The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-05-30

Secret of a happy day,
Secret of His promised rest
PRESBYTERIAN TEMPERANCE.
Summary of the Permanent Committees DeIiverances
on the Temperance Question.
The afternoon and evening of Friday of
last week, were devoted to the temperance
cause by the Presbyterian General Assembly,
in session at Saratoga, N. Y. The assembly
has a regular board that devotes itself exclu-
sively to the consideration of temperance.
The board has made an elaborate report, in
which it states that 25, 900 tracts and circulars
have been distributed to further the cause.
1t also gives the status of the various
branches of the Presbyterian church on tenn
perance, and declares that at no time has the
interest this topic been SO far-reaching
and deep. 1t also gave statistics which were
mostly drawn from official Sources and some
of them are indeed startling. For instance,
it is stated in the report that the liquor traffic
pays in taxes to the United States government
$S1 ,260, $780, oil annually, for the simple priv
ilege of manufacturing and selling distilled
and fermented liquors, additional to all state
and municipal taxes; that the consumption
was last year, of distilled spirits 76, 1862, O63
proof gallons malt liquors, 552, 375, 654 gall
Ions; wines, estimated, 25, S85, 492 gallons
that the beverage cost the consumers, annual
ly, not less than eight hundred and thirteen
millions of dollars and that there are 206,-
944 persons who hold permits from the
United States government to engage in the
business. These are the principals, and if
their assistants are included there would
doubtless be one person to every one hundred
inhabitants who is engaged in the liquor bust
ness, whereas of those persons whose vocation
or business is helpful in society there are, for
instance, of clergymen only Ga, 698; of physi-
clans and surgeons, 49, of teachers and
scientific persons, 227, 710 of dealers in pro-
duce and provisions, S. 129
The report quotes Hon. Judge Davis, of
New York, who recently said that twenty
years experience as judge had taught him
that of all causes of misery, restitution, crime
and death intoxicating liquor stood forth the
unapproachable chief" and then shows that
the moral and wellto-do people of the coun-
try pay in taxes, annually, upward of $13,-
000 900 simply for the care of criminals or their
confinement in county or state prisons and
more than $15, 900, 900 for the support of the
poor large portion of whom are impover-
ished by rum. The report insists that olsen
tangled from all other matters the issue is the
American home versus the saloon.
ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS.
The committee finds after careful exami-
nation of the laws of the several states that
the laws themselves are much better than
their enforcement. For instance, prohibition
is the law in the states of Maine New Hamp-
shire and Vermont, and constitutional prohi-
bition in Kansas and Iowa. In most of the
states it is unlawful to sell to minor, stu
dent drunkard, person already under the
influence of liquor, or to sell on the Sabbath;
and tho lt,oc in nv finaS
and Imprisonment, such as no dealer could
afford to incur.
There are also special provisions of pro-
hibitory nature in many of the states. For
instance, prohibition or local option, general or
local, is engrafted ON the laws of the state of
Rhode Island Connecticut Gin the late cleo
tons, 81 out of 1877 towns voted no hcense);
Maryland (two-thirds of the countless; West
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Florida (the alternative is high license under
severe restrictions); Georgia Gin which 20
counties have partial or entire prohibltlon)
Alabama (one-third of the state under local
option); Texas, Colorado, Missouri Gin spe-
cifc counties, as Clay, Saline Clinton, ETC.,
and high license in the others Minnesota
(by townships by which about one-twentieth
Is now under local option, and high license
IN Illinois and Nebraska, and the Scott law,
hated alike by the friends and foes of temper
ance, in Ohio.
CURRENT LEGISLATION.
The defeat of the bonded whiskey bill by
vote of 1876 to 83 in the United States Con-
gress the stringent prohibitory law in Iowa
the county local option laws in Maryland; the
constitutional amendment ''article g." IN
Rhode Island, and the scientific temperance
educational scheme in New York are given as
specimens of the advance in state legislation
ON the temperance question during the last
year.
TEMPERANCE NARRATIVES
The temperance narratives are communlca-
lions from the presbyteries to the permanent
committee and they give statement OF the
progress of temperance work within their own
bounds. By these it is found that throughout
the whole country the church is agitating
this question more prominently than ever be-
fore; that the practice of preaching frequent
ly on the subject is well nigh universal III the
whole church that the sentiment and prac-
tice of the ministers and members are over
whelmngly in favor of total abstinence from
all intovi 40 t;pfy 1iuuors az n beverage, ana