The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1875-03-17
LNTEMP GRANGE, CRIME AND
nRE LIoUOR Tx.

to warrant our running them togeth-
cruising them into one, after g.
fashion, and making them the ba-
sis -four leading article~to-day. Not
that the latter question has-anything
to do with the production efthe 9TH
er two in the way Of cause and eff
feet, as in these bat rather to check
intemperance to some extent, per-
haps, and so prevent crime. Still,
we link them together as claiming a
kind of joint consideration upon the
part of all good citizens, we think.
The history of jurisprudence in this
and every other civilized land attests
the fact that more than half the
crime, and'attendant misery and want
that affiicts US as a nation, is direct
II and undoubtedly tracable to the
lnaddening cup. Intemperance is
the fell mother of crime! Every
where its serpent track is marked by
wrecked fortunes, blasted hopes,
broken vows, penury and want ! The
widow and the fatherless-the living
skeletons that were once the home
idols of manly hearts bestrew the
path of this serpent. This civilized
car of Juggernaut that is never gorg-
ed with victims, nor ever stops in
it's triamphiaI career, though they
cast themselves before its reeking
wheels by the million! INTEMPER-
ANCE alb, what a monster it is The
tabled Dragon that st. George is
said to have vanquished, would APP
pear less than a liliputian by its huge
side! Alas, it would take many St.
Georges to grapple with this levia-
than, this cruel monster, Intemper-
ance. Organization after organiza-
ton, State after State has measured
arms with it, only to find that like
Sampson of old, these efforts to con-
quer it were only as green withes,
binding a strong mans arms, and
the dread evil is not stayed in its
devastating progress through the
world.
But must in go on so? Is there
no hope? No vulnerable point in the
carcass of the great monster? Must
the skeletons of once happy home
circles continue to walk our high
ways and bemoan themselves before
us unredressed? Are the orphans,
and worse than orphans-the wild
ows, and worse than widows. to APP
peal to US for help in vain and for
ever? Is there no remedy?
The jails and prisons of the differ
ent States are crowded with victims
of strong drink. Must this state of
things 60 on? The people are ev-
erywhere taxed to pay the heavy ex-
penses of these prisons. The pro-
ceedings of the courts are clogged
with prosecutions which are directly
or indirectly to be traced to intern
perance. Prisons, poor-houses, and
self-entailed poverty and improvi-
dence necessitates the greater por-
ton of the taxation that we groan
under as a people, and it all lies at
the door of the monster social evil.
intemperance Would to God we
could devise an engine of destruc-
ton powerful enough to cope with
and destroy it! States fear the mon
ster-even whole governments fear
to, measure arms with it But States
and governments, alas, are too much
under tn influence of those who make
politics and place these States, and
these not separately, but together
consequently as all tire army OF
drunkards usually espouse the cause
of intemperance, politicians, as a
class, could hardly be expected to
hoal a great moral reformation that
LOOKS to the dethronement of King
Alcohol as it's distinctive organic
feature and battle cry. And yet
these politicians are needed to help
on any movement Of the kind, for
they make the laws in the main, and
since moral SuGsiOn, and other SINH
lar detached efforts to cure the great
social evil has failed, it must be evil
dent that the way of ultimate. ma
tional reformation leads through le-
gal enactments, either by the States
Individually, or else by the country
as a whole. We believe the latter
plan offers a very hopeful mode of
attack of this monster of intemper-
ance. The liquor tax already affords
a large revenue to the government.
1t was devised, we suppose, without
special reference to its reformatory
character, perhaps without any refer
ence' to such use and benefit. The
design doubtless was to raise reve-
nue. to pay national expenses-and !
liquor makers. liquor sellers, and |
submit ed to it. as they |
did TO other taxation, and so they !
will continue to do on any increase
of the tax. Aad here IRE belieUe is
The scretC the tightening Of vohich tCtlt
Strcngle dtiS dread monster, intemper-
Ince! Let temperance men ali over
the land lay vigorous hold of this
rope, the national liquor tar, and pull |
heavier and heavier upon it, and our /