The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-04-26

WlSuOm O1 our pOllcy Oh giving inc Coiu
shoulder to dog racing, gambling casinos
and like propositions made by adventures
who seek some easy money at the expense
of the community that harbors them, it be-
comes increasingly easy to answer that
question in the negative as we read of the
unavailing efforts of towns to the north of
us to control the evils they have nourished.
We need not lay ourselves open to the
charge of Puritanism as we strengthen the
defensive qualities of public opinion by
rendering more and more a decided atti-
tude on this question; nor assume any
guardianship over the private morals of
our neighbors The Constitution of the
United States leaves it up to the individual
to decide for himself as to whether he re-
CARDS it as beneficial to his welfare to get
intoxicated; and the local laws look after
him if it becomes necessary. That same
Constitution leaves it up to the rugged in
dividual to decide as to accepting an in
vitation to spend an evening with his
friends at poker game, and aside from
hope that he will not lose more than he
can afford to lose; and that he will pro-
tect himself in the clinches, we are per-
fectly satisfied to leave it up to the Con-
stitution ard whatever good sense the in
dividual may have.
The point is, that we can take it or
leave it; and that is all that any reason
able man may ask. No one will invite us,
at the point of gun, to draw cards or i'm
bibe beyond our carrying capacity.
But; at this writing, Key West is
free city. Our breaches of the peace are
more or less, neighborly affairs. Most of
our disturbances are conducted along
amateur lines. We do not labor under the
necessity of disposing of the carcasses of
professional thugs slain in internecine war
fare over control of imported raekets.
There is just one way in which to
maintain the freedom of Key West. That
is to profit by the experience of the towns
which, tempted by the glitter of FOOLS
gold, have admitted to their municipal
households, organized gambling in vari-
Gus IOrmS, lncluulHg racing
The usual argument is that these en-
terprises will bring money into the town.
They do; but judging by the frantic eff
forts of the merchants and professional
men to the north of us, they take out so
much more thar they bring in that the To-
cal business interests are striving nightly
to break the strange hold of the raekets
so that their customers will pay their
grocery and doctor bills.
1t is admitted that racing is the sport
of kings but not many of us are kings.
We can admit that the horse is noble
animal and that the dog is mans best
friend, without conceding that the men
who make living out of racing them are
i'm the same class.
One thing is certain. The whole busi-
ness of getting something for nothing has
hanging about its skirts a seurvy lot OF
knaves who hope to play on the cupidity
of the suckers they hold in contempt and
there is still an outer fringe of thieves and
murderers who seek the same ends by
more desperate means.
The point is that these undesirables
do not intrude their presence upon COM
munities that do not invite them by cater
ing to the class upon which they prey. Yer
min find little to attract them in clean,
premises. Key West by combining its wei
come to wholesome men and women, and
refusing it to sensation mongers, will save
its people from the depredations of ham
gers-on who have played in hard luck and
who in desperation seek, at whatever cost,
to get enough money to carry them, at the
close of the season here, to the next good
hunting ground. In Hos Signo Vinceremus