The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-19

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the customs of the British islands. | speak of
moral customs, and whatever else England is
slack in, England keeps the Sabbath. You can
more easily count score of saloons and shops
open along the streets of Indianapolis on sun
day than in London itself. Go where you will
in the British islands and there is order on the
Sabbath. But cross the channel and what!
Theaters' horse races games in the fields pro,
cesslons, parades, general Generalization OF
the day You are not unaware that
the European Sabbath is being
rapidly imported to our shores.
l wish to ask you as American citizens this ques-
ton: How long can we maintain our lnstitu-
tons without the Sabbath Then l wish to say
that Sunday excursions. and Sunday base bali,
and Sunday trade in articles not necessary, and
Sunday iquor-seling, and Sunday amusements,
will tend largely to sap the foundation of that
moral conscience upon which alone our structure
can be supported. Demoralize the Sabbath; ard
the republic will be demoraized. Destroy in the
people respect for divine law and it will be i'm
possible to hold them to respect for human law.
An eminent legal authority once declared as
bearing on this Sabbath question "a nation has
a right to its customary institutions it has
right to Its development, for they are the very
form of its reason and it must act according to
them; and main purpose of government is to
protect and enforce them,' ''Piety and relig-
ion," says Vattel ''have an essential influence
on the happiness Of a nation and enlightened
piety in the people is the firmest support of
lawful authority The last people in the world
to encourage atheism, and irreligion, and a
hippant skepticism should be the American
people. AS we love our land, we should main
tain the great pillars of religious
faith. Even Burke declared religion is
cheap defense of nations and Mirabeau was
obliged to say after the sad experimental France
"God is as necessary as liberty to the French
people,"
Hear what that gifted writer De Tocqueville
said: "Despotism may govern without faith H.
e., reEgionE but liberty cannot Religion is
much more necessary in the republic than in the
monarchy, and it is more needed in democratic
republics than in any others. How is it possible
that society should escape destruction if the
moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as
the political tie is relaXed"
Let us ponder well the words of Bancroft, our
historian: "Our great Commonwealth is the
child of Christianity. 1t may with equal truth
be asserted that modern civilization sprang into
life with religion, and faith in its principles
is the ifeboat on which humanity has at divers
times escaped the most threatening perils." We
had better keep the life-hoat well in hand. We
need, through all the land, stiffening up of
moral conscience. Sabbath-keeping people are
not the material for mobs
Fourth-In order to the lessening of crime and
the diminishing of the mob element, there must be
vigorous restriction of the liquor traffic. When
all the allowance is made for the elasticity of
figures, it is undeniable that by far the larger
proportion of crime is committed under the in
SEPARATION of liquor. 1t is the rule that if you
trace out a crime you will find the trail of the
serpent at the still" somewhere along the path.
Decentralization, quarrels, fights murders are
engendered by strong, drink and it is not
hazardous to say that had there been
no saloons in Cincinnati, there would
have been no riot. Free liquor and much beer
have kept that city in turmoil for years. This
is her greatest foe to-day. If we really wish as
a people, to circumscribe crime and put out the
fires of mob violence, me must begin more
vigorously to circumscribe the liquor traffic and
put out the fires of hell that rage in the saloons
1t is notorious that liquor assumes a controlling
interest in the political and civil government of
this Christian land and of our cities How
long, Lord how longlr But what I wish
to call special attention to now is
that the liquor traffic deties the laws instituted
for its regulation. Take it in our own city The
law says that the saloons shall close by IL
o'clock on Saturday night, and that they shall
not open on Sunday. But on goes this traffic.
We have police commissioners whose sworn
duty it is to see that these laws are Observed
but on go the chariots ofacohol and Gambrinus
over the law and over the Sabbath alike. Shall
we blame these commissioners Yes, in part;
they should do their sworn duty, irrespective of
political business, or any other consideration.
Shall we lay all the blame on them! No
Where then! On ourselves, the people. Law
cannot well be enforced above the level of public
sentiment; and public sentiment to be efficient,
must leave the prayer room, and leave the
row sphere of comfortable private indignation,
and make itself to be felt on the street, in the
mart, at the polls The vertebra upon which the
head rests is called the 'atlas" it bears aloft the
skull, but it is upborne by all the vertebr9 be
meath. The backbone is with the people. With
out them the head will droop-executives will be
weak and law will fail, In monarchy power
works downward: in republic, upward. Right
here the American sentiment of the "highest
good to the greatest number must meet and
overcome the overstrained foreign idea of
personal liberty" personal liberty may be-
come individual license Personal liberty"
will thus destroy public safety. To secure the
projections needed for person and property it is
necessary that some degree of personal liberty
be withheld, and that some personal rights be
waived. To this common stock we must each
contribute for the highest safety of all. This
plea of personal liberty is not often urged by
Americans; it is the plea of the foreigner, who.
flying from the despotisms of Europe comes to
our shores with false ideas of government and
fictitious views of liberty. He expects that here
he will be free to do what is right in his own
eyes. 1t is the natural rebound from the re-
restrictions heaped upon his liberties in his own
land. But these views become a dangerous and
troublesome factor in society.
IL Law is to be allowed its Just course
Somehow there seems to be among us as a peo-
pie more anxiety that the guilty shall not be
severely dealt with than that the innocent shall
be protected. There is a sentimental sympathy
with the offender 1t finds expression not in
frequently in various ways Condemned Grim
inals are visited sometimes with bouquets and
delicate dishes, ard public tenderness is aroused
on their behalf and the criminal becomes hero
for the hour; and the embryo criminal is encour-
aged to become a hero too
Criminals should be treated humanely, but all
public demonstrations of sympathy should be
absolutely denied.
Make punishment certain, and you will make
criminals scarce. Let law know no favorites.
Yet, is it not notorious that the chances of es-
cape from punishment are in the ratio of the
enormity of the crime, coupled with the financial
ability of the criminal Small crimes are pun
shed and petty criminals suffer.
Laws. as we read in ancient sages,
Have been like cobwebs in all ages.
Cobwebs for little flies spread
And laws for little folks made;
But if an insect of renown,
Hornet or beetle, wasp drone,
Be caught in quest of sport plumber
The fmsy fetter flies in sunder.
james Beattie
We have been offering bonus for enormous
offenses and for respectable offenders. 1t is