Free trader-journal and Ottawa fair dealer. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1920-1927, 1920-08-14
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO
ABOUT IT?

Ottawa on last Saturday night re
called Kipling's scene of THE Biz
Drunk Draft" as related by the i'm
mortal Mulvaney. There We're prob
ably more DRINKS on the street than
on any ordinary Saturday night be
fore the country went dry. But what
about it? VIII tonight be repeater
The city administration was ripped
up the back for allowing the condition
and for allowing the sale of booze
and was cenSured for being derelict
in the performance of its duty in not
stopping the sale Of hootch in Ottawa.
1t Is no more fair 10 censure the
commissioners than it would be TO
censure the ministers or any law
abiding citizen OF Ottawa. The con.
troll of the illicit manufacture and
sale of booze is practically out Of the
hands of the city Under the dry
laws the offenses are state Offenses
and the state is the one 10 prosecute.
The police department can act under
the search and seizure" act and yOu
or any other citizen has right to
make complaint. There was big
fund appropriated by the state to en-
force the prohibition law, but up to
the present time the state prohibit
tion 9TH GERS have been swamped and
Ottawa has received but little atten-
ton. When the Duncn were caught red
handed at the time the auto turned
turtle at the Brewery hill, they were
arrested hut we never heard of any
one of that crowd breaking into the
pen.
The alleged soft drink parlors' of
the city, where the booze is alleged to
have been obtained, are no longer
nnder policed regulation, as they are
not licensed, any more than is bank
or dry goods store. That time will
probably bring about a proper en-
forcement Of the eighteenth amend
ment is sincerely to be hoped. but at
present a man who Is willing to takcI
a chance stands a very fair show of
getting by. He is monkeying with a
buzz saw, of course, and will probably !
be landed in time.
The position in which the mayor OF
a city finds himself at the present
time is very well covered by Jay +. /.
House in the Evening Post of July 81. |
He conscientiously tried to make his |
town dry. Here is part of his expe-I
Tience:
Il fought outIaWed rum for four !
years Ii ] am to draw a conclusion |
from that experience il is that the bat /
tie for prohibition in this country I
hasn't really started. II the sale OF /.
liquor is an iniquity and there Is 4 I
division on that nobody is so
deeply stepped in it as the surrepti- .
tious dealer in hooch Once a man
engages in the illegal traffic in liquor .
he never quits until the last source Of .
MS supply hlltT up VI NJ II btlAlH't iH' .
bars. He gets into it because it ap
pears to be an easy lucrative bust (
ness. He stays in it because he can't /
quit. In the end beating the law, and
not the possibility Of easy money be.
comes an obsession with him. Eter'
nal vigilance and perfect co-ordina, F..
tion between all the forces Of law and
order arc the only methods that avail
against the traffic The rum hound I.
never quits and never sleeps,
"Thon we started the fight and kept |
il M unremittingly for four years. |
We greatly diminished the amount Of .
liquor sold in the town; we literally .
put hundreds Of Violators Of the liquor
laws in jail We kent the dockets OF
the courts sagging with liquor cases.
but we never quite stopped the traffic,
and # is going yet
The police can keep the DRINKS on
the streets when they find them, but
it looks as if that was about the limit
of what they can DO