THE SUNDAY OKEGONIAN, PORTLAND, MAY tl, 1913.
r
liquor Dealers
n'O
SAYS ALL ARE
Writer Asserts Customers Make Charac
ter of Saloons Rather Than Reverse,
as Charged by Reformers
The following mrticle. which appeared
In the Chicago Inter Ocean under date
of April 17. 1913. and which was wTltten
by a brewer, a man of unquestioned
experience and keen observation. Il
lustrates mora nearly actual conditions
(In Chicago as well as In other cities)
and applies more sound logic In Judging
these conditions, than many articles
written heretofore upon the subject.
We deem It a privilege, as well as a
duty to the public, to give the same as
wide a publicity as possible.
OREGON BREWERS' ASSOCIATION,
F. Q. Deckebach. president.
The Inter Ocean on March 20 last
published an extensive Interview with
Dean Walter T. Sumner, in which were
set forth the views of this noted Chi
cago clergyman on the social evil, and
especially on the connection between
vice and the liquor traffic
Some of Dean Sumner's views met
with approval from the brewers of the
country. To some statements, however,
they take exception, and an answer has
been prepared by Percy Andreae. Mr.
Andreae is chairman of the United
States Brewers' Association, a National
organization with headquarters in New
York City. Its membership Includes
most of the brewers of the United
States. Mr. Andreae has paid much at
tention to the study and improvement
of the liquor traffic from the viewpoint
of the brewers.
Following is the open letter which
has been sent to Dean Sumner:
The Very Rev. Dean Walter T. Sum
ner, 117 North Peoria street. Chicago
Dear Sir; I have Just read your article
on the social evil in last Sunday's edi
tion of the Inter Ocean, and there Is
so much in it with which I fully and
heartily agree that I feel the more
emboldened to offer a few comments on
those portions of the article in the
penning of which I cannot help be
lieving that both your sense of justice
and your sense of proportion must have
forsaken you.
When I preface ' these comments by
saying that I am engaged in the brew
ing business, and that I take consider
' able pride in the fact, it will scarcely
be necessary for me to state that the
passages In your article regarding
which I Join issue with you are those
that bear upon the relationship of the
WITH PHILLIP CHRIST'S DEATH, EARLY
VANCOUVER SOLDIERS BUT MEMORY
Last Survivor of First Garrison of Neighboring Post Leaves Record of Varied Experiences During Mexican "War
and Indian Troubles Along Columbia River.
I I "Actf . - - .. - ' 7vi ,s,.i- i i , 'fc'-',iS I
VANCOUVER. Wash., May 10.
(Special.) Phillip Christ, who
died here last Tuesday, was the
last survivor of the first detachment of
soldiers ever sent to Vancouver Bar
racks. This was in 1849.
Phillip Christ was born May 24,
1824. in Nassau, Germany, and In June,
1847, he sailed from Antwerp, Belgium,
landing in New ' York 62 days later.
After working a few months at his
trade, that of shoemaker, he enlisted in
Company L First Artillery.
After passing two years on Gov
ernor's Island he was ordered to the
front, and in a few days set sail in
a Government transport. When In the
Bahama Islands the ship was caught In
a gale and wrecked, all being thrown
Into the boiling ocean. But one man
was lost.
The troops took refuge on an Island
and hoisted a signal of distress, having
little to eat for 11 days, when another
transport rescued them and landed
them at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina.
Alter six weeks at this fort they were
sent to Vera Cruz, Mexico, on the Em
pire, a sailing vessel. At the end of the
Mexican war the troops were sent to
New York in July, 1S48.
Previous to this the Hudson Bay
Company had established trading posts
In several places, one being at Van
couver. A few settlers had braved the
dangers or the plains, while others had
sailed around the Horn and settled in
this vicinity. They needed protection
from the Indians, and possibly from the
English.
Accordingly an order was issued for
Companies L, and M. First Artillery of
New YorK, to sail for Fort Vancouver,
solng by way of the Strait of Magellan.
