New Britain herald., 1916-12-14
Why They Go Dry.
Dec. Ii, 1916
Milwaukee JOurnal)


 United States District Judge Landis of Chicago came very close to hitting the bullseye so far as some brewers are concerned, in the remarks that he made the other day from the bench at East St. Louis, Ill., He took occasion to censure the mayor, the chief of police and the police board for not enforcing the law governing saloons. He called attention to the fact that a prominent St. Louis brew CT had just made public a statement bemoaning the harm that was being done by lawless saloon keepers, and declared that thirty-two saloons in East St. Louis admittedly managed by this very brewer, had been "steadfast- ly breaking the law for the last ten years."
 During recent years brewers have talked a great deal about reforming the saloon business-but little reform is noticeable in the way of obeying the law, even in the saloons that these brewers own or control. Per formances, in other words, has Jagged far behind promise.
 The result is that in many parts of the country instead of waiting longer for the saloon to be "cleaned
 
 Almost very year more states adopt prohibition. Four of them went to this extreme last month.
 Brewers, as class, make the mis- take of subordinating public inter- ests to their own. They not only abet violation of law by saloons which they control, but they deliberately hinder the enforcement of law and try to oich 1io h0 Or>fn their sworn duty by complying with the law. Here in Milwaukee, only last spring, several members of the common council who had voted to uphold the Baker Saloon License law as it had been construed by the con- stituted authorities of the state found that some brewers were at work to bring about their defeat. Several ald- ermen of more than ordinary ability and character actually failed of re- election. Tn itself their defeat was a serious loss to the public service, a blow to public interests. The great est harm, however. consisted in the fact that aldermen who stood for law could be defeated at the polls by men who disregarded law.
 Defiance of the law by brewers and saloon keepers, their undue and sell fish activity in politics and their ef- forts to control and dictate govern ment local and otherwise have done fully as much as the excessive use of beer and liquor to create popular sen- timent against the saloon. Their ac- tivity has caused anger and indigna- ton among many men who are strongly opposed to the principle of prohibition. No great manufacturing interest can attempt to control gov- ernment without arousing fierce re- sentiment. That brewers did not see this years ago, and guide themselves accordingly is amazing. For surely, the greater their own material inter- ests, the more they should endeavor to guard those interests by not doing things that would justify attacks up- on them.
 This is a point that the Journal has made not a few times in recent years. Manufacturers of beer and whiskey and saloon keepers who defy the law and attempt to force their will upon the body polite, regardless of what is right and wholesome, can not awaken too soon to realizatio of the fact that they are doing more than any prohibition propaganda can possibly do to hasten the spread of prohibition and are making many times more difficult the task of those who, in all sincerity, wish to take a fam stand against all sumptuary leg islatiOn.