The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-03-28
PULPIT EDITORIALS.
delivered by DR.. Frank Crane st Trnityf
Church, Chicago, Preceding the Usual
Sermon Sunday, March 81, 1898.
THE GREAT RED DRAGON.
downright. 1881

copyright. 1881
Frances Willard lies quiet in her
crave. The work OF which she was the
proyidential exponent seems TO lull.
Short sighted folks say temperance has
failed. But the student understands
the periodicity of reform, the rhythmic
movement of progress. No cause goes
steadily forward. II rises like the tide,
in ebb and flow; but every advance is a
little further, every retreat Is not quite
so far. The net result Is a constant
gain. When the boys and girls of the
time of the Washingtonian movement
grew up, they made the prohibition
movement; when the boys and girls of
Yesterday grow up they will formulate
a new and timeiier phase of the same
forward -striding conviction. Miss Will
ard grappled with what is one of the
most real questions of statecraft. The
actually important issues OF q state are
not those of money and tariff, but those
which affect the heart life and home
life Of the people. Such question is
intemperance.
The world crime of the Augustan age
was the tyranny Of cruelty; of the dark
ages, the tyranny Of superstition; of
this age, the tyranny Of drunkenness.
In the Apocalypse John said he saw
another wonder in Heaven, and be-
hold! a great red dragon; and the
dragon was wroth with the woman and
went to make war with the remnant of
her seed" / do not understand the
Apocalypse. never knew any one who
did. But II the seer Of Patmos had been
in full possession of all the facts in re-
gard to the nineteenth century dragon
of intemperance and it's prime execu-
tive, the saloon, he could not have
painted them in a lurid picture any
truer to life than these words he used.
Intemperance has overspread the
earth; no nation is exempt. In this
country we have been apparently get
ting out of the paws OF the monster.
but when we consult statistics we seem
to be only getting out Of the paws into
the jaws.
There has been a remarkable growth
of sentiment against the custom of
drinking. In the early days everybody
drank. Doctors drank with their pa
tents, preachers partook with the laity
at ordination services, the harvest
hands demanded whisky, every country
grocery kept its demijohn. People
soaked their bread in rum and doctored
their wounds with the same remedy.
They applied 1t inside and out Today
the public spirit seems changed The
middle classes have tabooed 1t. These
lead society. The top and bottom Of
society are not due for some time after
the middle class The churches have
declared against it; the women have or
ganized to oppose it; the most reputa-
BILE physicians view its use with disfa-
vor and many have eliminated its use
altogether in their practice. There are
few open and public champions of the
habitual use of intoxicants. Let the
liquor men go along quietly and pro-
woke as little attention to their BUSH
ness as possible" was the advice given
by a veteran distiller to meeting Of
spirit dealers.
One might suppose from all this that
the use of liquor is decreasing. But
we are startled to find that such Is not
the case. The manufacture, sale and
consumption OF alcoholic liquors In the
United States steadily increases, not
only in toto, but per capita We have
little idea of the colossal proportions
of this trade. The cost OF intoxicants
to the country is equal to the value OF
all foods that come upon the market;
it is three times the cost of bread,
twice that of wearing apparel, four
times that of boots and shoes. In six
teen years Ii amounts to four times
the value of the national debt In 1880.
and one and one-half times the cost of
the rebellion to both north and south.
If, once in eleven years, fire were to
consume all the products of the nation,
both manufactured and agricultural, II
would do no more than Is done by the
dead waste of drinking spirituous liq-
ours. AS one computes the bloody sta
tistics of alcohol and it's effects, he Is
as one counting the sands by the ocean
of despair.
This question is one Of the most vital
public import. Besides 1t all matters
of mere governmental expediency sink
into insignificance. United States
senator calculated the expense of sa-
looms to the nation at $15 per capita;
the revenue from them at $1.69 per cap
ita-$13 clean loss. How long shall we
keep this fools arithmetic? The drink
question is pivotal in national revenue
1t Is a prime factor in the labor ques-
ton. We are told that $250,0O0 a day
pass over the mahogany counters of the
New York saloons, of which $4,000 is
easily the age-workers-$1S,OOO 100000 a
year robbed from the cottages of the
poor by the Croker-Platt partisan ma
chine in its noble effort to uphold per-
sonal liberty. We cannot wonder al
strikes; but we wonder why the laborer
does not rise to strike the saloon.
Chicago is saloon governed The
council leaders and party managers are
saloon men. They carried the munich
pal election of 1897 by g plurality OF
$4,000. or fifteen votes to each saloon
This element is In full control OF every
department Of government 1t has made
the police enforcement Of law hiss
and a by-word Think Of 1t, civiliza'
ton! The policy Of the second city OF
the American continent Is framed In
the pot-house and executed by the al