Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-03-03
A Scathing Arrangement of the
Mississippi Legislators.
A Well Known Methodist Min
lister Holds the Mirror up
to Nature and Does
the Blistering.
The Responsibility for the Sa.
loon Laid at the Door of
Recreant Protested
Christians.

| 10 tlllS we may answer yes, because
the saloons, as we now have them, are
running sores on the body polite
they are moral cancers on the con-
science of the nation, they arc the re-
morseless enemies of mankind which,
according to Gladstone, "hopelessly
ruin more that is dear to humanity
than the three curses of war, famine
and pestilence Will reasonable,
sensible men dignity such a curse as a
legitimate industry by the solemn
sanctions of law? Go ask majority
of the Mississippi legislators. And
yet, those who justify such a traffic by
their vote for men who license the
traffic, trample under their feet all
worlds in seeking arguments of excul
patton. They stand at first, like
archangels at the gate of heaven, but
generally end, like fallen archaDgels,
in the lowest pit of perdition.
They affirm that their intoxicants
are the gifts of God, and sanctioned
in their use by the example of Christ.
There is no sacrilege more abhor-
rent, no profanity more despicable.
no subterfuge more censurable, than
to attempt to cover the guilt of the
drink traffic and the open saloon, by
quoting thus the innocence of Christ's
action, and the spirit of the Divine
Master that was against all sin and the
very appearance of evil.
But what is license!
There is a wide difference between
a tax and license. A license is the
granting of authority to do that which
would otherwise be unlawful. a tax
requires something to be given by the
citizen to support the government
license simply allows something to be
done. Moreover, to license the sa-
loon constitutes valid contract be-
tween the legislators issuing the IL
cense and the saloon keepers, and
makes both sharers in the gains, and
the moral characters of the business
Do they not turn the blood money,
tainted with crime, into the State
treasury.
Senator Sherman, in a celebrated
speech in Columbus, Ohio, said awe
do not tax a crime; We punish it
We do not share in the profits of a
larcency; but we do share in the prof
its of liquor selling when we license
it.
The act of the State licensing the
liquor traffic is therefore the act of all
who lend their influence and authority
in favor of such legislation.
And this authority is granted by
ministers and members of the church.
when they vote for and support men
and parties who grant license to sa.
looms and the traffic.
If the traffic issinful, then the legal
izing of it is also sinful.
The logic of license, therefore is in
evitable, that the legislators who frame
this iniquity into law, together with
all who vote for them or petition for a
license or approve this act of their
legislators are sinners indeed.
Some may object to this sound logic
on the ground of necessity, and we
have to deal, not with a theory, but a
condition, and we must do the best we
can.
The arguments thus made by men
who are i'll bondage to party politics
for the licensing of the saloon, have
just as sound basis for the licensing
of any other violation of Gods law.
Good men, and members of the
church who do not drink or get drunk,
are often heard urging this plea for
license.
Now how stands the case with these
church members 4? they must defend
the saloon against the charge that it
is immoral, or confess that they by
their votes will license the saloon.
What large number of ministers
and members of the church, who have
passed resolutions in conferences,
synods, and religious assemblies de-
nouncing the saloon as vicious and
only evil continually, and yet vote for
man and parties who license the saloon
and the traffic.
Consistency, and vows made at
Gods holy altar, call loudly upon
these men to change their course.
1t is affirmed, and proven by statis-
tics. that if all the ministers and mem
bers of the church were to vote against
the saloon, there would not be an
open saloon in the United States.
1t is affirmed, and proven by statis-
tics, that if all the ministers and mem
bers of the churches in the State of
Mississippi were to vote against the
saloon, there would not be an open
saloon I'm the State. Who is response
BILE for their existence to-day
j. w. HARMON.