Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-27
Takes Fall Out of Gilmore
June 25, 1917

June 25. 1917
To the Editor of the Telegraph:
In your issue of June. % T. NJ. Gil,
more, president of the National Model
called. the Other Side of the Rum
Question" Mr.. Gilmore has an ad-
vantage in bis presentation not pos
ssessed by most well-meaning people.
he seems to be untrammeled by the
facts, as is evidenced by the state
ments he has made at length.
In his preliminary statement, Mr..
Gilmore overlooks the actual status
of the great industry which he repre-
sents. The pitiless eye of science,
undimmed by sentimentality or moral
cons erat ions, has recently been
turned on alcohol as a beverage. 1t
food, but in all it's forms to be a
narcotic poison. Mr.. Gilmore there
fore stands in apologetic advocacy OF
business which has grown up
through the ages on a misconception
he desires to have continued-the bus
mess of poisoning the people and of
tempting them to be poisoned
In his conclusion he insists that al
cohol has served "a good purpose In
the past" and is therefore now need
ed in aiding us to stand erect under
the tremendous burdens" which he
says are to be encountered by the
men in the trenches and by those who
support them at home. 1t would be
humorous, If 1t were not sad, TO ask
this gentleman. who evidently does
not attempt to inform himself about
what he discusses, whether the free
use of alcohol by men in trenches or
anywhere else ever aided any one to
entists. that all that happens in the
use of the poison to the sale of which
he is devoted is that the red flag of
down. and that it's narcotic poison
simply and only prevents and removes
the natural protection against dis
ease, disaster and death.
j Mr.. Gilmore insists that national
prohibition would not stop the use of
liquors" and he proceeds to develop
this thought by urging that If there
came about the stopping of national
"the Illicit manufacture of whisky
would continue and develop along gil
gantic lines, not merely in hidden
places but in private homes very gen
orally" He does not attempt to
square this statement with respect
to his further statements in regard
to the Importance of the industry.
He does, however, admit not only in
liquor men are natural lawbreakers,
and will do all they can to operate
in defiance of law, as they have done
in every state in which liquor is inter-
fered with. so far as possible.
Mr.. Gilmore'S romance concerning
the cellar of one whom he calls the
leading prohibitionist in Kentucky"
is probably drawn from the same
source as the figures he published not
long ago concerning the effect of pro-
hibition in Atlanta, at a time when
Baltimore was endeavoring to free
which Mr.. Gilmore is an advocate. |
sent full-page advertisement as pub
lished in the Baltimore News to a
prominent business man of Atlanta,
who replied that Mr.. Gilmore and his
friends were nothing more nor less
than plain, ordinary liars. and that
there was no basis OF fact in any one
of the statements which had been
published responsibly. This was not
the first case in which the liquor in
terests made deliberate and open mis-
statements, and it will not be the
last.
Mr.. Gilmore urges that we must
keep on poisoning our people because
England has not given up the manu-
facture of alcoholic beverages" John
II. Mott, whose word, | presume, will
be accepted as somewhat better than
that of Mr.. Gilmore, is on record as
! having said to responsible men in
Harrisburg prior to his departure for
Russia that he found in the trenches
that booze was only less disastrous
to the men fighting for England than
German bullets.
The talk about personal liberty on
the part of the individual" in which
Mr.. Gilmore INDUCES is interesting
He does not now have personal lib
erty to trafnc in strychnine. morphine
arsenic, cocaine and a dozen other
poisons, several of which are OF ex-
actly the same nature as alcohol. Yet
he does not complain of this restric-
tion.
1t is interesting to note that the old
cry of destroying vast interests
comes up at this time. Mr.. Gilmore
is aware, though he would probably
| not admit 1t even under oath, that
very many of those who have made
their fortunes in poisoning their fell
low-men through the agency of alco-
hol are now and have been for long
time wanting new investments Here
in Harrisburg an example exists
where beer money Is being turned to
bread-baking. Long notice has been
given that the American people are
about to shake off the alcohol poison
habit. at least so far as legal encour-
agement is concerned.
There Is good authority for the
statement that the, total number OF
persons engaged in the manufacture
of alcoholic beverages who Mr.. Gill
more fears would be put out of work
IL the nation stopped the legalized
poisoning of it's people. is by no
means large. Some of these unfor-
tunates would undoubtedly be able to
earn an honest living in constructive,
and not destructive occupations. Mean
while, more than a billion dollars now
diverted from useful purposes to the