Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-14

them when their legality Is questioned
and an appeal taken to q higher court.
W. cannot entirely agree with your
| expressions as to the far-reaching and
| deleterious influences of these devices.
| Granting that there may be some per-
| SOM so weak as tt allow themselves
| to be allured by them, there is no law
moral or divine, which can entirely
| control the disposition Of men TO
spend their money as they desire. We
| are firmly of the opinion that every
| man has in his makeup a certain
amount of desire for speculation. The
desire is only limited by his means.
| Certain of our
wealthy Citizens Daily Gamble
| in the stocks Of the various trusts and
/ corporations. True, this form of gam
bling is termed Speculation" but it
is, nevertheless, gambling.
The city by actual license, permits
! certain forms of speculation to be car
| ried on in her midst, which are much
| more pernicious and ~far-reaehing in
! their effects than the slot machines of
which you complain, and making pos
sible the loss of large sums Of money.
And if the amounts readily paid for
such privileges are any indication, the
| profits must be excessive. The fact
that licensed places of this sort have
fiourished for many years would seem
to establish beyond reasonable ques-
ton that they are a source Of large
revenue.
Your reference to the practice of
young men and boys being led into
,.,xip n, moths INV roocnn IF tho ontiP;np
influences of the slot machines, appeals
to us, and we beg to express u sincere
and hearty cooperation and accord
with your disposition aad intent to
safeguard and direct the early habits
of young men that they may be led
into just and honorable ways, and thus
become good and substantial citizens.
But here again ONE the question of
difference between a theoretical and
practical condition. 1t is a well estab-
lished truth that
Experience is the Best Teacher,
and we firmly assert that many of the
better class of citizens in our midst
have been made better by experiences
of which they are not only heartily
ashamed, but would not for any con-
sideration allow themselves to be again
guilty Of. While on the other hand, il
the opportunity for these experiences
had come in later life, the result might
have been quite different.
Again, we submit that parents are
morally responsible for existing condi-
tons. Some do not throw around the
home life the pleasures and comforts
which MOULD aftooh tho x-nt1n q r,on and
women to their homes by ties which
would make them incapable of fire.
~quenting places made possible because
the home life is not what it should be,
and thus engendering a feeling of de-
sire for freedom among people, who,
while processing sincere friendship and
the desire to entertain, are in reality
masqueYading in VOLTS clothing and
have but one aim, personal gain, even
though it comes by the payment of the
most severe penalty of which we have
knowledge, i. e.: the price of virtue.
Our ordinances provide stringently
against the sale of intoxicantS to
minors. Except in isolated cases, it
would be difficult to secure conviction
for offences of this kind, and then
mainly with the assistance of the pa
rents, who would naturally shrink from
exposing their children to public
odium and disgrace. What are we
then to do when misguided parents,
who should be and legally are the
guardians OF their children, not only
permit them to frequent saloons, but
rather command them by sending
them on errands for intoxicants, and
thus blunt their sensibilities, and put
them in
In the Way of Temptations
To the credit of the saloon keepers of
the city, be it said that they have en-
deavored to break up this practice, but
their efforts have not been wholly sue
cessful, because of the lack of CO.
operation of the parents.
We have to the fullest extent possible en-
forced the ordinances intended to protect
boys from these vices, and we shall not
relax our vigilance in this respect, but we
know that it is impossible for us TO keep
boys entirely OUT of saloons. we would
suggest to your Federation that it may
lie in your power to do more in this respect
han we can, If You Will get the boys into
the churches, and teach them to avoid evil
ways. We believe that the church can be
a great aid to the law in that way. You
can, by moral suasion and Christian ex-
ample, do more for the cause of reform
than can be done by the kin of radical re-
form by force which you suggest to US.
In formulating our plans for lettering
conditions in the city, we have been to a
great extent guided by the experiences of
the late Col. George w. Waring in his con-
nection with the Roosevelt administration
in New York City, and we have, from our
experience, been forced to the same con-
clusion as he: That no extreme reform is
possible, and that in some instances where
there are technical violations, they must
be permitted TO a limited extent while
being held in check, because in a city, es-
peclally one like Wheeling. composed of a
class of people almost entirely of the work
ing class, there must be
Something to Take the Place
of the social. club Of the man Of means.
We have felt a p~ardonabie pride in the
law-abiding character of our city, and
especially in the fact that while the sur
rounding cities and towns have recently
had an epidemic of robbery, our city has
been almost entirely free from such occur
rences. And in the matter of the minor
crimes of which you complain, we insist
that our city is not worse than other cities,
but, on the contrary, is much better thar
most cities OF like population.