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The saloon-keepers' circular says : "To ...

The saloon-keepers' circular says : "To ... image
Parent Issue
Day
16
Month
February
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The saloon-keepers' circular says : "To vote for prohibition is to take a step backward in the cause of temperance." What solicitude those fellows do fee! in the cause of temperance ! The majority in Calhoun county against the saloon was 3,170, more than two and one-half times as large as the majority the county gave for the amendment. The total vote was twothirds of the actual nuniber of votere. The local option vote was only 500 behind the record that was made on the amendment, while the saloon vote was only one-half of that given against the amendment Mayor Hewitt, of New York city, in a recent message to the board of aldermen, undoubtedly laid down a correct principie, which is just as applicable to the saloon business as to the corporations whoBe claims he considera. He said: "There are no such things as vested rights which can interfere with the power of the commuiiity to do those things which are essential lor itsgrowth, Hs safety, and its progress in civilization." This is from one of the most acute and able democrats in the country Of ai.l the silly, dangerous, demagogical stuif that politicians have put nut recently, that letter of chairman Weston to the voters of the Eleventh district is the worst. 1I-' ascribes the increase of business oí the past three yeare in the Northern Península to President Cleveland and the democratie j poliejr. The president has had no inore influence upon it than the most ignorant romer in the world. He hasn't had a partiële to do with it. and chairman Westou knows it. As for the dernoi-Tatic policy, what is il? Tb New York Times says : " It is probably safe to say of the professional pick-pockets in tbis city that, man for man, they possess and exert more politica! power than its clergy. It is certainly safe to say tuis of the liquor dealers." Will the aaloon-keepers of Washtenaw county exert more influence Feb. 27, than the clergymen ? In a square fight with evil such as that promises to i, we should think the clergymen vould he on their mettle a little, and Trould want to work at the polls. Who ■will peddle tickets for the saloon-keepBrs? __- = - Tiie circular issued last week in the ïnterests of saloons- and, as we shall fcelieve until it is disproved, by the saloons-is an interesüng document. It is as full of holes as a sieve, of hypocliBy as Pecksniff, and of bad English as a small boy's essay. Hypocrisy ! Why, think of a saloon-keeper talking about the evils of intemperance, and how all wish to suppress them. A saloon-keeper wanting to suppress tl.e evils of intemperance is good. What the author of the circular wouldsay,probably, if he ■were forced to it, is that saloon-keepers do not like to see the grosser forms of intemperance. Some of them don't want habitual drunkards forcustomers ; that is all. But as for their wanting the vils of intemperance stopped, it is ïtter bosh. The circular is hypocritical. The TinsGwhich really troubles the saloon-keepers most, in spite of the bold assertion, which they make in their circular, that prohibition cannot be enforced, is that they know they will shut up shop on May 1 next if the local optionists win on Feb. 27. If they I tinue to Bell whisky, it will be done on the Bly and their business will be seriouBly curtailed. Someof them might go on in the dark for a time ; but, sooner or later, Uncle Sam's detective would be down upon them. They would tle Únele Sam's clai m early ; but when ihey have done that, they are still amenable to the state law, and they are on public record. They say that they Will not obey a prohibition law, and yet they urge people not to adopt it They say that prohibition wiiï cause I more drinking, which of course such patriots do not want to see: they might become too rich. If we cannot have prohibition, as high a tax as possible on the saloon business is desirable. But the reason for it should not be misunderetood, else there is danger of suppoBing that taxation is a better restriction than prohibition. High taxation of the saloon does not injure the distiller's business. There is abundant evidence of this to be found in the confidential circulare which the dÍBtiller8 send out to the trade. Peter E. Her, president of the Willow Spring distilling company of Omaha, Neb., says distinctly, in a circular dated Jan. 7, 1888, that high license does not lessen the quantity of liquor used, but places it in fewer and better hands vrith better regularity. He reasons it out with great clearness. On the other hand he shows that his trade in a state like Iowa is in a ver}' unsatisfactory condition. He compares hia trade in Iowa to running a railroad under ground. Great many honest people regard high taxation as the best niethod of restraining the saloon business; but solongas theleading distillers prefer high taxation also, it looks as though prohibition is what will faurt the business most.

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register