St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-11-05
WHAT RUM Is DOING FOR THE
COUNTRY.

Take up the daily paper and read
| the reports of the cuttings, Standings,
shOOtings, riots, assaults, wife beatings
and all the other infractiOns of peace
and good order, and ninety per cent. of
the sum total will he found to he Occa-
stoned directly by rum.
Go through your poor houses and
you will find that ninety per cent. of
the inmates were brought there direct
ly by rum.
Go through your jails and peniten-
tiaries and you will find that ninety
per cent. of the criminals were made
so directly by rum.
Look over the list of executions for
murder and you will find that ninety
per cent. of the food for the gallOws
was furnished directly by rum.
Make inquiry as to the cause of sep
aratiOns of husbands and wives, and
domestic troubles generally, and you
will find that ninety per cent. of it all
may be charged directly to rum.
Scan the corruption in governmental
matters, the cases of NAL -administra-
ton, corruption, corruption in elections
and all that is undermining purity in
government, and you will find that
=
rectly to rum.
In brief, sum up all there is of bru
tality, violence, beggary, crime and
corruption, and you will find that more
than ninety per cent. of the awful ag-
gregate may be charged directly to
rum.
Rum is the one agency that is under
mining humanity, it is the one intiu-
ence that makes the work of the church
of no avail it is the one agency that
kills the good effect of education, it is
the one weapon which the devil yields
that is irresistible; the one agency
that stands in opposition to everything
that is good and fosters everything
that is evil. 1t is death to the family,
to business. to society, to government,
and to the school and the church. 1t
tears down faster than all the agencies
for good can build up.
There is crime and pauperism Just
in proportion as there are liquor shops.
There is corruption in politics exactly
in proportion to the amount of rum
consumed. The cities, with their miles
of rum shops, are plundeTed and tax
ridden, and the only salvation for the
states containing them is the country,
which is free from it's demOraliZing in
fiuence. Where rum is, votes can he
purchased, and a purchased vote
was never yet cast for good object.
Boss Tweed got the support that en-
abl9d him to wreck New York from the
rum districts, and the rum shops and
the rum drinkers were the invincible
agencies he used. Rum rules Chicago,
and the same may be said of every
city in the country. The 500 saloons
in Toledo WELD a more powerful in
tiuence in politics than all the other
agencies combined, and the result is
written upon the tax-receipts of the
workers of the city.
With these CHASTITY facts staring
every decent man in the face, we are
asked TO let rum alone. 1t is with rum
as it was with slavery, it is the one
thing that must not be touched. Its
right to go on debauching men and
boys and demOralizing the world must
not be questioned. Its right to kill
men, to wreck boys, and ruin girls
must not be touched. There is not IA
family in the United States that has
not this danger lowering over it. There
are millions of dollars invested in a
business the profits of which depend
upon the number of boys that can be
ruined annually. The vast financial
structure is based upon the ruin of
men. The more drunkards this inter
est can make the greater its profits,
and as there is no limit to human GU
pidity, SO there is no limit to its efforts
in this direction. This Internal inter
est has control of party organization, it
holds n sword over trade, and it con-
trolls the press. 1t has entwined itself
into all interests, so, that to-day it
practically rules the country, in face
of an overwhelming majority of the
people against it.
Why is it not crushed out Because
there never has been any union against
it, and it has never met with any or
ganized opposition.
Politicians are afraid of it and jug
gle with it, the people at large refuse
to recognize the power it has for evil,
and all, except those who have been
bitten by the snake, affect to consider
it no snake at all, and laugh ut those
who would better the condition of hu-
mainly by killing it out. The time Is
coming when this question will demand
and have recognition. The problem of
to-day is how TO pulverize the rum
power Toledo Blade.