The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-04-08
A Plain Talk on Temperance.

fident that Temperance Reformers are
committing most serious error in giving
such excessive prominence to the civil and
political aspect of the Reform. The temp
tation to do this is peculiarly strong, The
drinking saloon confronts us on every side,
as the visible embodiment Of the drink
curse; it flaunts its bloody flag in our faces,
and II seems to be very short and sum-
mary way of disposing of 1t, 10 pass strin-
gent laws for its suppression, This
temptation is made stronger by the spe-
cious assertion that Negro slavery was
removed by political party. The simple
truth is that the Free soil party, by the
election of Lincoln, drove the slave oligar
chy up to the point of committing suicide
by armed secession.
But there is really very slight analogy
between the political conflict with the
drink traffic, and the political conflict
which was waged under the banner of
Free Soil, free speech and free labor"
Negro slavery was essentially temporary
civil institution, the creature of unjust
civil law. The dramshop is not tempo.
rary institution created by statute; 1t is the
creature of the drinking usages of society.
No fool would ever open liquor saloon,
and get out license for 1t in any com
munity IN which there was no demand
for strong drink.
Set IL down as an incontrovertible truth
that liquor saloons are not the creations OF
license laws or of any other civil enact
ments CThe original purpose OF requiring
license was to limit the number and
curtail the miochefs of dramshops)
Drinking saloons do not owe their exis-
tence TO few lines Oh the statute book
no, nor are they to be entirely and perma.
nently uprooted by simply enacting few
opposite lines on a statute book. If so, the
problem would be very simple and man.
ageable. y
The only way to reach an evil is to go
to its founthead. The fount.head OF
liquor selling is liquor drinking. Deeper
down than any civil Observation-Disclosures
high license, low license or no llcense-lie
the drinking usages, and every remedy is
transient and superficial that does moi
reach them. | do not dispute that the
saloon tempts thousands to drink intoxi
cants who might be tempted otherwise
but 1t is also true that even the wors
dram seller does not open saloon from
sheer malice to kill off his neighbors. lie
opens it simply to make money by minis
tering to appetite, and by supplying hi
whiskies and wines to his customers, ant
commonly he has no scruples as TO increas
ing the number of his customers. ThoS'
customers, be it understood, are sharer
and partners in his crime. If he opens
hell, they ieed its fires. 1t is time tha
temperance advocates ceased TO denounct
. saloon keepers as fends and TO speak o
their customers as poor, innocent people
, who never 90 voluntarily TO bar room
counter. II dram selling Is a sin, so i
, drunkenness, and so is any patronage o
the dram shops.
II is certain as grayitatiol
that il any large number Of persons in an.
community are determined TO have intoX
icants they will somehow manage TO &c
them, even If we pile our prohibitory law
5 as high as The Brooklyn bridge towers
t They will get them either by stealthy eva
sions of law, or by importing liquors 70
their own private use, or by some othe
process. Righteous and beneficial as ar
I laws of prohibition when well enforced
yet to rely on law alone, without any mora
Q efforts against liquor drinking would be a
insane as TO dam up torrent at Its moui
d while neglecting 10 dry up its fountheat
Prohibitory laws help III
and many good people claim that "hig
3 license" laws aid us also; but the one PEI
Y manent cure for dram selling is to brea
e up the habit Of dram drinking. II nobod
!. wants whisky, nobody will offer whisky
1 This Is the happy case In the town of Bas
| brook, ireland, where four thousand sobe
sensible people keep everything like
!, liquor shop out Of their town.
d Fundamentally, the Temperance Reforl
is not a political movement; IL is a gran
d social and moral reform, which only Il
t voles the aid Of civil law TO accomplis
It's benefcent results.
!, Brethren and sisters in this gloriot
9 reform, let us use civil law as powerfl
!. auxiliary; but let us not forget that deep
down than legal penalties lie conscienc
? and custom. When conscience is reachC
and customs reformed, the reform is pc
s manent Above oil we need Gods hel
, | O. 4