Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-02-07
The Whiskey Question.

The Whiskey Question.
/ Ed. Register-I ask space for y few re.
i marks concerning certain articles in youl
paper about temperance or prohibition. To
tssUncle Isaac'' I would say that the sale OF
liquor is not licensed or permitted on ac-
| count OF the revenue arising therefrom, but
rather il is licensed by law. that its evils
may be regulated and restrained as far as
may be, and that it may to some extent, in
cldentaiiy, pay part OF the burdens of the
State, county and city.
That the sale and use of liquor results In
evil is thing that goes without saying, as
much as the giuttonous eating, the unseas-
enable Wagging OF tongues, backbiting, SLAM
dering, etc.
And as it is an evil it is Justly called ON to
bear the burden which others would have to
bear, did it not exist. But while it has its ey-
ills, so have all things theirs. Eating sus-
tains life, but gluttony often kills. The
tongue. the pen, are the instruments by
which the human race il benefited, improv-
ed. Still the pen is used to libel, the tongue
to SANDER. and both in advocacy of false
doctrine, heresy and schism. Everything we
know, everything we do, may be known and
done to an evil purpose. Then liquor is no
more evil in its use or abuse than is every
thing known and used by man. The writer
who said Tor left it to be inferred that it was
metnt) that man who drank, occasionally,
was drunkard, and that a drunkard was no
gentleman, was unwise to say the least, I'M
charitable without doubt, and maybe phari-
saical. Thanked God he was not as other
men. Let me ask "Sine Praejudicion il he is
entirely without sin. May it not be that you
have your faults, which though not SO glar-
ing, are as heinous, morally, as any upon
which you animadvert? Do you love your
neighbor as yourseify Do you do as you
would be done by? Doyou live in charity to
all men? Certainly not the last, for did you,
you would not say or intimate that he who,
unfortunately, takes drink too much is not
Il gentleman. Judge not lest We, DC, is APP
plicable to Yourself as to others.
That drinking and selling liquor, then, re-
suit in intemperance often, and that intern
perance is an evil, all will admit, even those
poor fellows who are most addicted to it.
But that it is an evil, incurable by laws,
prohibiting enactments, exemplary propis-
ions, is evidenced by land known to all read
ars ofl history. Laws cannot form or reform,
permanently, the character of any people; it
Is the pople who make the laws, and those
laws will only be made, or obeyed, which
find willing and responsive support from
the masses. There must be an Ovefwhelm-
ing feeling in favor of law for that law to
be enforced. This is evidenced by the re-
cent Mutt" trial. In law he was guilty.
The community held that any man whose
sister had been seduced and whose father
had been murdered was justifiable in Staying
the wrongdoer. That sentiment was trium-
phant anu the law was defeated,
When the people have been educated to
the point where they would consent to and
concur in the enactment and enforcement of
prohibitory legislation, that legislation is
unnecessary; for the supply is only equal to
the demand, and / have yet to hear of any
man setting up saloon where there were
none who drank. And those who drink will
have it, law or no law, Further, / have yet
to learn that any saloon keeper ever went
drink.
Then again, this crusade against whiskey
is in reality one against whiskey sellers. Let
me ask, is it not as just, as honest, and as
honorable to sell or to drink whiskey rs 1t ia |