The daily progressive-miner., 1916-06-12
WHERE THE BLAME LIES

some udyS SluCe "c AOHeioiOo George Butler of Seattle, former Fairbanks saloonkeeper, referring to the conditions in Seattle. Yesterday we were handed letter George wrote his old partner, Jim O'Neil, of this city, and in which George refers to the prohibition movement in Seattle. He encloses a bunch of clippings from outside papers showing that drunkenness and crime are on the in- crease in "dry" Washington and Ore gon and warns the saloonmen of Alaska that they must get busy if they wish to avoid confscation of property, destruction of business and property and all the evil of prohibit ion Georges letter mentions the cause of the birth and growth of pro hibition-the saloon.
 But for the improperly conducted and inferior saloon, prohibition would never have been born. Prohibition Is the effect of the misconduct of the inferior saloon, and the prohibition ists are now named the Anti-Saloon League. They have ceased fighting drink as a concrete proposition, and are aiming at the cause of drunken ness--the saloon. And, it is entirely the crooked, ,unintelligent and amatu- re players in the saloon game who are to blame for it all.
 As business, supplying the real or faniced needs of mankind, giving mankind what mankind considers temporary or permanent relief of physical nature, the saloon is as leg itimate as drugstore. If the saloon is run as the drugstore is, it is ques tion if there is not more harm done from the dispensatlon of drugs than there is from the dispensation of the beverages which the saloon sells. It is the abuse of the provinces of the saloon which causes the prohibition movement to grow and which is put ing states and counties in the dry" column. Because the saloon inter- ests cannot or will not-'will not" is better, for they could If they would regulate and coutrol for the better the conduct of the saloon and it's relation to the welfare of mankind, prohibit tion is growing and flourishing. The prohibitionists honestly knows and re- alize that prohibition cannot and does not prohibit mankind from drinking, but he does know that it does prohi- bit the saloon business from menac- ing the country and he strikes direct ly at he saloon, which is killing the game through it's inferior players.
 In opposing prohibition for Alaska we have no sympathy for the saloon man. Whatever he may be up again st in the fight is the fault of the play CTS of his game. The saloonman is entitled ono sympathy, for every intelligent saloonman knows that the drunk in drunkenness is no good bus mess for him, does not get the money in his business and brings him no- thing but criticism and blame. Sa- loonmen on the outside tparticularly in California are realizing conditions as they are and are beginning to pro- tect themselves and their business by regulating and correcting the sa- looms and their conduct. The better class of saloonkeepers in California have organized themselves into the Buffet Owners Association, and in the saloons of that association no man who is under the influence of liquor can obtain a drink, no matter how much money he may have on him. In Sacramento they organizec the "No- Thank-You" Club, and in week 1t had 5000 members. Each wears button inscribed "No, Thank You" and each member signs an obligation to neither buy drink for another or take a drink with another man at that mans expense. If one of them wants a drink he buys it, but he asks nobody to drink with him-that is TEMPERANCE. With the new or der of things in California they may keep the state from going dry, but un- less the salconkeepers work honest ly and earnestly to purify their own business saltpeter won't save Cali fornia from the prohibition ranks Fairbanks News-Miner. (adv.)