rS'Z PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 



cess at Washington a. few years since in securing legisla- 

 tion which granted to whiskey makers peculiar 

 privileges, accorded to no other tax payers, is sufficient 

 evidence of their influence. The United States Brewers' 

 Association w^as organized in 1862. The object of the 

 organization may be inferred from the introduction to 

 their constitution, where we read: "That the owners of 

 breweries, separately, are unable to exercise a proper 

 influence in the interest of the craft in the legislature and 

 public administration." How this "proper influence " is 

 brought to bear upon legislatures will appear later. That 

 it is potent there can be no doubt. At the Brewers' Con- 

 gress, held in Buffalo, July 8, 1868, President Clausen, 

 speaking of the action of the New York branch of the 

 association, relative to the excise law of the state, said : 

 "Neither means nor money were spared during the past 

 twelve months to accomplish the repeal of this detested 

 law. The entire German population ^fere enlisted." 

 ' ' Editorials favorable to the repeal were published in 

 sixty different English and German newspaj)ers. Just 

 before the election, 30, 000 campaign circulars were dis- 

 tributed among the Germans of the different counties. 

 A state convention of brewers, hop and malt dealers, hop 

 growers, etc. , was largely attended, and resolutions ^vere 

 adopted in which we pledged ourselves to support only 

 such candidates who bound themselves to work for the 

 repeal of the excise law, and thereby check the exer- 

 tions of the temperance party. These resolutions were 

 published, principally through the English press, in all 

 the counties of the state. By these efforts the former 

 minority in the Assembly was changed to a majority 

 of twenty votes in our favor." The object of this associ- 

 ation is not industrial, but avowedly political. The pres- 

 ident said, at the Chicago Congress, in 1867 : ' ' Only by 

 union in brotherly love it will be possible to attain such 

 results, guard against oppressive laws, raise ourselves to 

 be a large and w^ide-spread political power and ^vith con- 

 fidence anticipate complete success in all our undertak- 

 ings." Again at Davenport, in 1870, President Clausen 



