Whether an international parliament can prevent war without the assistance of an international police is another story.
LIQUOR DEALERS COME OUT FOR TEMPERANCE.
Rum-Sellers in Convention at Louisville
Praise the Work of the Societies that
Fight King Alcohol.
The National Liquor Dealers' Association, in annual convention at Louisville, Kentucky, early in June, issued a startling address to the public. These men, who are frequently thought to have no stronger desire than that every person drink more than is good for him, actually commend the work of the various temperance societies and urge that intoxication should be considered a crime. They say:
From time to time during the past seventy-five or one hundred years waves of public sentiment antagonistic to the manufacture and sale of wine and spirits and other alcoholic beverages have passed over this country, leaving in their train State, county, and municipal legislation of a more or less drastic character—legislation entirely out of sympathy with the spirit of American institutions; legislation that was bound to fail in its purpose in practically every instance, and this because the sentiment that compelled it was a sentiment engendered by agitation, and totally unripe for its enforcement.
Prohibitory Laws Evaded.
That prohibitory laws are all evaded is clearly shown by the fact that notwithstanding the adoption of prohibition by a number of States, and by innumerable counties, until at the present time it is unlawful to sell wines or spirits in more than one-half of the geographical limits of the United States, the demand for such beverages has increased in almost the same proportion as our population, from the legitimate trade, and in an enormously greater proportion from illicit distillers and retailers.
We shall not be so uncharitable as to contend that the agitation from which this public sentiment originates owes its persistent recurrence to mercenary motives on the part of men who make merchandise of aroused emotions, because it gives a pleasurable excitement to the women who tire of the monotony of home; but, on the contrary, we shall be candid in the admission that there is good and sufficient reason for an arousing of public sentiment in this country, and we confess a feeling of sympathy with the movements for the uplifting of mankind and for the purification of society.
Favor White Ribbon Movement.
The White Ribbon movement, the Blue Ribbon movement, the Prohibition movement, and the Anti-Saloon League movement were, or are, protests upon the part of good men and women against two of the greatest evils connected with our civilization, and, unfortunately for us, connected with our trade—we refer to drunkenness and to those saloons which are conducted in a disreputable manner, or in such a way as to demoralize rather than to elevate those who patronize them—and we, the delegates to this convention of the wine and spirit trade, desire to express in no uncertain tones our entire sympathy with the efforts that have been or may be put forth to exterminate the evils, and our willingness to lend cooperation and assistance by every means in our power.