Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-04-28
Social Perils OF tho Liquor Traffic.
(By George Milton Hammell.l

|
| by George Milton Hammell)
That an eventual crisis lies ahead
in the history of society is clear to the
eye of the Christian sociologist. Stand
ards of social conduct cannot be al
ways ignored by men and women who
symbolic the spirit of the age. The
state, as developed in the American
| republic, cannot always play fast and
| loose with fundamental principles, con-
fusing definitions in an administration
| of law which ostensibly taxes" a
| traffic that it cannot constitutionally
license, and authorizing officials to
| perform acts which it negates by with
drawal of support.
A nation never rises above It's ideals.
If the ideals Of our boyhood and girl
hood are mere money-makers and po-
| litical trimmers, there is dim hope of
republic, whose standards are I'M
righteousness and whose gates are in
| justice.
In our great cities the saloonkeeper
defies all laws that have ever been en-
acted in restraint of his so-called
business" He sells to minors, to in
toxicated women, men, boys and girls.
He sells on Sunday, on election day,
after midnight If arrested, the pros
ecuting attorney secures his acquittal
or dismissal, but thunders penalty at
the friendless victims of his trade.
The city council, instead of repre-
senting the best citizenship of the city,
represents the worst; instead of en-
bodying the dignity, wealth, refine
| ment, scholarship and morals Of the
great municipality, embodies the dis
grace, poverty, hoodlumism, ignorance
| and depravity Of the city. In Detroit
the statistics of an election held in
1898 show that in one of the wards,
characterized by culture and religion,
| only 40 per cent of the voters eXer-
cised the suffrage. while the saloon
ward cast &C per cent of it's total vote,
and more straight" tickets were de-
posted in the ballot boxes in the
culture-piety ward than in the saloon
ward.
In Detroit there are six saloons for
pN6Ty III SlcNtldnu anu Sln-
cinnati ten saloons for every church;
in Cleveland, a nest of one brewery
and fifty-two saloons within a small
radius. True! but all the greater rea-
son for protest against the diabolic
supremacy of an institution which
cannot exist except in an atmosphere
already poisoned.
Prof. Peabody, in paper on
Liquor Legislation in Norway" Jan
uary issue of The Forum, accentuates
this when he says: Norway is a
monarchy only in formal sense; the
spirit of it's people is as democratic
and self-respecting as that of the
Yankees. AS in the villages along the
coast of Maine, most of the men have
followed the sea, and many have trav-
eled far; but they like to end their days
in their native hamlets. Everywhere
there Is a condition of life little above
poverty, but nowhere are there beg
CARS or loafers or extortionate land
lords. 1t is laborious and isolated
life, in which the summers toll does
little more than tide over the winters
darkness. But this hard struggle for
existence has bred a self-contained,
self-respecting stock; and the same
conditions which have made prohibit
ton effective in many Maine village
make it effective in the interior of
! Norway"
Aristotle was right when he said
that the enactment of law is educative
of the people in virtue; and old Con-
fucius was wrong when he said very
good statute might be very bad law.
The statute is seldom or never bad. 1t
is almost always the product of the
best moral sentiment.
In original inspiration it is the prod
uct and index of high civic sentiment.
The enactment is, of course, symptom
attic of civic disorder; it implies the
existence of an element antagonistic
to good order, and there is danger that,
in republic constituent Of hetero-
geneous populations, there will arise
a conspiracy between civic authority
and law-breakers to nullify law. This
conspiracy has already been formed in
the United States, and the most in
fiuential member of it Is the Liquor
League-w.th lobby at Washington,
and agencies established in all state
capitals. Brewers, distillers and sa-
loonkeepers subsidize the campaign
committees Of both great political
parties, and a so-called Bipartisan"
administration is conducted, by means