The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-10-06
THE DRUNKARDS MUST GO.

The following, from the Clarksvile
Chronicle, strikes us rs being the
most sensible, practical view to take
Of the liquor question that we have
heard, and We believe it will prove
to he the key note. Let all good peo>
pie join in making drunkenness obi
Gus, and wonderful Improvement will
soon he seen in our state:
"Some time ago the Chronicle pro-
mulgated the idea that the cause of
temperance reform might I've better
advanced by making more war upon
the drunkards. While the temper>
ance guns are aimed exclusively at
the whiskey seller, it seems to us that
great deal of ammunition is wasted,
and that more good could he accom-
plished Ivy directing the batteries
against the main body of the enemy,
the grand army of whiskey drinkers.
We are glad to see that some of our
contemporaries (notably the Nash.
vile BanDer) are now advancing the
same idea and we hope it will become
general. Drunkenness must he made
disreputable; that is the view we take
of it, and we advise the temperance
reformers to fight it out on that line.
Prohibition laws will be futile so long
as it is no disgrace to get drunk, and
what we want is a radical change in
popular sentiment. The temperance
orator and the temperance newspaper
should he more OutspOken and not
hesitate to denOunce the drunkard.
The mandy PANTY style in which
the temperance war is usually con-
Quoted is calculated to bring the cause
into contempt. There is too much
sentimental wailing over the horrors
of drunkenness and uncalled for
abuse of the whiskey seller, while no.
body is bold enough to say that the
man who gets drunk does more injury
to the world than thief and ought to
be punished as a common criminal.
When the drunkard goes, whiskey
and the whiskey seller will go with
him. Buyers and consumers support
sellers and manufacturers, and wheth-
er it be in wholesale grocery, a
drug store or saloon, whiskey will
be sold as long as there is a demand
for it. This demand can't be stopped
by legislative prohibition of the sale
and manufacture of liquor. In order
to stop the whiskey traffic we must
abolish the whiskey buyer, and that is
by no means small undertaking.
The man who comes under that de-
scription is quite numerous, if he don't
constitute SO per cent. Of our popus
lation. After all it is drunkenness
and not whiskey that does the harm
and the drunkard lis the thing we
want to get rid of. We can't dispose
of him with total abstinence pledges.
such things may accomplish individ-
ual reform in some instances and tenn
porary good in insulated. But the
temperance reform that the whole
nation needs can come only from
making drunkenness disreputable.
The first step in that important di~
rection should be aimed at official
drunkenness. No man who debases
himself by intoxication is fit to hold |
any office and the drunkard ought to
be driven from all public places.
When this is accomplished other steps
can follow. The drunkard can be
deprived of the right to vote and |
then his ofense can be punished as |
crime. That is the way the evil can |
be rooted out and that is the plan we |
favor. The reform must be gradual |
and it is the work of the newspapers
to mold popular sentiment in that di, |
raotio.a -