THEY ARE LAW-DEFIERS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 21, 1881

THEY ARE LAW-DEFIERS.

The Chicago News, not a prohibition partisan by any means, has the following pertinent remarks on the manner in which the saloon men defy the laws of the city and State. It says:—

“There are some exceedingly curious phases to the politico-temperance movement. There are something like a dozen statutes and ordinances for the restraint of the traffic in intoxicants. Not one of them is enforced. The saloon men constitute an element utterly lawless and law-defying. They alone, of all trades, can be controlled by no enactment of either legislature or common council. Now let a dozen law-abiding, tax-paying citizens unite and ask that the Mayor put the rum-venders on a level with the rest of humanity, doing them no injustice, but according them no privileges, and straightway those citizens are called fanatics and zealots, seeking the ruin of the State. On the other hand, the saloon men may maintain an organization solely for the purpose of preventing the enforcement of the law, may publicly and shamelessly pledge candidates to the violation of their honor and their oaths, may take an active part in any campaign, and always in behalf of lawlessness, and your average party organ and your average politician submit deferentially, and call it business. Is it not about time that this thing should be stopped?”