The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1892-06-04
On Temperance.
THE COMMON ENEMY.
Nashville Christian Advocate.


not favor incompetence is but to
assert the trite truth that the
| Church is in favor Of herself. Bit
there must be no feeble assertion
of this trite truth. The Church
must be against the whiskey bus
mess with all its awakened powers.
Bishop Foster puts it strongly, but
not intemperately. He says;
The Church of to-day, much
more the Church of the future,
must take to its heart the duty of
combining and massing its forces
against that gigantic atrocity, that
diabolical conspiracy, that name
less mOnstrum hOrrendum of
Christian civilization, that mothers
nine-tenths Of the woes and sor-
rows which blight and curse the
modern age-the traffic in intoxi-
cants, which hides its defOrmity
under forms of law. How long
shall the face of our Christian age
blister with this worse than pagan
shame? Has the virtue of the
time degenerated SO low that we
do not even blush at the legislated
traffic in the souls of our own chill
dren? That by the very doors OF
our own homes and our temples
an army of miscreants should by
authorization of laws, made by
Christian lawgivers, prosecute a
work of murder and death? Are
we reduced to the shame of admit
ting that civilization which has
grown up about our affairs is i'm
potent to cure the evil! How can
we go to the heather with this
cancer of worse than heather in
fanny fostering in our bosom?"
Prohibition is the remedy.
Whether the State has the legal
right to license the saloon evil may
be questioned. But who will say
that for money a State has the
right to legalize this great evil !
The Nashville Temperance Advo-
cate says: The time is at hand
when many thoughtful people are
beginning to inquire if there can
not be some more effective police |
methods devised for the control
and suppression Of the liquor sell
Ter that which rests upon a |
money basis, at either a high or
low rate of taxation. Distiller,
brewers, and salooon keepers con-
tinually boast of their payments
to the public treasury in the way
of license fees and excise tax, and
then assume the right to dictate
as to the details of their unhal-
lowed partnership with the gov
1t is quite time to abol-
ish this sort of money copartner-
ship with liquor vendors al
The weak point of the temper
ance cause is its lack of unity.
There is enough temperance SEN
timent in this country to destroy
the saloons, if it could be united;
but there is the rub. The Nat
tional Baptist we'll says: "The
present lack of unity among
friends of Temperance is criminal.
Because of this lack of unity COM
paratively little is done. The
liquor forces present a united
front; they are thoroughly organ
zed, are aggressive and vigilant.
The saloon knows just what it
wants, and sets about gaining its
ends. The entire liquor forces of
he country, from Maine to Cal
fornia, thoroughly understand one
another. These forces can at any
lime be massed at any point of
attack. Only among the friends
If temperance is there disunion,
ack of cohesion, division in coun-
Ill and in effort"
The New England Home brings
he matter to a point as to when
We will succeed in depressing the
liquor business: "a good many
7ears and an inconceivable amount
If energy have been consumed in
rying to devise laws that rum
thinkers and rumsellers would
hey, but it is dawning upon in
elligent voters that the task is
homeless ono hecausa hasad