The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-04
has been destroying moro than ten

un tNCfy yeois
 If the saloon is robber and mur- derer, why do we tolerate it? It surely Is a strange question to ask. But the saloon is here and there are certain considerations which lead men to think that 1t must stay. Let us see how much there is in these considerations. 1. Men say you can't get rid Of 1t any way. That Is humiliating con- fession. If 1t is true. republican form of government Is failure. The re- public is doomed if 1t is already too late for the citizens to rise in their might and throttle their most deter mined foe. But one thing Is overlooked by those who are always wailirfs that you can't do anything, The first is that the people of this country have some in- telligence, and are therefore suscepti- ble to argument: the second, and more important, is that q mighty public con science which has long lain sleeping may at last be aroused.
 2. Others say you can't reform men the community must protect itself. Self preservation Is the law of life. 3. Another says you have no right to interfere with another's personal liber- ty. That sounds reasonable, but 1t Is suspicious plea. If you find burglar In your house tonight, will you have no right to interfere with his personal liberty? Go into the city court to-mor- row morning and you will find score of your fellow citizens whose personal liberty has been interfered with by the police. Every city ordinance is an in- reference with your personal liberty. When the snow comes leave 1t piled on your sidewalk and see whether your personal liberty is so sacred. The fact Is, every man has to surrender some privileges when he becomes the member of community.
 If man attempted to establish powder mill at the corner of Chapel and State streets, the community would close up his mill and put him out of business. It has the same right to | close up saloon, which is more dan gerous than powder mill.
 
 license fees helps to pay taxes, or keeps our taxes down. But 1t does not take much of head for mathematics to figure out an overwhelming balance on the other side. Cities which have tried the experiment of banishing the sa- loon tell us that when that is done the rate of taxation comes down of itself 5. Another says that the liquor traffic | provides employment for many men. That is true. More than half a mill lion men are thus employed. The | United States census of 1890 shows us | that for every man employed in the brewing business, the amount of capi- tai first invested is $6,222. But if ex- actly that sum were invested in bread and bakery products, men would | find employment if in making boots and shoes, nearly 10 men; if in manu- featuring cotton more than men; if in silks, more than 6; if in woolen goods nearly 5; if in lumber and milling more than 3; if in iron and steel more than 8. Yet again if $1O0 be spent for beer, the amount which goes to the laborer in wages is just $490; if the same $100 be spent in bread and bakery products the laborer will get s2227 of it; if in boots and shoes, the laborer will get s23.13; if in cotton goods the laborer will get SEAS; if in lumber and milling the laborer will get $25.43. Hence if the brewing business could be wiped out to-day, and the money invested in these other industries, no man would reap a larger benefit than the laboring man.
 6. Another man says the business will not hurt me if let it alone. That is not at all certain. How about the drunkard's wife and child? How about the citizen who is run down by a drunken driver and maimed for life? How about the man who is killed in a railroad wreck because an engineer, eX- cited by liquor, had taken a fatal risk?
 Tonight I am speaking to you as thinking men, the men to whom is en. trusted the welfare of this city. After all we have been skirting only the lower ranges of this subject, the ranges of expediency. It would be unwise tc l OVSElOOh CucSS, pul dllSl oll IL Wouie be downright madness to forget tha' high above all towers the great ques tion of right and wrong. Can it bt right to protect by law a man whose business it is to break law and tt make law breakers? Can it be righ | for Christian man to help to per petuate a business which robs his fel
 low men of the very image of God
 which blasts mans happiness in thu
 world; and which gives him despair il
 place of hope as he plunges into tn
 next?
 When you go to the polls next Tues
 day, vote whatever city ticket mean the best city government in the coming year, but in the name of humanity an' in the name of Christ, do what vol .. can toward making the saloon an out law.
 Will Meet Tomorrow Night,