Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-19
The Challenge of Booze" to the Common
wealth

]
LIN the political history Of Pennsylvania.
The Governor is engaged in a mighty fight
to protect property interests in this Com
! monwealth, and at the same time to give the
people of the several counties the right, II
they desire. to drive out the saloon.
His fight is a fight for property interests,
because If local option fails. out Of its car
cass will rise prohibition a propaganda
which is espoused with fanatcal ardor
which takes no note Of precedents or estab-
shed customs but is intent on utterly dis
rupting and exterminating all alcoholic fao-
tories 1t has nothing to do with temper
ance. 1t works with the scalpel and cuts tho
cancer out.
The Governor fights for property interests
because under local option there will not bo
prohibition in the large cities but chiefly in
the rural districts, wherefore few liquor
manufacturing establishments will be driven
out Of business and their property confis-
Gated lie fights for property interests be-
cause he fights to drive the liquor industry
into a position satisfactory to public opinion
wherever operative.
The liquor interest is intent on cutting It's
own throat at Harrisburg by opposing local
option. The Governor is endeavoring to lead
a great group of citizens out of madness into
a clear vision of the situation.
THE saloons were the centres OF nearly all
the corruption in the election at Tcrre
Hautc," said Judge Anderson, when sentenc-
ing the men who had pilaged Vigo County.
MY notion is that the saloon will have to
60"
That is the conclusion to which a great
majority of the citizens of the United States
are coming. The saloon in it's present form
must go. 1t must go because 1t has become
the breeding place of political corruption. 1t
has not been content to ply its trade. It has
reached It's tentacles into the pcnetrala Of
government. 1t has debauched political lead
ers and parties, governed cities and common
wealths It has Matched conspiracy after
conspiracy against good government and fer
tilted with strong drink the elements on
which corruptonsts have depended to work
their will
y And nowhere has the saloon in such activl-
ties been more energetic than in Pennsyl-
vania. 1t comes fresh from the triumph Of
last fall; flushed with the success 1t then
achieved, boastful and insoent arrogant
It endeavors to cover with it's sush-fund
blanket Governor who as candidate
steadfastly refused to have anything to do
with IT. but, on the contrary was emphatic
in reputation of it. Whatever other Re
pubicans may feel-and more than one of
them has openly acknowledged at Harris
burg a barter of vote and infuence-Mr.
Brumbaugh stands stain-free, and in his
hands he holds, as no man in this State be-
fore has held it, the future of the Republi-
can party.
The reasons why the local option bill must
pass melt into one another. 1t is life-saver
to the liquor interests, which, many citizens
think, are entitled to a chance to reform. 1t
ratifes the American principle Of local self
government. 1t minimizes the danger 10
democratic institutions involved in the
saloon. 1t saves the Republican party from
the stigma of carrying out infamous
bargain entered into by few leaders and
constituting a conspiracy against the State.
The saloon must go. That does not mean
prohibition, but it does mean new methods of
selling, and particularly separation of beer
selling from whisky-seling. 1t means an
end of the saloon in politics, and the end of
1t altogether in communities that are utterly
opposed to 1t; its retention under different
conditions in communities that want it.
More important than anything else now is
the local option bill. History will be made
when the vote is taken Wednesday. A black |
day it will be for the Republican party and
the liquor interests too, if the bill goes down
to defeat and the conspiracy of barter is sue
cessful.