In October, 1848. the batteries started
on the long and adventurous voyage,
bound for Fort Vancouver.
Vancouver was reached on May 15.
1849. For six months, while the sol
diers, commanded by Major Hatheway,
were building their quarters. they
lived in tents. The cooking was done
In the open or in a large tent and the
JUDGED BY FEW
so-called liquor traffic to the evil you
are discussing.
Saloonkeeper Gets Blame.
It has become so common in our day,
perhaps because It is so convenient, to
blame the saloonkeeper, or the liquor
traffic for all humanity's Ills, and for
all the failures of those- who seek to
cure those Ills, that to question the
Justice of this proceeding is almost as
daring an undertaking as it is to ques
tion the truth of a religious dogma.
Unfortunately for him, the saloon
keeper, not being a man of letters, and
so equipped with the means of refuting
the Indiscriminate aspersions with
which his detractors assail him, is
forced to bear those aspersions in
silence, while those among his hundreds
of thousands of friends and patrons
who have the ability to defend him, and
to expose the injustice, the fallacies,
and In many cases the deliberate falsi
fication which only too often charac
terize the attacks of his enemies, re
main silent for a different reason,
namely, because they are too cowardly
to give voice to a truth which they
believe to be unpopular. Hence the
general public, hearing always only one
side of the controversy, concludes that
there is no other side, with the con
sequence that the saloonkeeper is in
dicted, tried and sentenced, without
being even heard in his own defense.
I do not believe, from what I know of
you, that you would for one moment
willingly participate in such an act of
Injustice, and it is solely in this belief
that I am publicly addressing you on
what I consider the unwarranted con
clusions set forth in your article.
Is Statement Justt
Because, by actual count, as you say,
23S brothel housekeepers in Chicago
have added the retailing of alcoholic
beverages to their nefarious calling, is
It Just to class upwards of 7000 saloon.
keepers in the City of Chicago as "the
greatest supporters of the social evil."
and "as the greatest reapers of the
profits of the social evil?" Because
these 236 brothel housekeepers collect
the charge they exact for the human
bodies they supply by adding that
charge to the price of the alcoholic
(and, by the way, the other) beverages
they sell, is it justifiable to denounce
the liquor traffic as a whole as "the
ABOVE, OLD FORT VAXCOtJVER
headquarters of Major Hatheway were
in a tent.
To the lot of Phillip Christ fell the
task of supplying the camp with fresh
water, with a balky old mule and a
two-wheeled, cart. Cisterns were dusr
and these ke kept filled.
The rations given the soldiers then
were not always the most appetizing.
Their daily fare was black coffee, nork
and beans, bread made from musty
nour ana occasionally potatoes. After
v jf 4
most damnable Institution at present
existing In our social life?"
There are 7200 saloons in Chicago,
and the figure 236 is Just a fraction over
8 per cent of those 7200 saloons. Yet
it is by this 3 per cent that you are
Judging and condemning the remain
ing 97 per cent. Is not this a com
plete reversal of the method of Jehovah,
who was willing to stay the doom of
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, If
only an infinitesimal fraction of a per.
centage of the people of those cities
could be proved to be righteous and
God-fearing?
The Bible tells us that not ten such
Inhabitants could be found. Yet these
cities must have had men of all walks
of life among their inhabitants, cor
responding to our merchants, lawyers,
physicians, teachers, ministers, etc. I
have often wondered whether Jehovah
attributed the sinfulness of all these
people solely or mainly to the iniquity
of the saloons of those ancient com
munities and destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah merely to root out that one
alleged source of all evil.
Saloons Xot Responsible.
Since I know from the Bible that
there were not ten respectable men in
thoso cities', I am fairly convinced that
every saloon in Sodom and Gomorra
was "& damnable institution. But I
am equally convinced that It was not
the damnable saloons that made the
damnable people of those cities, but
rather the damnable people of those
cities that created their damnable sa
loons. If it bad not been so, would
Jehovah have destroyed those people.
