Local Option!

Editor Courier: - Haviug ahvays been in favor of invostigation to the fullest cxtentbefore taking a positive stand on any subject, and liaving pald by a broken-dowu constitution for my views, expressed and put in force during ttic war of the rebellion, I naturally feel simic interest in the welfare of our city iind coiiinionwealtli. After considerable experience with and a very thorough study of the iniluence of the open saloon on our citizens generally, and piirticularly on the yoanff men, 1 have come to the conclusión (and I defy any person to contradict t) that its iulluence is never for good, (eithcr morally or intellectually), hut always for the contrary, and, as I found such tobe the case, who, that I sluruhl care for, would ad vise me to take the stand that my friend "Justiciar" does, (although I believe him to be a prominent democratie county polilician - as I sliould read him bet ween bis lines) in the Coluier of last weck? I coukl not take the grounds he did, howeyer, whoever miglit so advise me, for 1 believe them untcnablc in alniost cvery respect. For iustance He says tbat the person who votes against "Local Option,'7 does not vote, in principie, "for the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drink." Let him ask any man in the liquor business in this city whether a person voting for local op tion votes in favor of his business or not, (and, for one, I believe the liquor min can answer that understantluigly), and I have little doubt wtutt bis ans-wer will be, for he knows on wliieh side his bread is buttered "and if you are not with me jou are ajjninst me." Then, igain, I could not claim to be "a temporalice man throufih and through" wht'ii it wns a well known fact that I had never lifted my hand to aid the temporalice people (or cause) notwithstaudin; they had been working heroically in the neighborhood in which I lived for the past ten years, not even if I did attempt to do so under the non de jilume of "Justiciar," or by claiming, "'f I lived in a different county - where the public sentiment was sooverwhelmingly temperance, that. saloons were unpopulur I would vote for a local option law.1' Oh wouldn't I be a brave man then ; but if I was a politlutan, perhapi ( ?) I would not be to blame for tryinL to think as he claims he does. If he lived in Utah he would vote for polyejamy; If he lived in the lumber camp he would vote for bawdy houses; f he had lived in aBtnte favorable to slavery, he would have voted for rebellion - -because he deemed it popular, you know. This is his "principle," implicd. And, again, I cinnot ngree with him when he says the business interests of the city will suffer f local option is carried, for I do not believe now, and never have believed that the saloon iucreases the legitímate business of a town; nor do I believe hls statement, that the money now expended by the drinking classes would not enhance trade to any Krent extent, for we are not foreed to jro away froni home to note incideuts whcre it has swelled the income of the grocer :ind dry jroods man to a considerable extent, when only the "drinking classes" were partlally drnwu away from or induced to leave their cups, umi we have the discontent of the suloon men at that time for a guarantee thereof. Then, igüin, as to empfy stores that will bethrownon themaiket. Are not most of the saloon? in the city now oecupylnjt prominent business locations, and aid lie or any other rejident of this city ever know the time when a good store was not In deraand f But we think that bis enmmunieation eutire is better aniwered by the fict that the states of Maine, Kunsas and Iowa have never for :tn instant wavered in their stand taken against the licuor trafBc, nolwithstandiug the fact tliat every possible eftbrt of the whisky men and of the politicians in and out these states bas been exerted to make the prohibiiory law a failure, and to créate a hostility theieto. But I have paid more attention to tbis anonymous coniniunication tlian I naturully would if it had not been for the fact that I thought I cotild guess from whence it ciime, and others might possibly give some weight to it, who had not given his style of writinjr as much thought. But here I wish to insert an answer I have just. ïeceived from a postal sent by me to Ülatlie, K:is. , on account of a statement made and reiterated bifore me that the open saloon was in full bla?t there. Tlie letter explains itself. J. W. Paukkk, County Attoruey, Johnson County. Olathe, Kansas, Feb. 3, 1888. Mr. James B. Sounders, Ana