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Show LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN UTAH. B The question of the best way of handling the B liquor traffic is a very old one. It comes up in every generation like the study of perpetual motion or the "exact" calculations as to when the end of the earth will comoj the same arguments are used, the same contentions fought out, but it never is Bsettled. Legislation to arrest it like that against any other passion or appetite, always fails. Hu-Bnmn Hu-Bnmn nature can sometimes be a little changed, never made over, at least not by statutes or ordinances. The appetite for strong drink has been greatly reduced in France and Germany, not by restriction, but by a more general use of wines and beer. In this country, as abroad, experience has taught that the very best plan is to license the sale of intoxicants drawing such reserve and safe gaards around the sale as the authorities may dictate. B By the best plan we mean that which reduces drinking to its least objectionable form, and makes the sellers responsible for the order of their establishments, estab-lishments, and the prevention of the sale to minors. In this region, the directors of 4the Mormon church seem determined to make a record on this subject and their acts are causing a vast amount of crit-Bicism. crit-Bicism. They have forbidden the sale of all intoxi-cnting intoxi-cnting drinks, including beer, at tneir great resort-!-Snltair. That is their privilege, certainly, for they own the place. But what are they really accomplishing by their course ? Are they stopping the drinking there? Let any nc 8 there two or three times and investigate. Wo are informed that the result is that many a nan who might buy a glass of beer, now buys a bottle before he leaves the city; that lake parties now provide themselves with their own beer, and wine in cases, and' carry their bartender with -them to serve them not only at the beach but on the way out and back. We are,- moreover, informed that at a not inconvenient distance from the resort, he needed supply is obtainable at an improvised 'epot, and that the owners of this depot are protected protect-ed by a city, county and United States license. Do tlley pay a percentage of their receipts to the wners of the resort? Is it possible that while mg into history as the rigid persecutors of the niffic in strong drink, they are at the same time rawing fair profits from its sale? I he query is not impertinent because that is an nabit of the church. Fpr- many years the church jailers worked industriously to convince the world at there was no liquor sold here formerly,- that if sale was introduced' and carried on 'exclusively y Untiles. The writer of this was once introduced a distinguistied senator of tho United States. senator smiled down benignly and said: "Those Mormon people in Utah are a wonderful people; when I first visited the place, twenty years ago, there were but two saloons in the city and thoy were kept by Gentiles. Still we all know that at that time the church store was selling- an article of Valley tan, three drinks of which would make a man steal a horse. The anniversary of the birth of Brigham Young was most appropriately celebrated here a few days , ago. We say appropriately because he was long the trusted leader of this people, and a dominating pdwer in this region. But when he came here one of his first enterprises was to build a distillery. He did not want the product for mechanical purposes. pur-poses. If we mistake not he obtained an exclusive license for the sale of that product in this region. And he was just as much of a prophet then as he was twenty years later. He knew, too, what the people desired. We find too, that when the government established an internal revenue collection agency in this territory ter-ritory it was discovered that some thirty three distilleries were in arears for taxes on their product. pro-duct. These are merely historical facts, and they mostly relate to a ..me when the saints were practically prac-tically undisturbed by outside, wicked Gentiles. Again the sincerity of tho motives which carried the interdiction of the sale of even a glass of beer at Saltair, is doubted, because there are no restrictions restric-tions placed on the manifestation of other human vices. A good many decent ladies never permit themselves to visit Saltair at night unless they go in a special, private car, because the scenes witnessed on some of the public cars are calculated to make even an old rounder blush. And this has been tho rule for twenty years, though public attention has been repeatedly called to it, and though it could be stopped at once by sending two or three officers of-ficers with each night train. If the morals of the community are to be regulated reg-ulated by force,', why not exercise that force when it would be so cheap and when it could be effective? But there is another feature to this business. We understand that the church has issued order? to the Mormon people to visit no resorts where strong liquors of any kind, including beer, are sold; that in some cases where Avard contracts have been made to visit certain resorts on certain days, the order has gone forth to violate those "contracts. This strengthens the suspicion that the determination is to compel Mormons to visit only Mormon resorts. Now we do not question the perfect right of the Mormon chiefs to advise their people as they please but when the advice comes in the form of an order, then it becomes a matter of public concernment, because if they can order their people not to visit one place, they can in like manner order them not to trade in a certain store, not to attend a certain cer-tain church, not to vote a certain ticket in short, can estabish a boycott, which is unlawful. When they do such things, they break one of the most sof-emn sof-emn pledges on which statehood for Utah was secured, and tho dullest men in the mountains can see that it is not a square deal. The effect of it all upon Utah is not altogether satisfactory. It disgusts very many respectable visitors to this region. It 'makes many a man who has no wishes but kind ones for Utah, stop and ask if tho time wiu ever come when tho Mormon church will not insist upon directing everything from the sale of a glass of beer to tho sale of a United States senatorship. xThnt feeling lnrrts Utah at home and 1 ' M abroad and so little is gained by it all, that one ji M would thinic the practice would bo 'abandoned f m through sheer seif -respect. ' ' ' 4 H-' B 1.12 HI |