Instead of rather destroying the sa
loons or the saloonkeepers that created
them?
Every family, every calling, every
profession has Its black sheep. Take
your own profession, for instance (and
I earnestly beg you to believe that I
refer to that profession for no reason
personal to yourself or your fellow
clergymen, but merely because I can
conceive of no better way to point my
argument). If you investigate the pris
on statistics of the country you will
find that a comparison between the
number of preachers of the gospel and
the number of saloonkeepers confined
in our penitentiaries is by no means
one to cause the latter class to feel
ashamed. Moreover, no one who reads
the daily newspapers requires to be in
formed that the particular offenses to
which the black sheep of the first
named class are most prone are' the
very offenses 'that constitute the main
source from which the social evil orig
inates. .Yet would it be fair or Just or
logical to conclude that for this reason
the clergy as a whole is "the most
damnable institution at present exist
ing In our social life?" I say no honest
reasoner would draw such a - conclu
sion. Yet, In what respect is that con
clusion any more unfair, unjust and il
logical than the conclusion you have
presented to thousands of readers that,
because 236 houses of ill-fame sell
liquor, therefore the 7200 saloonkeepers
BELOW, PHILLIP CHRIST.
the troops had been here for several
months mutton was served occasional
ly. Sheep then sold for 88 a head and
potatoes cost 83 a bushel.
The chaplains of the Army then were
carried on the muster rolls as "Chap
lain and schoolmaster," but there was
no Chaplain with the first soldiers sent
here. The first one arrived February
13. 1853.
But five or six women were with the
troops. These were wives of soldiers.
of Chicago are "the greatest reapers
'of the profits of the social evil"?
Room for Improvement.
I fully agree with you, and I know
that many saloonkeepers do likewise,
when you say that there is room for
great improvement in the conduct and
the character of the saloon business
In this country. Whether such improve
ment, even if it is effected, will prevent
the brothel-housekeeper from buying
and selling alcoholic beverages is, how
ever, very questionable. But the main
fallacy of those who are advocating
this Improvement is the same fallacy
which, I submit, underlies your sweep
Ing condemnation of a trade that should
no more be Judged solely by its shady
side than should any other trade or
profession.
That fallacy consists In the assump'
tion that it is the character of the sa
loon that makes the character of the
community in which it exists. The re
verse is the truth. It is the man that
makes the character of the saloon he
frequents, not the saloon that makes
the character of the man who frequents
It. The low saloon does not create the
social evil, but the social evil does un
doubtedly create the low saloon. If you
get rid of the social evil you will get
rid of the low saloon. But, if you suo-
ceeded In suppressing' every low saloon
in Chicago, the social evil would not
be minimized thereby a particle.
I venture to say here. Incidentally,
and I know that the experience of
every practical man who has studied
this question will bear out my state
ment, that the percentage of cases
where a girl has lost her virtue and
started on the downward path in a sa
loon is, comparatively speaking, ex
tremely small.
Gravitates After Fall.
It is after she has fallen that she
gravitates toward the class of saloon
that caters to her kind, both male and
female, and she helps to create and
maintain that class of saloon. Just as
a tough neighborhood will create and
maintain a tough saloon and a crim
inal neighborhood a criminal saloon.
Considering the two and a quarter mil
lion population of the City of Chicago
and the well-known percentage of
mankind the world over who are of
tough, vicious or criminal proclivities,
it would be surprising, in fact, if the
number of places that have been called
into existence by that percentage in
Chicago should not prove in reality to
be larger than you nave estimated.
Every student of economics knows
that it is the demand that creates the
supply, not the supply that creates the
demand; and more than that, it is upon
the character of the demand that the
character of the supply is conditioned,
and not vice versa. Yet all the argu
ments and all the actions of those who,
like yourself, are endeavoring to better
the moral conditions under which we
live, are persistently based upon the
very opposite assumption, with the re
sult that, instead of bettering those
conditions, they render them worse. I
That the American saloon generally
They drew rations the same as the men
and did the soldiers' laundry, being
paid about 75 cents a month for each
man.
