The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-08-01
FIGHTING THE FOE.
Synopsis Of an Address on
Prohibition by Rev. John
A. Brooks.
he Arraigns the Liquor Traffic
and Goes For It With a Vim.

Elder John A. Brooks, president of the
Prohibition Alliance Of Missouri. deliver
ell an address at Warrensburg last We'd
nesday night, a synopsis OF which has been
furnished the BAzoo Tor publication
The speaker said he was not here in the
roll of the ordinary temperance lecturer,
nor was ne a reformed drunkard, but he
was here as the head of that society COM
posed of all the churches and temperance
organizations in the state; not To make
war on the drunkard, for he would scorn
to attack n man who had no friends. He
was present to attack the moderate drink
er, and 10 address the voters Of Missouri
In an honest effort To induce them to vote
the traffic in intoxicants As a beverage out
OF the state. They would not interfere
with the traffic for medicinal and me-
chanical and sacramental purposes. The
temperance people had been trying
MORAL sUAsIoN
until they were worn out with the effort.
He illustrated the matter by men exhaust.
ing themselves pulling drowning men out
of the stream until exhausted. and then
guirg up the stream and finding a lot of
men putting them in faster than they
could possibly be taken out They changed
The programme and stopped these men
from putting them In. So We propose to
do.
Our civil and religious liberties depend
upon the intellectual and moral culture OF
the people, hence the vast expenditures for
public schools. This traffic and saloon
system are schools OF ignorance and i'm
morality. Seveniy-hve per cent of all our
crimes, poverty and ignorance are attribu-
table to this traffic. This estimate is not
that OF the temperance fanatic, but of
such leading papers as the New York Her
aid and Chicago Tribune.
For every church and school house in
the nation We have 4 saloon; for every
school OF virtue We have one Of vice. and
lar more scholars in daily attendance on
the latter than the former We spend
three dollars In the former school and
seventeen dollars and tiity cents in the lat
ter. Again, he showed bv lengthy argu-
ment and statistics that the use of intoxi-
cants was of NO benefit
ALLY.
The best medical authority now declares
alcohol a most irsidious poison The
statistics Of the h. OF HI. and A o.. l.. W..
show that that the heaviest death rate in
those orders is among the beer drinkers
Leibig, the great German chemist, iniorms
us tina: the amount OF food in the best
Bavarian beer is intini-esimal. To get rs
much food as is in the bread We eat, We
must drink three barrels of beer every day.
But the greatest strain Of the traffic was
upon the financial status of the nation
We drank up Se00,0O0.0O0 annually. and
received nothing Of value in return for it.
Everything we bought from other trades
benefited and left behind as the product OF
wealth. something of value. This only
broke constitutions,
CRUSHED SPIRITS. BLIGHrEp HOPES
and desolated homes The statistics of
Pennsylvania, carefully prepared, demon
strated that the loss i'm that state alone was
the employment of $4,000 hands-Sl6 .OOO.-
900 in wages.
The speaker showed how
THIS MONEY SAVED FROM THE TRAFFIC.
would be spent for groceries, dry goods,
etc would find its way into every channel
OF trade, and result in benehtting every
man In the community. whereas ii now
went into the pocket of the saloon man and
gave back to the consumer nothing of value
in return. The nation in this way sGuaa-
ders annually billion of dollars.
Now, how is ii for republic like ours
to long maintain Its liberties with such
constant draft ON its moral and financial
resources. All this vast influence COM
bined keeps the drinker in i. norance and
poverty and then takes him to the polls
and compels him To vote TO keep his mas
ter In power, and refuses TO permit him
TO vote for any one who has patriotism
enough TO try To break the power OF this
tyrant, which, for its own personal aggran-
dizement, will crush out every veslise OF
civil or religious liberty.
And what does the traffic prefer to give
us back for this immense OUTLAY for its
benefit? The revenue it pays the govern
ment was ii cents for every dollar it cost
the state TO prosecute the criminals ii
made. The following comparison between
city without license and which never
had any and city with license shows the
merits of the question:
A striking contrast, showing the effect
on municipal expenditures of the sale of
Intoxicating liquors, is made by compar-
ing the expenditures of two towns not far
from equal population, Vineland, in New
jersey, where the sale of liquors is actual
ly as well as legally prohibited, and
Yonkers. New York. which has one hum
dredred and forty-ive licensed drinking
places, and seventy-ive shops where liquor
Is sold contrary to law.
vINELAND HAS ABOUT
twelve thousand inhabitants, and Yonkers
less than $4,000. Yonkers spent on it's po-
lice, S37 900; the police duties of Vine
land are performed by one constable, at an
annual expense of SIS. Yonkers has
police Judge with a salary of 81, 1000, and
clerk who is paid $500. Vineland has no
police court, and needs none. The pau
pers of YOnkers cost the town 81 200.
Vineland has a corresponding expense of
S4OO. Altogether, these articles OF expense
cost In YOnkers $5S,SO0; in Vineland
S472.
Maxine nroportionato allowanoa TO-