Arbor, Mich. Dbar 8ir:- Your card to your brother In regard to open saloons in our county, Johnson, was tiaDded me for answer. Tbere ure no open saloons in this county and have been none for several years, In fact, none slnce llie prolilbltory law took effect. The law Is as well enforced as any of the criminal laws ol the sUte, and recelves the support of the people generally. Public opinión has grown until now tbe public, and our grand and petlt Juries treat vlolations of thls law the same as any other law, and there Is no more questlon ralsed as to lts enforcement than lüere Is of tbe law In reference lo assault and battery. The same state of affaire exlsts In a'l countlea I have vlslted with one or two exceptlons. Very respectfully, J. W. Parker Then, again, I beg your indulgenee, and af you gave an account of a sermón by Rev. Frank T. Bayley, of Portland, Me., I hope you will see tic to give the explanatlon of the same, as made by himself, In answer to questions suggested by it, and addressed to him by Mr. J. B. Stevens, of Detroit, which we clip from the Detroit Evening Journal of Feb. C, 1888, and is as follows: Would you regard a boy as belng as safe from the saloon and lts allurements ia l)etrolla In Portland? By no means. In Detroit the saloon has tbe coantenance and respectablllty conferred by leglslatlon; in Portland It Is under the ban of law. Moreover, the "saloon" in Portland Is always quite a different affalr from Detroit. There It is advertisedopenly; It Is made attractWeby various meaus- by adornment. by social drlnkIng, etc. Here It Is never lndlcated by a slgu over the door; there is not one sucti la Portland; It is not to he found in our chlef streets, save as the botéis migbt be lucluded, which of conrse are nol "saloons," even when tbey sell at a bar down cellar. The Portland "saloon," even In a time of the lazest enforcemeut of the law, is a place utterly without attractlon save the mere sale of strong drink, a place that would disgust a boy u n lens be was airead y a drinker. Moreover, the "saloon," even in a time when we have our best enforcement of the law (such as I saw In the admlnlstratlon prevlous to the present one) is not In any aense "an open saloon" but a secret den, where llquurs are soldOD the sly, the supply belDg kept under the floor, burled In the ground, or In a manure heap, or frequently only carried in such quantltles as may be secretea about the pernon. A watch Is kept by a spy outslde the door, and upon the approach of an offleer the liquor is duinped Intoa tub contalnlng kerosene, so as to be bevond detectlon. You will see that liquor telling In Portland, even as thlngs now are. Is uot what It is In Detroit, and when we have a good enforcement of the law the contrast or the law is stlll greater. Of course, as thiiiKs now are, as desorlbed In In the sermón, the hotels are tbe moet dan gerous plai-K for young meu of respectablllty. Aside frora these, there are fi-w places whcre such persons would go to buy, uuless tbey weremembeis of some of the clubs, and thus bad access to the common stock of llquors kept at the club room. As to tbe relallve viola! Ion of the llqnor law as compared with the violatlon of other laws, of course there are many more cases of selllng and drinking than of "raurder and arson." But, taktng the state as a whole, I would say tbat the llqnor law is as well er.foreed as our other laws. And Just here let me say that many of the errors fallen luto by wrlterson the subject of prohibltlon In Maine arlse from a failure to distlnguisli between the workings of the law In three or four of our largest cltles and lts operatlon in in tbe state at large. The law has beeu an untold blesslng to tbe state, as is evident to one who can compare our present condltlon with that of llcense days, and as it la clearly proren by an overwbelralng raass of testimony from the very hlghest sources- governors, Judges, etc. In our rural sectlons 11quorselllng is almost unknown; and It is found in the towns- aslde from the cltles mentioned- only In asmall degree. l'mally "Why Is It that people who live In Maine say that prohlbltlon Is very much of a success, wblle. many who were never In tbe state declare It an utter failure ï" Thls cannot be fully answeredin asentence. One reason has Just been glven. Persons stopping Just now at a Portland hotel and seeing wbat the sermón dercrlbes, mlgbt go lióme to declare that prohibltlou Is a falluie in Matne, which Is altouether too broad a conclusión from so uarrow a premlse. Il is a failure In Portland lust now, but Portland Is not the "state of Maine," nor Is the present condillon a fair ludlcation of tbe enforcement In that city. I have no doubt that the wisli Is nulier to o the thougbt oftentlmes when people say hatprohlbitlon 1 a failure In Maine. Nothng would better please the liquor sellers than to make the world belleve It; for they - - - tzj ' - ¦ -- tialp problbltlOS ahovn nnjlhiiiii Ihp "Mtrniii;i' as It muy oeni, (f It does uot prolilbit." One reasoii I hve for inuinlaliiliig it !