Aug. 2024
I’m sure some alert readers (ARs) were among the billions of people worldwide who had never heard of Butler, PA prior to July 13th, when former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped death by assassination at a rally in the town. Unlike these billions of people, I was in fact well aware of Butler, where my great grandfather William C. McBride was born in 1859; and where generations of McBrides had previously lived. It was not until 1908 that my great grandfather moved from Pennsylvania to St. Louis with his wife and four daughters, one of whom was my grandmother Laura McBride.
St. Louis at the time was a booming metropolis, still basking in the aftermath of the 1904 World’s Fair. It had a vibrant downtown, which included the world-renowned Wainwright Building, designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. It had been commissioned by Ellis Wainwright and built in 1892 to house The St. Louis Brewers Association, a collective of smaller local breweries. I’m proud that Schlafly, which received the first microbrewery license issued by the State of Missouri in 1991, has been able to carry on this tradition.
There’s another tradition associated with The Wainwright Building of which I’m proud to be part. Both it and The Schlafly Tap Room are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Wainwright Building has the additional distinction of being considered by some the “Father of Skyscrapers.” The esteemed architect Frank Lloyd Wright called it “the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture.”
This world-famous architectural and historic jewel is currently a state office building owned by the State of Missouri. This status is about to change. In a move that was not shared in advance with the Mayor of St. Louis or any other stakeholders, Governor Mike Parson announced that the State was divesting itself of two downtown office buildings (one of which was The Wainwright Building) and relocating 600 employees outside the City. The governor defended this abandonment of Downtown, saying it was “a business decision.”
Are shrewd business decisions Missouri’s supreme law?
Perhaps the Governor and the other State officials involved in this business decision are not aware of the motto on the Great Seal of the State of Missouri: Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto. (Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.) Our state seal does not say that shrewd business decisions are the highest priority of government. Salus was the Roman goddess of health, prosperity, safety and wellbeing. The concept of Salus includes a wide array of human values…artistic, esthetic, historic and cultural, not just economic.
Most ARs are certainly aware that St. Louis was dubbed “The Mound City” because of the proliferation of mounds constructed by Native Americans in the pre-Columbian era. Unfortunately, over the years “business decisions” were made to raze almost all of these mounds, eradicating centuries of history of culture in the process. In retrospect we should ask ourselves if this destruction really served salus populi. I’m sure most ARs would agree that the answer would have to be No. I would say the same about Governor Parson’s “business decision.”
In defense of the Governor’s “business decision” it might be argued Salus Populi is no longer part of our state’s motto. In 2008 the Missouri Constitution was amended to add Article I, section 34, which established English as the “official language” of the State. Given that our state motto is written in Latin, it’s presumably no longer valid after the adoption of this amendment. Perhaps shrewd business decisions have now superseded salus populi as our highest law.
Tom Schlafly
Chairman
Schlafly | The Saint Louis Brewery