The soldiers then were paid 87 a
month, but a bill was passed by Con
gress increasing the pay of men on
duty in distant posts to double for 20
months, after which period they were
paid for time and a half, or 810.50 a
month, clothes and rations.
The strength of the garrison Decern
ber 31, 1850, was 18 officers and 234
enlisted men, composing six companies,
A, B, C. D, F. G and I, Mounted Rifle
men. v The old-fashioned flintlock and
percussion cap guns were in use then.
Letters mailed October 8, 1850, in
ashington, D. C, to Fort Columbia
that was the name of the post in the
early days reached their destination
January 27.
Whisky at that time cost 88 a gallon
and gin or rum could be secured for
the same price. Clothing was sold by
the sutlers at exorbitant prices.
The Indians went on the warpath in
1855 and the soldiers and settlers
fought them. Phillip Christ then lived
in a log cabin on his little clearing and
slept at night behind a log. without
even a blanket to keep him warm, to
escape the Indians. Had he slept in
his cabin he would have been found
and murdered and scalped by the
Indians.
On his 80th birthday Mr. Christ, who
had been smoking for 60 years, without
warning gave up the habit without
taking any kind of a cure.
DAILY METEOROLOGICAL KEJOBT.
PORTLAND, May 10. Maximum temper
sture. S9 degrees; minimum. 50 deKrses
Klver reading, 8 A. M., 10.9 feet: change In
Inst 24 hours .6 foot rise. Total rainfall (5
P. M. to 5 P. M.), .IS Inch; total rainfall
i-Tim.TO , oo.ox uicnus; 1101 -
mal rainfal since September 1, 40.72 Inches:
denciency of rainfall since September 1,
1M12. 7.41 Inches. Total sunshine, none;
possible sunshine. 14 hours' 48 minutes.
Harometer (reduced to sea level) at 6 P. M..
0O.03 inches.
THE WEATHER.
k. Wind
III"?
a o
- I
e s ?
-1 p '
at
Stats ot
Weather
STATIONS
Rakr
600
.0210'NW Rain
Boise .
7010
(M 12?W Cloudy
Boston
Calirarv
50
64 0
uu IB fi W
00! S-NW
IClear
Pt. cloudy
Clear
f'hlcfl.e'O
44:0
.00.12 N
Colfax '
Denver
Des Moines '. . .
Duluth
Eureka
Galveston
Helena '
Jacksonville ..
Kansaa cltv . . ,
Klamath Falls
Luurler
lns Angeles . . ,
Medford ,
Montreal ,
New Orleans ...
New York
North Head ...
North Yakima .
Pendleton
Phoenix
6 0
iiO'.. ...
Cloudy
64 0
.00 10-N
Clear
Pt. cloudr
58,0
6ojo
.00 8 SB
OO 8 NE
Clear
Clear
Clear
oe i
.89 18 W
76 0
62 O
00 83
nfll fltvw
Cloudy
04 lolNE iRaln
4N O
50 O
.ltllOSB Rain
ai 4,s LPt. cloudr
04 4 8 "Cloudy
00 8 SW Clear
04 4 MWlpt clmidv
O 0
720
62 0
44iO
.00110'N IClear
40
52 3
52 O
60i0
OO'lO SW !Pt. cloudy
.0636 NWlclear
50228 IRaln
081 HE IRaln
Ol A'RVL' I
6 0
920
.oot 4 NE Clear'
Pocateilo ......
70 O
OOIIOSW .Cloudy
.IS' S SW Rain
,utf 14 SW (Cloudy
.OOi iSW IClear
.001 6 E (Cloudy
.00 63 Clear
OO 8 SW Cloudy
Portland
Roseburg
Saerampntn . .
J .'.!; 0.
62 O
70 O
6S0
62 0
St. Louis
St. Paul
Salt Lake
San Fmnplipn
7&0.