¦ that tliey liat; nJ DopoM it. You muy iniKt IIiiiu to know whicli sldettielr bread is buttered on. I have wrltten In flying liaste, as I am [rowileil with wirk. But I trust I bavegiTcn you somo llglit. Kaithlully yours, Kua.nk T. BAYLKY. I al.so havo in my possession 11 letter froni a gentleman wlio keeps a hotel in Olathe, Jounson Co., Kansas, wlio, in reply to the question whether liquor is sold openly therc, says: "If nny oue in Anti Arbor thinks he can buy a drink 1 rum au open bar licrc mul will do so, T will pay the expense of his trip trom Ann Arbor, Mlch., to th!s town and return.'" He tlicn goes on to state that he bas resideil there sorae ten or twelvo years, thinks he knows the town pretty well; but onc day liis head cook wanted Boine brandy for minee pies, he started out to jret it, but fouud it hnpossible to obtain the same without guitig to Kansas City, Mn., a distance of soine twenty piiles. He closes by assuriu;; us that "he is no prohlblttonüt, but slmply state the way he tinds tilines under the prohibitory law ot Kansas." But there s one other question I wish to touch Iiifhtly on before closinft, and that is, the money derived froni the lieense on the saloons in thls connty, provided local optiou is not carried: 1 was about to assert that, as yet, as far as I kncw, no onc had sought to eulighten us on this subject, but hold, here is a tliing n the shape of a circular. AVe turn it over and over to see froni whence it comes. It is addressed to "Business Men and Taxpayers;" but by whom it was written or even by whom it was printed it is iinposslble for us to ascertain (as even the printer seems to have been too ehy to put his imprint thereon). Uut what does this circular claim V Whv, it starts out by throwing n bombshell into the ranks of the bqrh licensc men, who claim that tliey are the friends of temperance, by the bold assertion that "$40,225" will be paid nto the county treasury each year for the next three years (probably six times more than would actually bf) if this local option luw is defeated. At f500 each this would necesítate the remaining open of eightyand-onehalf saloons. VVhere are the large number of closed saloons to come from then, that the license advocates have promised would surely be compelled to close their doors? Of course, a8 a!l its argumer.ts are based upon the above figures as their foundation, tliey seem to us, as they do to tiiany, too absurd to deserve an extended reply. We belleve now, as we have for a long time pust, that high license is nothing more or less than the scheme of those who wish to make a gigantic monopoly of the trafile in intoxicante, and will not decrease, to any great extent, the amount of liquor sold ; the amount of damage done to civilization ; or the temptatlon for the yoting; but will only raake milllonaires of those who have the nioney to pay the license, and whose only desire is to make money at whatever cost. The nightmare of increased taxation ihould not worry any thinking or moral man for a moment. The expenses to the community resiiltiiijr directly from the Iiceii8injr of a number of saloons have too often been told to need enumerating here; and will nearly, if not quite, offset the líense derived therefrom. Other comniunitit8 have elosed the saloon doors in their midst and prospered. Why cannot we? Then where is the man who can knowingly and willlngly wnlk up to the polls and deposit his ballot for the continuante of the open saloon with its many allurenipiits anil temptations for hls or some o'her man's sou's disgraceand afterwaids when he hears of some one's downfall from the etfects of such an extensión of the trafile in intoxic iting liquors, with Kratitlnation to himself recall the fact that he assisled in that person'a dovmfall tbr the possibility of havinjr a reduction of a very small per cent of the taxes due from Mm toward the support of his government ? But I must now close, hoping that what I have written may open some ones eyes, I remaln, yours, ever for the best interests of the public In general.