Saloon Politics by National Liberator

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 26, 1882

Saloon Politics.

By National Liberator

WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR, is one of the millionaire sons of his father. Nominated for Congress, not because he had ever done the world any good or had ever given any indications that he ever would, he was simply placed on the ticket because he would spend money freely, and thus help all the rest of the ticket. What a spectacle. Did the rotten boroughs of England ever exhibit greater corruption? Undoubtedly Astor spent many thousands of dollars in the saloons of New York. Even the New York press unite in commenting upon the extreme liberality of the young millionaire as he plodded from one saloon to another throughout his district. This may be an extreme case in the matter of publicity, but it certainly is not either an extreme or exceptional case otherwise. There does not an election occur but the saloon-keeper reaps his harvest, of gold, and the people their harvest of saloon-elected public officers. When the officer so elected sells his vote to some rich corporation, or proves himself a defaulter, the people are loud in their denunciation of the party to which he belongs. They forget to look deeper, and condemn the system which has made the caucus the adjunct of the saloon.—National Liberator.