Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-07
BOOZE PROBLEM
SERIOUS ENOUGH
TO FIGHT OVER
Prohibition Leader Is Fear
full of Results of Beer
Sales
SAYS BEER is AN OUTLAW
Hotelmen Flayed by Temper
ance Forces For Selling
pa Per Cent.

Dealers who have sold beer con-
tanning two and three-fourths per
cent. alcohol since last Monday vio-
late the spirit of the wartime pro-
hibition measure. if not the letter of
the measure, DR.. B. E. f. Prugh,
chairman of the State Prohibition
committee, said to-day.
The measure, DIR. Prugh says, has
practically the same aims as the
eighteenth amendment to the Con-
stitution. The spirit of both, ac-
cording to his Interpretation, is to
forbid the sale of beverages con-
tanning more than one-half of one
per cent. alcohol
Prugh Disappointed
In letter to Pennsylvania Pro-
hibitionists. issued by DR.. Prugh, he
expresses a spirit of disappointment
in the manner in which the measure
has been enforced. He says
July l which was to be the ad
vent of war prohibition has come
and reports from all over the land
show us the real lawlessness of the
legalized outlaw, as the liquor traf-
tic has long been called. The way
in which the traffic has been defying
the law. and the way in which 1t
has been able to subject some of the
courts of the land into the doing of
its bidding, and the way even our
President has been led to lend him.
self to seeking the perpetuation of
its nefarious life ought to be enough
to show any thinking man the neces-
sity of it's death. Never before in
the history of our country has any
body of men been seen to be so high
handed in their doings and so utter
ly unwilling to submit to law since
antibellum days, when the slavery
question produced very little results.
We do not want another Civil War
but If We do not have taste of il in
some parts of our land those who
are in authority will have to awake
to a sense of their obligations 20 en-
force the law. Too long has the
spirit which would obey only such
laws as are pleasing been allowed to
exist, and too often have those who
have sworn to obey and enforce the
law been permitted to consider their
oath of office as only formal thing
without any binding force. We need
a revival of the righteousness in our
| land which respects both the oath
anu OD6uleHCe 10 law.
Brewers Shameless
Little change in conditions about
Harrisburg are noticed by DIR. Prugh.
In his statement, he says:
In this city the drinking places
| have seemed to be open as usual
and the beer trucks seem to be run
ming as usual, exchanging full bar
rels for empties. This is the story
that comes from all directions al
! most. Let us hope that our splen-
| did Attorney General will not find
| himself too handicapped by the
courts and those higher up to do
what we know he would like to do.
! And let us hope that our Congress
will speedily do what it ought to have
done long ago, enact an effective en-
forcement law
Harrisburg brewers and saloon
keepers are watching with con-
siderable interest and concern, the
progress of the strike of union bar
keepers in Philadelphia, because the
men themselves do not care to
subject themselves to the danger of
prosecution. Fear that a similar
strike will spread to this and other
| cities throughout Pennsylvania has
oeen expressed by number of bar
proprietors.
Bartcnders Fearful
The decision of the PHILADELPHIA
bartenders was not due primarily to
any opposition to the brewers. ].
j. McElroy. president of the Phila-
delphia Bartenders Union, explain
ed to-day. I'VE believe 2.75 per
cent. beer is regarded by the De
partment of Justice as intoxicating
and although no arrests are being
made yet. 1t is illegal to sell 1t. We
do not care to subject ourselves to
this danger" he said.
A bartenders strike, closing most
OF the two or three hundred saloons
who are risking prosecution, 1t is ex-
pected by members OF the union, will
go long way toward producing the
bone dry period" which the retail
ers, dfstillers. wine growers and ho-
telkeepers think will arouse enough
protest to influence the President to
declare an early and complete end
TO wartime prohibition" Several
Harrisburg hotelmen also have ad
vanced the idea that all saloons
close. They are of the opinion that
their former patrons will write to
Congress II they suffer" under
bone dryness