62 O
6S:0
tS'O,
00'12'W K?Iear
04 4 NW Rain
261 :sw Rain
Spokane
lacoma
Tatoosh Island
Wafla Walla . .
52 0.
S: 8 S Cloudv
62 O.
6.SO.
72 0.
610.
64 ;o.
Washngton ....
02' 8 N
Clear
Pt. cloudy
Pt, cloudy
Cloudy
weiser
06 14 SE
00 4'S
OOI14-RW
WenatcheA
Winnipeg
WEATHER CONDITIONS.
A large hign-pressure field, central over
the. Lakes region, overlies most of the coun
try from. the. Mississippi Valley eastward ex
cept In the extreme northeast. Another
high-pressure area Is spreading Inland over
the Pacific Slope. A trough of low pressure
extends from the Mexican border to western
Canada, covering the Rocky Mountain states
and the western portion of the plains
states. Precipitation has occurred within
the last 24 hours in Oregon. Washington.
California. Idaho. .Montana. Nebraska. Kan-
sas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and in scattered
is what it is today Is not due to the
saloonkeeper, but to the public, which
demands the kind of saloon he conducts,
and no other. But, instead of aiming
to improve the taste of the public,
those who are indiscriminately decry
ing the saloon are still further debas
ing that taste. In other words, Instead
of seeking to elevate the character of
the demand that creates the supply,
they are foolishly degrading the chan
nels through which that supply flows
Is Method TTsed ProperT
Do you think, for Instance, that by
publicly classing 97 per cent of the
saloonkeepers of Chicago with the per
centage of brothel-house keepers who
have obtained licenses to retail liquor,
you are advancing the much desired
change In the character of the Chicago
saloon? Such statements, when they
are made by the profesisonal prohibi
tion agitator, may be ignored, but when
they emanate from men of your char
acter and standing they are repeated
by thousands of thoughtless and ig
norant people, until by mere repetition
they assume the nature of an axiom
and. Instead of inducing a higher type
of man to take the place of the low
type saloonkeeper, they drive the ex
isting high-class saloonkeeper In dis
gust to give place to the man who does
not care one lota how you or others
may class him.
Meanwhile the effect of this policy
of Indiscriminate vlllification produces,
if possible, a worse effect upon a large
portion of the saloonkeeper's custom
ers than it does upon the saloonkeeper
himself. It makes hypocrites of those
customers. And here you have the
fountain and origin of that which you
rightly criticise in the American saloon
of today, namely, the almost incredible
hypocrisy that has been bred, by Just
such wholesale denunciations as yours,
in a large number of American men
who frequent, and always will fre
quent, the saloon, but who demand the
facilities of doing so without being
seen by those whose opinions of the
saloon they publicly pretend to concur
in, but In secret laugh at.
These men are recruited from the
same large class of people who, In pub
lic, follow the modern fashion of rail
ing against drink and the drink-seller,
and who, in private, have their beer,
or whisky, or other similar beverages
smuggled into their houses concealed
in flour barrels, vegetable baskets, or
other innocent-looking receptacles.
It is largely men of your profession
as a class without doubt the best
intentioned men in the-world who are
unwittingly creating these hypocrites,
and thus, pathetically enough, are pro
ducing the very thing they are so ar
dently working to destroy.
You may possibly think that I make
this statement merely by way of turn
ing the tables, or In order to create a
sensational effect. But I solemnly as
sure you that I have no such effect in
view. On the contrary, I ask you to
ponder the statement earnestly, for I
know the truth of what I am saying.
and hundreds of thousands of other
men, who, though they may profess to
you to be inexpressibly shocked at this
sections along the Atlantic seaboard. Thun
derstorms were reported from Helena, 'Okla
homa City, Jacksonville and Charleston.
The weather Is much warmer in Canada,
and the Northern Rocky Mountain and
Northern plains states, and It Is cooler In
Oregon, Oklahoma. Missouri, the Ohio Valley
and Middle and North Atlantic states.
