Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1886-03-17

ti4io uiSiSAV III oupPoAS ~ sA0 sS
ance cause is worthy Of notice you
have my permission to publish it.
First / would say this, that in
temperance is a moral wrong wheth-
er lawful or not, even if made SO by
legislation. That which is 4 moral
wrong must from necessity be a
wrong. This fact Of itself does not
make it a moral right to license men
to dea. in Intoxicating liquors, and
I think if the council would recog-
nize the fact that they are weighing
the will Of God as against a few less
or even a few more than half
of the voters of this city they would
not grant a license to anyone much
less to q man who would abuse his
privilege. Just think of it for a
moment;it would not be quite as bad
Gin the eyes Of the law not of Cod
if the rum element had the entire
populace on its side, but it has not;
it only has about half of the legal
vote and we allow the scale Of justice
to tip in favor Of intemperance.
In the matter of license or no IL
cense il remains with the voter to
say. Here is q word to those who
are in favor of and vote for its be-
ing granted and if they will stop to
think what kind Of a burden they
will have to bear by SO doing, l be-
lieve it will change their views ma
terially.
We must acknowledge it to be a
moral wrong to sell liquor to any
person. Nearly every day n may
see one or more men on u streets
who abuse the use of liquor. You
might say that is nothing. 1t is
something. You are not supposed
to know which of a half dozen Of
boys who took the first drink in a
saloon will turn out to be a drunk
ard and possibly a murderer. The
sin was committed when these
young men were enticed into the
saloon and got the first glass. Some
one is held accountable for the guilt
of this poor creature who was too
weak to withstand the temptations
heaped upon him by those who
think a social glass is not of any
moment.
There are but very few people
who would engage in liquor traffic
even if they do encourage it.
Would you have any one do some
thing you would not do yourself if
you knew it was wrong? Few in
deed are the men in this city who
would hire a man to commit MUIR
der, but the same men will permit
murder by inches.
Do you not know that you are a
party in part to this horrible sin?
You are simply stating what is not a
fact by assuring these saloon men
(Which you do by voting for licensed
that it is right. They understand
that it is made right when they
certainly ought to know it to be
wrong.
Let me tell you it can not be
done even by legislation or by the
ballot-box. The only way is to
wipe it out entirely.
The will of God must be done in
| spite ofman and his legislation. We
are drawing nearer and nearer a
glorious era of temperance universal.
The Crusade Temperance lmean)
did a little goodnight not nave
been much--but they set the people
to thinking.
The Red Ribbon had its effect, not
much perhaps, but people comment.
ed upon it, and the temperance
| question was introduced amcng
those who had never given it a sec.
ond thought.
The Good Templars maintained
their society for quite a time and ir
some localities it exists still. Chill.
dren were born while it existed,
members and others who were not
passed away, surely the good infu'
ences which it brought about, must
have been felt by some of them.
The w. C. T. U. the most etfectu-
al of them all, to be sure they can
not vote, but mother would say
Henry you are a voter, you mus
not vote for license when you know
it is wrong and against my wishes"
Henry answers,"I did think ! would
for fear my business interests would
be ~jeopordized, but when / recall
the fact that l am a party in part t.
so great a wrong (Which l am be-
yond a doubt,) even if it is far re-
moved and that l am weighing m,
chances for salvation against a few
dollars / might receive it change
my mind and mother I piu cote right.
Cases of this kind may be fount
in a good many families where tn
influence of these christian ladie
1,~ ~ co1k n~l r ~ony go. IS A.: