The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-05-28
TEMPERANCE NOTES.

| TEMPERANCE NOTES
THE SALOON SYSTEM.
y,ctins OF the Drink Demon Constantly
decreasing in Numbers.
As everyone knows, the cities of the
United States are the strongholds of
the rum power. Our largest one, New
York, has a population of 1900, 900. Its
liquor traffic each year is over $50, 0oo,-
300, while the support of its churches
of all denominations costs but 8, O00.-
600 year. With . population of g.
00O, 600 in the whole country, we spend
about 5000, O00. 600 a year for rum, and it
costs $500, 600, 900 year for the support
Of our prisons, poorhouses and asy-
lums, three-fourths of whose inmates
are there from causes directly or re-
motely dependent upon the use of rum.
During the past twenty years. the
temperance reform has made great
progress in the United States, and the
proportion of those who abstain entire
~ from the use of rum in any form is
much greater now than ever before.
Yet in these twenty years, the manu-
facture of intoxicants has increased
more rapidly in proportion than the
population, and there is more liquor
used per capita than there was score
of years ago. This shows that there is
more excess now than there was at
that time, that those who do drink,
drink more freely than was then the
case.
Nor is there anything in the situa-
ton which promises speedy amend:
ment of this condition. The curse 6f
the saloon is more potent than the ef-
forts of the workers in the temperance
cause. The increase in the amount of
liquor consumed is not because our peo-
pie like it any better, nor because it is
more palatable, but simply because
the 2O0,O 900 saloons of the country are
doing more active PROSECUTING work
than are the advocates of temperance.
The evil of the saloon is not the harm
it does to those who are already the
victims of the drink habit: it's worst
feature is its effect in creating that ap-
petite in young men. The youth with
a vigorous, healthy body and good d.
gestlon does not like the taste of rum.
He does not begin to drink from any
liking for liquor in any form AS we
have already said, it is the social
feature of the saloon which draws
these young men within its doors.
Once there, somebody promptly offers
to ''treat;" to refuse is to appear un-
duly straightlaced, and to lack good
fellowship; the young man drinks, al
tn ough he does not care to do so, and
then feels it incumbent upon him to re-
pay the obligation by treating in
turn. This is the first step in the down
ward road.
He very soon gets accustomed to the
taste of strong drink, and from drink
ing only when he is invited or when he
treats in his turn. he soon comes to
drink for the excitement which fol-
lows; and once he learns to drink from
this cause, the way is open to drunk
enness and all the woes which follow
in its train. Take the 200, 900 saloons
in this country, and it is but mod
crate allowance to estimate an average
of twenty young men per year who
learn to drink in each. Hence the
fact is not overstated when we say that
the saloon system of the United States
is destroying no less than 1000, 900
young men per year.
The vice of intcmperance does not
end with its victim nor does it end
with his becoming sot. 1t is the
prolific parent of vice and crime. There
is not gambling-hell in the United
States which does not furnish liquor to
unsteady the nerves and unbalanco the
judgment of the poor fools who fre-
quent them. There is not a house of
ill-repute in which rum is not 1T hand
to inflame the baser passions Of its Wis
itors, There is not one infraction of
peace and good order in twenty that is
not largely or entirely due to rum.
These things are the natural outcome
of the career which the young man be-
gins when he first enters q saloon to
meet his friends.
1t is safe to say that no young man
ever starts out with the determination
to become drunkard, or the slave of
vice. or a criminal: yet look around
you in any community, and see the vast
numbers who are confirmed drunkartls!
Visit large prison and you will find that
the great majority of it's unhappy in
mates are there from causes which can
be traced directly to the drinking
habit. Visit a poorhousc and inquire
into the history of the unfortunates
who find that their only home, and YOU
will learn that in the cases of the ma
jority rum was the initial cause of
their being there. 1t was the careful
judgment of a former superintendent of
the Toledo insane asylum that fully
three-fourths of the cases of insanity
within the establishment we're due d.
rectly or indirectly to intemperance.
The condition of things in regard to
drunkenness in the United States is
grave enough to cause alarm to every
thoughtful person. The condition can
not be improved so long as the saloon
is allowed to exist; and so long as the
saloon is in existence our condition re-
garding intemperance will grow worse
instead of better. But the saloon can
not be suppressed until public opinion
is strong enough, not only to demand
its suppression, but to enforce that de-
mand when it is enacted into law.
The obvious place of beginning any
effort to change the existing order,
must be with the people themselves,
and it must take the shape of cam
paign of education. The facts as to the
magnitude of the evils resulting from
the rum traffic must be brought home
to the understanding of every citizen.
Every pulpit must join in the work.
Our public schools must teach the chill
dren as part of their education, the
evils, physical and moral, which come
from Indulgence in strong drink, and
the scientific truth that alcohol is
poison, no more, no less, and that its