The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-12-27
The "TOledO Blade" on the Liquor
Question.

Our esteemed cotemporarv, the San.
dusky Register, asks, affectionately, if
the Blade is not running "Pulverize
the Liquor Power" into the ground.
The Bialic may be mistaken, but it
thinks not. On the contrary, in less
than year the Register will be follow
ing the Biade's example in demand
ing the same thing, only with more
force, owing to its superior ability.
The discussion of the liquor traffic
can not be "run into the ground" 1t
is not an unimportant question. 1t
is of more importance than the slavery
question ever was, for the very simple
and easily-understood reason that rum
is greater curse to this country than
slavery ever was; that it Injuries directly
more people than slavery ever did, and,
indirectly, thousands to one. The busi-
ness is loaded with more danger to this
and succeeding generations than ever
the slave-trade was, and stands upon
very much the same ground. Rum and
slavery have a common basis. Both are
founded upon the most reckless disre-
gard of the rights of others; both are
based upon the cupiditv of few strong
men who care nothing for the hurt they
infict upon humanity, who care nothing
as to what happens to others, so long
as they make their roiit.
The pretentions of this (the liquOr)
interest is something intolerable. 1t is
business that in every civilized coun-
trv but the United States exists only by
sufferance, and under the strictest con-
troll. 1t is business which in its best
estate is to be apologizcd for, q business
based upon ali that is bad in human
nature, and from which nothing good
ever has or ever can come. No Gov
ernment on earth ever hoped for any
good out of it the problem which all
Governments have had to meet has been
how TO control a trade which defective
human nature seemed to make necessa-
ry, so that as little evil as possible
should come out of it. Pauperism is
visible from the windows of every rum
shop, and criminalitv turks behind their
doors. There is not in the making or
selling of the stuff a single element of
anything that is good No business
man will keep in his employ a graduate
of the gin-mills. and the keeper of the
gin-mill himself would not willingly
marry his daughter to one of his own
disciples.
No proprietor of a rum-shop will have
an emplove about his establishment
who drinks what he sells over tho
counter The strongest condemnation
of the business is furnished by those
mostly interested in it. The face of
every one OF them is protest from his
stomach against its use. They who
handle it are the most careful not to use
it, for they best know its evil. The
roads from the doors of the rum-shops
lead either to the poOr-house or jail,
with the gallows in the near future.
And this business. accursed of God
and man, has announced its intention
to control the Government of this coun-
try 1t proposes to dictate the nomi-
nees of parties and to use its own
pleasure as to their election.
1t will require a great deal of dis
cussion of this question before it can
be said to have been run into the
ground" 1t is doing the most of
the running into the ground."
1t has virtually run into the
ground the brightest and best of
the young men of every city in the
country. 1t has run into the ground
everything in the shape of purity in
Government. 1t is as destructive OF
good in Government as it is of happi-
ness in homes. 1t is killing the indiyid-
ual and corrupting the body polite. 1t
is the great National curse, and is now
the one great question before the Amer
lean people. 1t is as great an interest
in money as slavery was, and ten times
the curse. 1t is not an unimportant
question. 1t is not question that can
be passed over or avoided. Men must
take sides upon it. The Blade is not
running it into the ground. Every in
terest of every father and every moth
er, every wife and every child, in the
United States is diametrically opposed
| to rum control Toledo Blade.