The Portland daily press., 1874-03-04
Ho- Shall If Re Done Y

There is undoubtedly an unusual interest
in the community respecting the evil results
of the liquor traffic. Indeed, number of
men who in 1872 were loud in their denun-
citation of the liquor law and its enforcement,
declared to us on Monday that something
should be done to put stop to the traffic in
intoxicating liquors in order to save young
men and boys from the drunkards fate. At
that time they seemed in earnest. We will
not even suspect that they were not, but if
we had had one of the Washingtonian pledg-
es at hand we should have invited them
to affix their names for one year as an earn
est of substance and intensity of their opin-
ions. One thing, however, is certain people
are thinking of and talking about the evils of
iutemperance more than usual, and if proper
steps are taken, the opportunity is at hand to
strengthen public sentiment on this import
ant subject. How this object is to be attain
ed is difficult question to solve. Certain
it is that effort in no one direction will &C
complish the great work. Law can
do much when it lis sustained by intelligent
public opinion, but where a community looks
upon drunkard making with utter indiffer-
ence, the most vigilant enforcement of the
effective laws can only be temporarily sue
cessfal, for the deadened public opinion will
take the side Of those who are prosecuted !;
offenders and criminals will come to be regard
ed as martyrs and as a result the laws will be
repealed Or the faithful officers removed at
the first election, when the flood gates will be
re-opened and the last state will be worse
than the first.
The great object te be attained in the tenn
perance reform is to secure deeper and bet
ter defined temperance sentiment in the COM
munity. There are thousands who in gener-
al terms believe in temperance and depre-
cate the evils Of intemperance. They would
look with favor upon a revival of interest ON
this moral question, but when asked to take
part in the work or identify themselves with
actual temperance organizations, they refuse
We had an illustration of this the other
evening at City Hall, when Gen. Hall re-
quested all those who would pledge them
selves to abstain from the use Of intoxicating
liquors to rise. The audience appeared SYM
pathetic and even enthusiastic, but when
thus called upon SO give practical proof of
their devotion, there was surprisingly small
part of the two thousand people present
ready to say that they would enlist under the
banner Of total abstinence. Fine talk in
public on this subject and bad practice will
not accomplish any real results. A temper
ance sentim ent that shall be effective must
proceed from honest practice and from no
other source. a
The question is: "How shall this be ac-
complished?" And it is one of the most
difficult to answer. IT all the churches,
Sunday Schools and benevolent societies
should make an effort 10 unite their farcas-
against the cause OF intemperance, great re-
suits might be accomplished. In the West
and even nearer home. we see what this kind
of associated effort can do without perman-
ent organization. Make it as permanent as
the church or Sunday School, which the
Catholic Temperance Union and other relig-
lous associations propose to do, and great
advance will be made. In these circles, it
strikes us, the first move toward creating an
emphatic sentiment in favor of temperance is
to be made. Make every church society
temperance organization, having for its OBJ
ject the ingathering of entire parishes, and
there would be scarcely community that
would not have an influence for sobriety. In
connection with the movement in the West,
attention Of the people of this section is di-
rected in an unusual degree to the temper
ance reform. 1t seems an opportune time to
take measures to check the evils of intemper-
ance and awaken new interest in the promo
ton eff sobriety ;and to this end we shall most
cheerfuily open our columns to the friends of
reform.