The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-03-13
THE BISHOPS ONSLAUGHT
REV. j. c. SMITH OBJECTS TO ATTACK
ON PROHIBITIONIsTs.
A Lesson, However, i'm the Potter Let
ter-Way IN Compete with
Saloons.


mon in the Tabernacle Church last night on
The Advantage of Positive and Negative
Elements" He said, in part:
Bishop Potters onslaught on Prohib-
itionists is rather merciless. I do not lind
1t in my heart TO scourge any class or men
who have tried 10 purge our world. Espe-
cially DO feel SO when many or these re-
formers have been personal sufferers and
can point with aching hearts TO homes
blighted with drink These reformers have
kept the cause from ebbing out into IN
difference. They have urged science to act
as an auxiliary in the crusade and school
of alcohol into the hands Of our youth.
Let us have mantle of charity little
broader than our own shoulders
when, however, you denude the bishops
letter of its savage features there remains
a lesson. he represents submarine cur
rent. You cannot cure vice by taking
away what ii feeds on. Reforms 10 .be last
ing must supply substitutes. Bishop Potter
simply voices a large demand among re-
formers. To close the saloon would only
open some new sources of sin unless you
provide something better. If you walk along
our main streets at daybreak you see men
hungry-looking and poor and cold. There
are no coffee houses 70 allure them: The
saloon offers n cheap breakfast. 1t has
warm, CHEEKY stove Ii has newspapers TO
beguie the Vagrant from his misery. 1t has
games TO while away his time. All this
while the Christians are sound asleep. Put
yourself in the poor tramp'S place and ask
what you would co. OF course, If you are
sinless you would not be a tramp; indeed,
you would not be on earth at all 10 shame
the rest Of clay. But being human. ask what
course you would ask refOrmerS TO take?
We must beat the saloon on its own ground
minus drink Every city ought TO have
some places Of pleasure put up on the
bTOadest plan. Don't be too squeamish
about games. Have a stage with the purest
plays. Have a billiard table If neceS-
Sary. Perhaps better keep clergymen off
committees. Have books of real worth, but
keep out some Sunday school books. Put a
Il ana I'd hut rs nr1lx
helpful power around the place. The whole
idea in nutshell is, when you chop the
block remember the grain of the wood
Then another phase. The upper classes
are blind TO the new humanism of our day.
The rise of the under classes means new
duty for the best classes. In the last analy-
sis the responsibility for crime rests upon
those who are strong to help their weaker
fellows but never move finger. But our
aristocracies are only waking up. They owe
IL to their inferior fellows to better their
environments to elevate their home life
and make ii worth while for them to fight
their way up. The whole social and indus
trial question is involved. We have now a
system of hot rivalry, where the best are
often worsted and a hundred injustices
sting men. and the men who crawl UP
seldom look down to see how their fellows
fare. The Salvation Army and temperance
reformers complain of this apathy on top.
But things look better in this respect
scientifically, If man has poor food
and bad water and had air in rooms to
breathe, then his system Graves stimulant.
IeTNdpS good 1000, ana ROOu water, ana
well-aired rooms would choke the desire for
stimulant al the very start. 1t is well to
weigh these causes of vice. If a man has
no work and no wages and a home crying
for bread he tries for work and fails and
then In despair takes the cup to drown his
care. Perhaps If you helped a man to get
a job you might keep away his thirst. In
our world. where we are all defective les
| pecially If we hold our heads too high, we
must take men they are and help them
| up the best we can. j vote for the party
| that sets industry going and keeps men
employed. Idleness is worse than intemper-
ance because ii leads TO every species OF
| sin. Then when men are at work find the
| best plan to guard them from evil when
| working hours close by providing parlors or
| palaces where innocent but not insipd en-
| tertainment is given. Above ALL aim at
! changing the real heart of the man Bank
| on homes, and schools and churches. This
| Is broad scheme, to be true. but this is
| the modern desire of our best reformers.
Nothing negative will do. If you snatch a
! noisy rattle from the baby the baby will
| only make a noisier rattle in it's throat
| Study the baby. Then put a better brighter
| toy and il will let you have the rattle with
out q pang. Never tell man he Is down:
! he knows 1t by pain; tell him how TO stand
| on his feet / think the name Prohibition
| Is unfair to the society; they aim at far
| more than mere prohibition of sales OF
| liquor; they aim at education of our youth
| and helping men to work and cleansing the
| homes. AT any rate let public opinion feel
| the curse as it is. and. waving ali party
| names, use the best methos to fres men
| from the demon"