The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-01-18

We are compelled, In tho interest OF truth
to say that the temperance speeches q
Bishop POTTER and Mr.. CHoATE, our ney
Ambassador to England, delivered las
Monday evening, were more interestin,
than important. Neither OF the distin
guished gentlemen showed himself to b
entitled to high consideration as a socia
philosopher.
The meeting was held to further an effor'
to raise something like SO, 900 for tn,
Squirrel Inn in the Bowery. 1t seems tina
the place was occupied formerly as n liquor
saloon, and yielded to the good woman
owning the building a very handsome
rental. Not liking that sort Of tenant, SHE
offered the property to the Church TEN
perance Society for five years, free Of rent
and taxes, to be used as a temperance hotel
and a sort Of club, or as a wholesome com
petitor of the unwholesome drinking places
Of the region.
Mr.. CHoATE said truly that there are over
seventy-lve hundred drinking saloons in
town, the exact number as reported by the
State Excise Department being 1855 for
the Manhattan borough alone, and 10, 1872
for the whole Of the Greater New York.
Each one OF them. continued Mr.. CHoATE,
" represents an i~ncalculable amount of
damage to the family" and taken together
they are the cause that more money is
spent annually for drink than for food. -
Bishop POTTER, however, declared the sa-
loon to be a C social necessity, in SO far as
the recreative instinct in human beings
makes it a social necessity" and he con-
tended, accordingly, that there ought to
be in every block a place which will give
opportunity for refreshment without the
peril of Intoxicating drinks"
Now, would the saloon satisfy this rec
reative instinct" of humanity if it did not
supply the very drink the Bishop would ex-
clude from it? II the Squirrel Inns he
would establish on every block were really
demanded by this instinct, would it be
necessary to hold meetings to get people to
give money to establish them ? If the de-
mand was great enough to make them prof
liable would they not be opened as private
business undertakings?
The men who keep liquor saloons do not
go into the trade simply from a liking for
it and with a malicious purpose of doing an
" incalculable amount Of damage to the
family" 1t is q business which has many
disadvantages for those pursuing it. In the
first place., the tax a saloon must pay in
New York is $500 a year-a large sum
and the business is not as profitable as
it was once, but requires sharp manage
ment to make it profitable at all. More
over, it puts a social ban on all those en-
gagged in it, OIL them and their families. Tho
Roman Catholic Church treats the traffic
with nrant IicFo,pr md thn D,o.o,,-4
Churches generally are opposed to it. The
families of liquor dealers accordingly suffer
socially their children in the public schools
are connected unpleasantly with the traffic,
except, perhaps, among the Germans.
If, then, there was really a demand iusti-
flying the establishment of Squirrel Inns
on every block, as Bishop POTTER would
have them established by philanthropic
people, it may be assumed that the liquor
dealers themselves would be quick to sup
ply it, and thus escape from the liquor tax
OF $500 and from the ban under which
they now are. That the Squirrel Inns do
not exist, and a meeting is necessary to
raise money for a single establishment of
the kind, would seem to be n sure indica-
ton that there is no such demand.
"The saloon exists in New York, said
Bishop POTTER, "bccause we nave given
our less fortunate brothers no better
things" THE man who keeps the saloon,
and who says it is the poor mans club, tells
the truth, added the Bishop. But does he
tell the truth? 1t may be the truth as to
many of the frequenters OF the German
beer gardens, but it is not the truth as to
the run of corner drinking saloons. Men
do not go to them to crafty their social IN
stincts. They go to get a drink, and so soon
as they have swallowed it they clear out,
as n rule. They are simply after the alco-
holic stimulation, and they do not under |
take to deceive themselves or anybody else
as to the matter. So imperious is this de-
sire, this appetite, or this habit that rela-
lively to their Incomes poor mon who
frequent the saloons spend far more pro-
portionately for its qualification than is
layished by the rich or Is laid out by the
ordinarily well-to-do family for l~uxuries
OF all kinds. If, ms Mr.. CHoATE said, more
money is spent in New York for drink
than for food, that extravaganza is mani
tested most strikingly among those de-
srribed by Bishop POTTER as "our less for
tunatc brothers" Every drinking working
NlltlI0 ~ lhlBt HIldtb VI MS lhlll wages
in'drink, and If he put the money, instead,
in II savings bank he would lay by every
year a pretty sum for II rainy day. But he
what he is about he prefers to in
dulge in the luxury, and all the more be-
cause his Injuries are few. Many attempts
have been made to prevent by law his cxer-
rislng his liberty in that way, but none of
them has been successful. Practically, no
man can be debarred from drinking until he
carries his excess so far that he is put un-
der legal restraint in a Jail or an asylum.
You can prohibit the sale OF %liquorand thus
diminish the opportunities to get it, but
even in the ~strictest prohibitory States men
Ind means to get drunk.
Will Bishop PorrER's plan Of establishing
4 Squirrel Inn in every block cure this pro-
1t would If his theory that men
go to liquor saloons simply to satisfy the
of their "recreative instinct" but,