St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-08-05
A QUESTION OF PUBLIC MORALS.
BY A FORMER ST. JoHNsBURY BOY.

A communication signed "Tax-pay-
err" in Saturdays Telegraph, headed,
ga Problem for Solution" asks the
question:: "How long 60 saloons must
be yearly licensed to bring us virtue,
sObriety, peace and good order 2"
elbow many more must be added to
these 60 to furnish places of amuse-
ment and moral culture of christian
fathers and mothers, boys and girls,
young men and young women, and to
aid in all that tends to promote purity,
good order and personal liberty in our
BONES and among the people 2" Then
follows the searching inquiry: "What
of the future 2" One who has studied
the problem somewhat would respect
fully submit the following brief emu
meratiOn of causes that cOnspire to es-
tablish and maintain these lawful
places of business, where liquor is dis
pensed as legalized commodity ;
where saloon doors stand invitingly
open upon all our main thOrOughfares,
and the noise of ribald laughter, pro-
family, the gurgling of drink, and the
jingle of glasses may be heard far into
the hours of night. The answer to this
''sum of human villanies" may be sub
divided thus:
l. SO long as the government of the
United States is the principal cOpart-
ner and major beneficiary in the i'm
pOrtation, manufacture and sale of in
toxicating drinks to the people of the
United States-its dividend, share and
profits of the "trade" the past year be-
ing estimated at 800, 100000!
2. So long as under the special tax
law of this state, Kalamazoo derives an
annual income of $13, lO7. go from the
traffic in drinks within the city limits !;
which is in abatement of taxes that
would otherwise be levied upon the
just as we'll as the unjust, and so long
as the business thus taxed is legalized,
made respectable and entitled to take
rank alongside any legitimate branch
of business as public industry.
3. So long as members of congress,
governors, state legislators, mayors,
aldermen, prosecuting attorneys, mag
istrates, chiefs of police, cOnstables,
and all other persons in authority, OBJ
tain their seats through the good will,
contributions, influence and votes of
liquor dealers, manufacturers, saloon
keepers, whisky drinkers, and their
reprObate allies-cOmprehensl des-
ignated as "the whisky clement
without the support of which the tru
est, nOblest and most exemplary char
acter in our midst, nominated for pub
lie office would be shamefully and
overwhelmingly defeated.
4. So long as lawyers, doctors,
bankers, politicians, capitalists, mer
chants, leading citizens and all persons
engaged in industrial enterprises do
not interfere with or oppose in any APP
preciable way the whisky business, for
fear of ostracism, abuse, bOycOtting
and personal injury of their persons or
property.
5. So long as this type of sin, plated
with gold, erects stately mansions,
ficent gifts, receives the plaudits of the
multitude; and fashionable society,
without discrimination, opens wide its
doors and welcomes the dram seller,
the dram -drinker, the profigate, the
prOfane, the licentious, the vulgar, the
illiterate, and all who are rich in world
ly possessions.
6. So long as the public press, the
pulpit, and 80 per cent. at least of pro-
Tossing christians and so called temper
ance people are unwilling to take any
stand religiously, socially, commercial
ly, or politically against the saloon
business, or join in any attempt or
movement to suppress the sale of Iiqu-
or so long will public sentiment"
and statutory enactments uphold and
perpetuate the traffic. Defending the
saloons in the lawful prosecution of
their business, (making drunkards), the
pulpit and press content themselves
with spasmodic appeals to the moral
sense of such as may chance to hear or
read their exhOnOratiOns; perhaps; sim
cerely deplOring the evil effects in a
general way, but more particularly
some special lamentable case of intern
perance within their immediate know
ledge; while multitudes day and night
thrOng the counters of the whisky
shOps-lawful places of trade-drink-
ing damnatiOn To themselves and their
posterity.
So long as these conditions exist,
whisky and alcoholic beverages will
not be declared contraband, but be
held as regular articles of commerce.
The government may occasionally raid
a few moonshiners in the woods-not
in the interest of good order and sobri-
ETY. but that the public treasury may
not be robbed of its share of 'sblood
price that whisky pays
for the formal government sanction
and authority to fill the land with
the asylums, prisons, jails
and aImsbouses with inmates, and to