The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-22
BUT HOPE YET REMAINS.
POWERFUL FORCES WORKING FOR
 TEMPERANCE.

church Rev. John Fl. Mason gave the last of his series of eleven addresses on "storm Centers of Civilization" Two weeks ago MT. Mason asked his hearers to send in an answer to this question: What is your settlement of the liquor problem and what three reasons can you give for your view" It was intend ed to consider these replies in connec- tion with the closing address. But the responses had been so many and so va ried as to deserve more deliberate con sideration, and the service of Sunday evening, May 5, will be given especially to this matter.
 ''Is There Any Hope?" was the topic of last evenings address, and MT. Mason spoke in part as follows:
 This Is not the foolish cry of an alarm ist. The forces which make for destruc- ton are steadily at work. It Is the part of wisdom to make early diagnosis, to ignore no symptoms and to face condi- tions as they are, however serious.
 There is not alone the liquor power to contend with. We have to contend against apathy among so-called tenn perance people and the hopelessness that paralyzes many others. But there is hope. Perpetual failure in the past does not mean eternal failure. The the ory of government is changing. We have free enlightened republic. The days of tyrannical rule are past We can appeal to the people. In short, the whole modern temperance movement rests upon foundation of understand ing, conviction, humane sentiment and sense of personal obligation such as never has existed in the same degree before.
 Nevertheless some one will say; Yet look at the steady growth of the liquor power, even amid these conditions.
 The mightiest forces known among men are the invisible, intangible, moral forces. To be sure, they often sleep.
 Slavery was strongly intrenched. But emancipation came and the octopus of slavery went to pieces.
 So in the light of recent history no
 man has a right to despair, however unpromising are the signs of the times.
 I remark still further that the liquor power is just coming to be understood. That Is one of the most hopeful fea- lures of the present situation. The screens and curtains with which the sa- loon seeks to hide its diaboilcal enginery of destruction from the public eye Is a symbol of the secrecy which has always been thrown over the whole business in this coutnry. It works in the dark be- cause its deeds are evil.
 Let us be thankful that some of the wells are being torn away. Medical sci ence is telling us of the effects of al- cohol as seen in the human system. Social science is revealing the appalling effects of the rum power in the lives and homes of the poor. Judges on the bench tell us that rum lies at the heart of nearly every crime. Political econo- mists tell us that the waste through this channel is almost beyond computation. | And any man who keeps his eyes open can read something of the daily trag- edy.
 There are humberless agencies at work to-day with the determination to force upon the people a knowledge of the des- perate business There is the Woman's | Christian Temperance union, one of the bravest and clearest-eyed temperance organizations of our time, and many | other bodies working toward the same i high end. Within fifteen years state after state has provided for scientific temperance instruction In the public schools Most churches have issued | official and un1nistakable utterances on | this question. In most Sunday schools there are temperance lessons at regular intervals. Temperance periodicals have sprung up all over the country, and many religious and secular papers have a. regular temperance column. The pull pit is paying more attention to the sub feet than ever before, and It's voice IS on the right side. summer are being held and are very largely attended. The platform is mak- ing it's voice heard
 All this means that we are in the midst of great movement. It means agitation; and agitation means educa- tion; and education conviction; and conviction action: and action means final victory.
 In the meantime we are getting edu- cation in other directions as we'll We are finding out that the politicians have no intention of giving this question any serious thought A few years ago the
  out of politics." But to-day everybody knows that the temperance question is In politics and in to stay. The lAmeri- can citizen in any land must make the admission that the politics of his country are ruled by the saloon. men demand help at the hands of their great parties, and some- times they get nothing and sometimes they get beautiful promises and prim- rose resolutions of sympathy. They get 1o help, and they will get none so long IS parties are dependent for majorities upon the vote of the saloons.
 Yet, again, men are coming to see hat the state not only has right to protect itself from the saloon but that t must do it in order to it's self-pres- ervation. We have been deluded long though with this sham cry about inter- terence with personal liberty. The posing of the liquor traf- ic as a martyr would be extremely ,omical were it not so maddeningly Successful. Men are just beginning to lee that every city ordinance is an in- erference with personal liberty; that very man in a striped suit at Weth-