The conditions are favorable for showers
Sunday In this district, with cooler weather
In Southern Idaho and generally southerly
winds.
FORECASTS.
Portland and vicinity Showers; south to
southwest winds.
Oregon and Washington Showers; not
much change In temperature; south to south,
west winds.
Idaho Showers; cooler south portion.
Money in German Wheels.
Baltimore American.
Germany is pressing ahead in the
manufacture of motor cars two of the
largest companies recently have de
clared dividends of 25 and 27 per cent,
respectively but she is still far be
hind in the number of cars per capita
as compared with England and France.
In England there is one motor vehicle
- MICHIGAN
EXCURSION
JUNE 27
ACCOUNT
Grand Homecoming of Michiganders
Special Trains
Carrying the Last Word in Luxurious Equipment,
VIA
THE ,
GREATEST
Excursion Ever Run From
the Northwest to
the East.
Eegin Planning Your Trip Now
For Fares and Particulars, Phone, Call or Write
, O.-W. R. & N.
City Ticket Office, Third and Washington, Portland, Oregon.
Phones: Marshall 4500, or A 6121.
utterance of mine, realize that same
truth, but have not the courage or the
manhood to say it.
Hypocrisy, unfortunately, is the be
setting sin of an appalling number of
our fellow-citizens, and it is far worse
and Its insidious effect upon our social
life-is infinitely more far-reaching
than all the evils of the disreputable
saloon, which it is largely instrumental
in creating.
Product of Consumer.
The accusation, however true it may
be, that among the thousands of cus
tomers who are supplied, or commer
cially assisted, by the brewing con
cerns of this city, there are some dis
reputable ones who should not be in
the business at all, does not alter the
force, or affect the bearing of this
broader fact namely, that that which
is unclean In the business is primarily
the product not of him who manufac
tures and supplies drink but of him
who purchases and consumes it.
Every brewer and every saloonkeeper
realizes the delicate and difficult posi
tion in which this fact places him as
a business man. I have no doubt, for
Instance, that if I could personally in
vestigate all places supplied by the
concerns I am connected with I should
find some highly undesirable ones.
Some brewers are perhaps less con
cerned than others about the character
of tho trade they supply. But the
brewers as a whole do Inquire, and in
quire diligently into the moral sur
roundings of those with whom
they deal commercially, and I believe
they are the only class of commercial
men that do so. For I have yet to
learn that the banker refuses to lend
money on security, because the bor
rower intends to use that money for
nefarious purposes, cr that the dry
goods merchant, the haberdasher, the
butcher, the grocer, the real estate
man, or any others refuse to serve the
panderer or the prostitute, because by
so doing they are contributing to their
comfort, their maintenance, or, worse
still, to the stock-in-trade of their
business.
Real Influence of Womeau
In conclusion, let me say that I wish
with all my heart I could share your
sanguine expectation that the evil of
intemperance will be destroyed by our
good women, if and when they obtain
the ballot in thi3 country. But you
imply, in the same connection, that you
expect this result to come, not from
the morally uplifting influence of in
dividual women upon our race, to which
we owe the best part of our moral
progress in the past, but from the
repressive laws which you say
women will succeed In enact
ing, and this leads us to conclude
that you do not rate as high as I do
the real influence which woman has in
the past exercised, and I hope will in
the future still exercise, in this very
direction.
Here, too, you appear to argue from
the assumption that it is the surround
ing circumstances that create the
weakness of man, whereas It is so ab
solutely the weakness of man that cre
for every 10 persons, as against one
for every 441 In France and 927 in
Germany.
SEany Non-Slaveholders.
(Clark Howell in April Century.)
For every slaveholder in the Confed
erate army there were from 7000 to 10,
000 non slaveholders. Thus, by a
strange paradox. It was the non-slaveholder
who furnished by far most of
the troops for the war to perpetuate
slavery. By keeping that fact in mind,
the later restoration of the South is
better understood. For here were men,
many of whom were looked down upon
by the slaves themselves as "po" white
trash," battling to perpetuate an insti
tution in which they had only an indi
rect monetary interest less than that,
for it was undoubtedly inimical to their
own welfare.
