The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-30
New Suits Filed.
Who Is Responsible.

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
That was a sad picture of domestic in
felicity and restitution which the Journal
drew the other day when speaking of the
Griffin murder and what led to it, but it is
sadder still to know that it can be dupli-
Gated by the hundreds in this beautiful city
of churches and saloons, and that the same
class of suffering can often be found where
the accessories of squalor and want do not
exist; and in nearly every case the same
cause lies at the bottom of it all-the use
of intoxicants. 1t seems to me that every
thinking man must stop occasionally and
ask who is responsible for this condition of
affairs. OF course, primarily, the man who
drinks is chief in responsibility, yet may
not that entity we call the State have a
large share? And may not every individual
who enters into that social compact have
a share also? By so much as my drinking
habits educate others to drink L am re-
sponsible, though by force of will and en-
ViropmentS l may never or very seldom
be drunk. l am inclined to believe that the
most potent factor in the causing of such
misery as the Journal depicts in the Griffin
family is in the example some of us set
before such weaklings as were found there
and found by the hundreds all around
us; we drink and they learn to drink also
This responsibility is positive and aggres-
sive. The States responsibility, though
great, is of quite another character; it is
purely negative. 1t neglects to do what it
ought to do, and is a sinner only to the
extent that one who knows to do good and
does it not is a sinner. All attempts to
make men VirtuouS by law must forever be
a failure, yet within limits the State may
prevent mems doing wrong. The State cam
not cure smallpox and diphtheria but it
has enacted wise regulations to lessen their
raVages and our quarantine laws and other
preventive measures are as rigidly en-
forced as our laws against burglary,
though they conspicuously interfere with
personal liberty at every step. The reason
is worse to have the smallpox than the de-
lirium tremens, or that frenzy which muir
ders brother 1t will not always, be so.
Some day the state Will reckon delirium
tremens and drunkenness and their con-
currents poverty and crime, as diseases to
be legslated against, and men will no more
be allowed to maintain that which fosters
them than they may now maintain a gar
bage heap where it will breed fevers and
cause death. Some day-and that not very
remote-So near that | look for ii before I
die-we will take notice of what men drink
we have for generations prescribed what
they may eat We do not allow men to eat
tainted meats. If any man, laboring under
mental or moral perversity, wants to in
dulge in so dangerous a diet we take charge
of him by severely Furnishing the man who
sells it to him. Some day we will count
drunkenness and its poverty and crime
man who contributes to it. There will
never come the day when there will not be
drunkards-at least not soon. There is too
much money in the business of making
just such families as the Griffin family,
and too much politics as well. As long as
politicians court the vote of the saloon as
the chief reliance of this candidate or that,
and those who do not approve the saloon
are Indifferent to its ravages we may ex-
pect such families the Griffin family to
exist in fearful numbers. public sent-
ment that will not resent the vigilance
afrh rtgt a xxrhA Il. q
wheel after dark with his lantern not
lighted and never sees the open door of a
saloon at inhibited hours will foster the
crimes which grow in the saloon atmos-
phere. Some day public health and public
morals win be paramount TO every other
question: and compulsory education and the
curfew and the restriction of the saloon
its absolute prohibition everywhere-will be
the slogan that will win. 1t would win to-
day in indianapolis if we had leaders of
sufficient courage to demand it.
Indianapolis, Aug. S L. l.. SEE.