The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-01-11
WILL THEY DO IT?


To impugn the motives of any
individual should be serious
thing. The same should be said
of the great newspapers of the
country. We hope and predict
that the time will come in Amer
lea when the word of a news
paper will mean as much as we
demand Of the individual. It is
not always SO now. We expect
a man to stand right on moral
/ questions. Why should we not
expect the same of the news
paper which comes into our
home?
The Detroit Times, of Novem-
Der 28th, contained a letter
written by Mr.. James Schemer-
! horn, editor and owner of the
paper, declining to enter into an
advertising contract with the
Brewers Association, although
three other prominent papers in
Detroit did accept and publish
advertisements in defense of
beer.
The offer Of FIVE thousand
lines Of advertising matter at
the regular rate is a very tempt
ing offer and the value of the adj
vertising to the brewers is not
in the conversions they expect
to make but in the silencing Of
the press which will have a pc
cuniary reason for not speaking
out against the. beer crusade.
The brewers have entered upon
an attempt to silence the press
of the United States by adver-
Using contracts which will be
made with all the papers un-
scrupulous enough to accept the
bride.
There are many papers in this
country whose editorial columns
could not be bought but it is
not always easy to pick them
/ out.
1t is no wonder that motives
are questioned when editorials
favoring booze appear almost
simultaneously with big beer adj
vertisements. Even in Baltimore
this has occurred. Editorials
giving advice to the Saloon
League to kill the hard liquor
traffic but to save beer; that
/ this legislature was nots,elected
on this issue despite the fact
that the Personal Liberty League
had advertisements in the same
papers before the election saying
that the question is an issue.
The fact remains that the fight
against the liquor traffic will
continue to be an issue until
every saloon, brewery and dis
| tillery is closed for the booze
business for all time.
We are at war. Yet So, 0O0,0 900
/ pounds of sugar and 100000
i gallons of syrup going into beer
each year. Saloons hindering
the output of coal and breweries
still using this necessity by the
train load. Grain wasted in
booze. Transportation facili-
| ties taken by booze. Munition
and other industrial plants. upon
Which we must depend to win
TINS war, shutting down for lack
OF Coal and schools in some
sections shutting down for the
lack OF coal. The German-Am-
erican Alliance which is simply
an adJuncy Of the brewers or
ganlzat1Qm still in operation.
BaltiNore's great papers actual
~ Carrying these facts but never
a Suggestion that the breweries
And saloons be closed at previous
sessions Of the Legislature, some
of the papers tried to save hard
liquor, now they want to save
beer. They were wrong then.
i They are wrong now.
We are not going to say that
/ brewery advertisements have
/ anything to do with this. Neither
are we going to say Baltimore
reporters do not gather the
news. We know them to be cap
able men and know that they
are in possession Of the facts.
This is a time when every in
! dustry and every man should be
atthe very best. Wewill approach
this in proportion as the con-
sumption of liquor decreases.
Let us step out and openly
strike at the whole liquor BUSH
ness which continually under
mines the public health and pub
l.