When the war was over this class
felt the grip of desolation equally with
the richer class, though never having
enjoyed luxury they were perhaps bet
m mm mrw -n."
ss m - r
O.-W. R. & N.
OREGON SHORT LINE
DENVER & RIO GRANDE
UNION PACIFIC
CHICAGO-NORTHWESTERN
AND MICHIGAN CENTRAL
ates the surrounding circumstances
which cater and minister to that weak
ness. Or has your experience really led
you to the fallacious conclusion of so
many of your fellow teachers of the
present day that repressive legislation
can relieve them of any of the burdens
of their task as educators and uplifters
of their kind and render that task an
easier one?
Main Object of Laws.
The main object of repressive laws,
as I understand them, is .to remove
temptation from the weak. The main
object of religion, and therefore of ed
ucation, is, on the contrary, to
strengthen the weak so that they may
be the better able to withstand tempta.
tion. The first object, if it were at
tainable which it notoriously Is not
would, of course, take much toll and
trouble off your shoulders and practic
ally render your calling a sinecure.
But would it accomplish what the sec
ond object alms to accomplish, namely,
to raise mankind itself to that higher
spiritual level toward which our re
ligion directs us to strive? Is the
thief who goes to prison a thief no
longer? Or, to put it more broadly,
can the removal of temptation, even if
it were possible, alter the weak and un
stable characters of those who are
liable to succumb to it any more than
the prison bars can transform the crim
inals we place behind them into honest
and upright members of human so
ciety? I fervently trust that woman,
when she obtains the vote, will not
realize your expectations in the manner
you suggest, but that, instead of ap
pealing to Caesar to carry out the task
she has been specially ordained and
fitted to accomplish, she will continue
to pursue the slower but surer method
of performing that task herself.
I have never heard the truth regard
ing human imperfection and the lu
dicrous attempts to cure it by law more
pitifully expressed than by an old Ger
man saloonkeeper, who, in his humble
way, did more than any man I have
ever known to guRle the young and
foolish safeiy past the rocks and eddies
which we all of us have to encounter
In our passage along the stream of life.
He was referring to the vice of intem
perance, but his words are applicable,
mutatis mutandis, to all human vice
and weakness, and this is how they
ran:
"It ain't 'cause folks drink too much
that they're no good. It's cause they're
no good that they drink too much, and
other folks Is wasting time trying to
cure their trouble at the wrong end."
It is not the language of Milton or
Wordsworth. But it is the language of
pure,unadulterated common sense, and
there is nothing our country is so saaiy
in need of at the present time as a
little of that self-same simple common
sense.
Would that men of your acknowl
edged character, broad view and high
purpose might realize this fact and
condescend occasionally to listen to
and learn from men of the character
and the practical experience of my
humble friend, the old German saloon
keeper. Very truly yours.
PERCx ANDKBAB.
(PAID ADVERTISEMENT.)
ter qualified to face the situation. The
noteworthy fact is that they now fought
for the South's redemption, side by side
with what was after the war called
the "broken-down aristocracy." Caste,
and the line of cleavage, were forgot
ten in a common woe. All classes
united in the glgantio task of making
headway against what seemed insuper
able odds.
To speak with candor, the law of
the survival of the fittest got in its
work during this period of readjust
ment. The shrewd business acumen
of the man who had been unable to
acquire slaves before the war came Into
full play when the old slave oligarchy
passed. He was on a plane of equality
with his neighbors. If he was compe
tent he progressed with them in the
process of redemption. If he was shift
less he was left in the ruck, where he
still remains. It is a fact not gen
erally understood that more whites of
this class than negroes were, in ef
fect, "emancipated," as the result of
the war.
A Most Splendid
Example of Loyalty
to
"His Own State."
Every Michigander
Will Want to Go.