The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-03-23
Vol. XxxvI. No. SO.
LOCALIZED LIQUOR TRAFFIC
Rev. ]. R.ROOSe Discusses, This Subject
With GLOVES OF
HIS SUNDAY NIGHT DISCOURSE.
Mr.. Moose Denies the Statement That
the Graded Schools Cannot be Run
Without the Liquor License He
Says the Police Force Costs More
Than all the Bar-keepers LIncense.

righteousness exalteth a nation:
but sin is a reprOach to any people:'
Prov. 14:34.
The text is the words Of man CT
experience, said Rev. Mr. Moose. The
man who of all Others knew whereof
he spoke, being the wisest of all men
and one of the greatest kings who has
d ever lived. He was a man of wealth
and power beyond all of his day: he
tested the matter and found to his
sad regret that ''sin is a reproach to
anypeople."
He went into sin himself and
brought reproach upon the whole Jew
ish nation. God smOte the nation
with the breath of His wrath, and
scattered them to the four corners of
the earth, till tonight the Jew" is a
byword throughout the world.
The people of the United States
have been perhaps more highly favor
ed by God than any other nation
since the day He scattered His chosen
| people. This nation, which has been
so highly favored and is in many re-
spects the grandest nation on earth.
has upon its fair face some cancers in
the shape of national sins which are
| drawing from it the very blood.
In little more than hundred
| years we have grown to our present
place among the nations, till tonight,
on land or sea, wherever the ''starS
| and stripes" are thrown to the wind
| and kissed by the breeZes, they are
| hOnOred by all the nations of earth,
| from the mighty Russian Empire to
| the most petty South American Re
public.
There are many national sins of
| which we might speak if we had time.
The sins of lying, gambling, and law
protected trusts and combines which
make the poor of the nation cry for
| bread; all of these have become to be
the public sins O. the nation. The
great trusts that now exist for the
purpose of getting gain are so well or
ganiZed that the millionaire in Chica-
go can touch the electric key and
fix the price of bread and meat for
the nations.
We talk of these and many other
things; but these things sink into ut
ter insignificance when compared
with our great national sin, the legali-
zed liquor traffic. This is the one
great power in this nation at whose
bidding the politicians bow. This is
the power that, to large extent,
it's two hundred and fifty thousand
open saloons, saying nothing of the
places of its manufacture, what pow
er has it not in politics? This is the
power that controls Tammany today
-Tammany with its six hundred bar
keepers on its working committees,
more than five hundred of whom have j,
been convicted of crime by the courts
of the land; yet no well-informed man
will dare say that this mob does not
hold the greatest power in the politics
of our land, and is responsible for the
present rule in the land. Can we hope
for pure stream from such a f0un-
tain?
At this day we all condemn Leo X
for sending out John TetZel with a
bag of indulgencieS tOSell for gain, and
that was in the darkness of 1917. Yet,
we, in the twilight of the nineteenth
century, for the purpose of gain, sell
to the bar-keepers the right, not of
personal indulgencies, but the right
to make drunkards of our fathers and
brothers, and the right to make wild
ows Of our mothers and sisters. We
| license this business which furnishes
neither meat, bread nor clothing, but
| to a large extent furnishes the in
mates of our jails. penitentiaries.
| poor houses and asylums Yet this is
| the one pet business Of the nation that
| requires man to prove good moral
| character before he can engage in it.
| The idea of man proving a good
moral character to sell whiskey
| Yet | have no quarrel with the man
| who sells the stuff. If you are here
tonight [ want to tell you that / love
your soul and am willing to do all in
my power to help you do right. | am
very sorry for you and | beg you in
Gods name to quit the business.
Your business costs the people of the
| United States more than twelve hun
dred millions of dollars a year, for
which amount youcsend one hundred
and fifty thousand men and boys down
to drunkards' graves and into drunk
ards hell. Gods Word says it, in Ist
! Cor. 6:10: mo drunkard shall inherit
the kingdom of heaven"
But who is responsible for all of this
business? Some one says, stour com
miSsioners." But we are responsible
for our commissioners. therefore we
are responsible for this business. We
elect the legislators who appoint the
magistrates, who, in turn, appoint
the commissioners, so we can SEE
, where the responsibility belongs. Let
! us see to it that we know how a mar
is on this subject before we give hin
our vote.
Again we ask, where is the respon
sibility? As for me / would just a.
soon, at the day of judgement, take
the place of ahy man who dies drunl
as to take the place of the man who
) sold him the liquor to make hin
drunk. And I would just as soon tax,
the place of the man who sold tn
liquor as the man who granted hin
the licepse to sell it, though that mai
may be member of the church. AM
I would as soon take the place of tn
man who granted the license as tn
man who openly, with the lights be
5 fore him, voted for the man knowin
! that he would grant the license.
q The voters, and no body else, ar
= = responsible for this curse. When the
= | see fit to remove it, it can be done.
E, But, as voters, what kind of men. d
q we elect? What stripe of men wer
q in our last Legislature? What kin
+ of body was it? Indeed. I was gla
b, to notice in last weeks Raleigh Advt