Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1919 — BARS STILL IN BUSINESS. [ARTICLE]

BARS STILL IN BUSINESS.

The president’s announcement that he will abrogate the war time prohibition act as soon as he can legally do so has undoubtedly seriously modified, if not nullified, its effect. It will, as William H. Anderson, state superintendent of the New York Anti-Saloon league says, “be taken by the brewers as an implied invitation to violate the law in the interim,” and “in the face of other uncertainties no official can have any great amount of heart in enforcing the law which he knows may be wiped from under him at any moment.” These other uncertainties include a decision of the government practically to ignore the law concerning the sale of light wines and two and three-fourths per cent beer until there is a decision by the courts concerning the in-' ' toxicating quality of such beer. [’Theoretically, evidence is to be taken of the sales of beer and wine, and prosecutions will follow if their sale is judicially held to be unlawful; but in the meantime the brewers and venders will “take a chance v ” as they have announced, and even with a court decision against their actions, the prospect of an early abrogation of the law will leave them in a position where there will be slight prospect of serious, if any, punishment. Last night’s debauch in the wet districts was something that the country will long be ashamed of. All reports indicate that it was even worse than the New Year’s eve excesses, that became so bad that public sentiment eventually turned against them and they were in the course of modification for the better when war necessities made the people ashamed of them. It is declared that a real farewell was said to “hard” liquor, last night, and that, however much violations of the law by selling beer and light wines may be winked at, swift and. .sure punishment will follow the sale of whisky and the like. Liquors containing more than two and threefourths per cent alcohol must not be sold, but the ingenious New York dealers announce that such liquors will be weakened by seltzer at the bar to make them comply with the official'ruling. Some drinkers may dodge even this requirement. The effect of the president’s forthcoming action of the stronger drinks is not clear. Whether he will nullify all of the law or only that part of it pertaining to beer and light wines will presumably depend on how he feels about the situation, but whatever action he takes will mean immense profits to the liquor men, and if he bars whisky and permits beer, the profits of a gold mine will be insignificant compared with those of a brewery. —Indianapolis News.