Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1909 — Brookston Editor Sees Evil Results Ahead. [ARTICLE]

Brookston Editor Sees Evil Results Ahead.

•.V . ; Editor Metzger, of the Brookston Reporter, is so located that he has been In touch with the campaign for local option in Tippecanoe county and yet not be Involved in the fight. In speaking of the results the Reporter says: “We fully believe that Lafayette has made a serious blunder, but it will take time to prove it. The sentiment against the saloon is growing stronger and will not subside. The saloons themselves provide the strongest argument for prohibition. “The retail dealer has converted more unwilling men to the prohibition cause than all the bishops, wives and mothers combined. He has used practical arguments which could not be refuted. He persisted in keeping his saloon open on the Sabbath. He maintained his gambling house in connection with his bar. “The decent element in every community found itself powerless, for a saloon dominated city employs none but blind policemen. Theoretically indeed, the saloon existed by toleration of the law, bound down by multitudinous restrictions. Practically the people existed by courtesy to the saloon, for the saloon was the law. “That Purdue will be affected by the results of the election, there is no doubt, as fathers and mothers all over the country will hesitate about sending their boys to a university ic so close proximity to the saloon and all that goes with it. We have nc record' of how many failures among students at Purdue can be directly traced to the saloon, but we hav9 no doubt but a large per cent of those who have failed, were those who spent their time and money in the saloon and gambling houses. “Lafayette will have to learp the lesson.”