Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1895 — Saloon Keepers and Saloon Keepers. [ARTICLE]

Saloon Keepers and Saloon Keepers.

Indianapolis Journal. Whether the Nicholson bill in an amended form shall become a law, or if any legislation shall be enacted at this session looking to the better enforcement of the present law, it will be largely it not mainly due to the course pursued for years past by a certain class of saloon keepers. Whatever may be thought of the business of liquor selling, or of the best manner of regulating it, all must admit that very different grades of men engage in it. This is true of all kinds of business, but it is more apparent in the retail liquor business than in any other, because it is surrounded with legal xestrictions the observance or non-observance of which constitutes a line of demarkatiOn among those engaged in it, and this emphasizes the, difference between them. In a general way they may be di vid ed in to 1a wabiding and law defying. The former wish to do what they regard as a legitimate business under the license of the State, complying with the law in all respects and making an honest living in what they consider an honest way. The most rabid prohibitionists knows there are many such saloons. They give no trouble to the authorities so far as the enforcement of law is concerned.

The law-defying class are very different. They are the pirates of the business. Their hands are against everybody, and they are as ready to cheat one another as they are to violate the law, defy the authorities and bully public opinion. They have no desire to do a legitimate business, even from the saloon keeper’s point of view, and are so constituted that they would violate any law- that might be enacted. If any new restric ive legislation shall be enacted at the present session it will be mainly due to the course pursued by these law-deiying saloon keepers. They have done more during the last few years to create a popular demand for more stringent legislation on the saloon question than all other causes combined. The prohibitionist propaganda would have made but little progress had it not been aided by the propaganda of lawlessness which for years has been giving the authorities so much trouble and forcing upon the public mind the necessity of strengthening the law. Whatever popular demand there is for additional legislation on the temperance question is simply a phase of the demand for the better enforcement of law. It is not so much that the evils of the traffic have been increasing as that some of those engaged in it have persistently and defiantly violated the present in such a way as to advertise their intention not to obey it and to challenge a measurement of strength with those who believe that tne traffic should be subject to reasonable restriction, and that whatever the law is it should be enforced. If the effect of the present agitation should be to draw the line still more distinctly between law-abid-ing and law-defying saloon keepers, between the honest, decent men engaged in the business and the pirates, it may enlist the former in a movement to compel the observance of the law, and thus result in unexpected good, for the more defiant the violation of law becomes the stronger will be the popular demand for its enforcement