West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1886-03-31
Startling Facts.
Aggressioms of the Rum Fo,oer.

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We give our readers the follow.
ing extracts from a leading editorial
in last last weeks Voice. We call
on all thinking men and women to
consider seriously the startling
facts set forth:
sit is the nature of evil-doers to
be aggressive. They must inevi-
tably be pushing ahead in some
direction by the very law of evil,
The man who steals dollar to-day
will tomorrow plan a holder and
larger theft. When the devil gets
the whip hand of man he drives
him mercilessly on to deeper and
deeper depths Of iniquity.
The strongest reason we have for
believing that the kingdom of rum
must soon come to an end, is the
increasing insolence and growing
demands of the men who traffic in
the accursed stuff. For years they
have had political power beyond
that possessed by any other class of
tradesmen. They have been given
opportunity, under the protection
of the Government, to amass
gigantic fortunes and build up an
Immense business that reaches to
the ends of the earth. In the single
department of the manufacture of
malt liquors the capital invested
has increased from less than $685.
600, 900 in 1878, to $280,O0O,000 in
1883, and from 62,463,526 gallons
manufactured in 1868, to the enor-
nous proportions Of nearly 60O,OOO,-
600 gallons last year.
The saloon-keeper has invaded
every State and Territory of the
land. He has intrenched himself
in the very chambers of legislation,
and to-day plies his Internal bust
ness in the Capitol building at
Washington, laughing and chuck
ling over the wrath of the country
as if it were the best of jokes. No
home has been sacred enough for
him to respect, He has planted
his mantraps by the side of the
church and school-house. Every
attraction that ingenuity could
devise, from brandy drops for the
loose boy to brothel adjuncts for the
loose young man, has been pressed
into service. Society has tolerated
him and borne with him until it
suddenly awakes to the fact that it
is now the saloon-keeper that is
tolerating society, 1t has given
him six days out of the week, and
he now demands the seventh, and
takes it without waiting for the
permission Of the law. 1t has
sacrificed at his altar each year
Thousands and tens of thousands of
husbands, brothers, fathers, sons,
and he cries out that it is not
enough, and he must begin his
work of corruption with the boy
hood of the land. Nothing can
satisfy him, and nothing ever will.
Evil is never satisfied, and hell is
always agape for fresh victims. No
matter what concessions may be
made to the saloon, more will be
demanded. The traffic that from
1868 to 1870 requested and petition
ed Legislators, now demands and
threatens, and whisky is indeed
king. x
Fellow citizens of America, 2OO,-
900 inhabitants of this land, most
ly foreigners, are to-day in REBEL
LION against this Government.
The laws of the land are spit upon
and openly defed. We talk about
the threats of socialists, but here
are men who not only threaten but
act out their lawless threats week
in and week out. We have been
criticised for being too violent and
severe in our language. Is there a
patriot between the two seas that
can look these facts in the face and
then blame us? Is any language
too severe in dealing with such
insidious, stony-fronted rebellion as
this? Is any warning too earnest
in striving to arouse this nation to
a sense of it's danger?