"
methods. | find those who favor the
saloon are already at work, trying
out, with cautious inquiries, the voters
and arguing that we may as well have
license at Elkton as at Newark. Large
sums may be quietly spent here to
gain victory for the saloons for the
sake of the effect in other sections of
the county. The battle will be won
or lost, perhaps, at the places of regis
tration.
In this matter it seems to me that
not only the wives and mothers of the
county should be active but that the
'store-keepers as well.
AS one of the most successful gro
GERS in Elkton recently said: "When
we had license men came in with lists
of necessaries the women had given
them; bought only part of the things
required, bought less than enough of
what they did purchase, paid only part
of the BILL, and with the money thus
kept from the grocer, went to the
saloon. That this is a statement Of
fact every merchant knows. The trade
drawn to a town by saloons is saloon
trade. 1t is not good for the mer-
chants of Elkton to have the money
that comes here diverted to saloons,
and the saloon trade is so frequently
a credit trade, with heavy loss from
unjaid bills, that it ought not to be
invited. So heavy is the drain upon
the resources of the surrounding
farms, and upon the local pay enve-
lopes, by saloons, that even if many
people came to Elkton TO get liquor
the total of profits for legitimate
business men, under license, would be
less than now. And with the coming
of new industries to Elkton there is
need to prevent the temptation of
operatives and the consequent poor
work, broken time accounts and pow
erty for the workers
/ live on the road between Newark
and Elkton and | wish some of the adj
vocates of the saloon could have the
object lessons shown by those who
pass my house. Drunken men who
have become brutes, three in a buggy,
Iashlng some poor old horse cruelty as
they go by in state of disgusting de-
hriUm are enough to convert any de-
cent man to the "dry" side, if only for
the sake OF the abused horses.
The forbidding of individuals doing
what is dangerous to the public and
their families, or against the public
welfare, is a settled part of our sys-
TEN of government In no case is it
used with more justice and with more
good sense than in forbidding the sale
of liquors over the bar. Liquor drink
ing for beverage purposes never did
any person any good; it has done in
describable harm. The men who want
saloons in this county are inspired, for
the most part, by purely financial mo-
tives. Those who do not want them,
Who care for decency, good order and
prosperity, and for the happiness of
the homes of the women and children,
should take an active interest in Sc
curing the registration OF every anti
saloon voter.
O. R. WASHBURN.
Elkton, Maryland, August %, 1914.