The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-11
Into the Ranks of the
Worcester License
Advocates.
REV. SPENCER B. MEESER
Talks On "Prescnt Day
Perils"---A Peril to
the Home.

license men last evening. He took for
his subject, Present day perils-a peril
to the home" He said:
There is no more serious menace to
the home than that which arises in
the saloon. How the saloon imperils
the home Is, first, in using up money
that should go to the home to make
it permanent possession of the fam
lily, in case of sickness or death. The
saloon lives on this money, and re-
quires it. 1t is not the wealthy that
support the saloons.
Second, it brutalizes the fathers,
sometimes the mother, and makes them
unfit for parental duties. No result
Of drinking is so sure as the depression
of the moral instincts and the stimula-
ton of the criminal. Home is the eX-
ponent of the social life of man, but it
has its support in the moral instincts.
Third the saloon turns the father
from the responsibilities of the home.
1t not only supplies an actual demand
Of appetite, but fosters and strengthens
1t. 1t creates an appetite, by Turing
men and offering pleasures, the price
of which is not money, but drinking
habit. 1t seeks to make it's patrons
permanent, by begetting a desire that
nothing else can satisfy.
Fifth, the saloon makes the wife
and children a burden to the man who
enjoys the cup Duties to the family
become irksome and detested, because
they interfere with the passion.
One of the most serious charges
against the saloon is that it unseats
affection, as well as reason, for when
such passion gets hold of a man, the
best-loved objects become hated.
Sixth, the saloon compels the child
rem to forsakc their education and go
to work to earn a living for the fam
lily. Thus the intellectual and spirit
ual life of childhood is choked out by a
responsibility coming too early on
them.
Now what things are to be achieved
by no-license?
First, 1t outlaws the saloon and it's
traffic. That it is at present lawful
gives it power, audacity and respect
ability, thereby deceiving both young
and old as to the better sentiment of
the community. To legalize the saloon
conceals the essential wrong of it, No
license puts the brand Of a moral and
legal disaporoval on the saloon, and
that much, at least, is worth accom-
plishing.
Second, we hope to drive it under
ground and make it disrespectable; to
put the mark Of the criminal on him
who persists in selling 1t, and the re-
preach of being sneak on him who
patronizes. We put 1t where 1t belongs,
down IN the dirt, and associate 1t with
the unlawful and contemplate.
Third-We hope to reduce the tempt
alton to the minimum for every self
respecting man. We shall have done
this when we make it unlawful and
drive it underground. We do not say
that men who persist in having it can
not get it, or will not go to disgusting
extremes to get it. They viii!
The drink habit fixed on man, takes
both conscience and self-respect from
him. But the man who has not ac-
quired the habit: the self-respectine.
man. not in its clutches; and the man
who wishes to break away from the
habit, will find the temptation reduced
to the last power.
Fourth-We wish to destroy the So
cial element of the open CHEEKY saloon,
and at the same time the treating
habit. This is what makes the saloon
pay, but it is what causes so much
drunkenness.
Now if we drive the saloon out, make
it go to a place where no decent man
can enjoy staying around, while some
haps take friend and treat him, such
a place will make it unusual and take
all the fun out of 1t.
Sixth-By thus making it impossible
for some and difficult for all to get
liquor, we shall be able to reduce to
a very great degree the drink habit,
and so spare the home the flood of
evils which follow in its wake.
The objections to no-license are:
First, that as much liquor will be sold
as when the saloon is licensed. We
answer to this, Why are the LIQUOR
dealers and brewers so anxious to de-
feat no-license? They could save a
fee of $1,000 year for every saloon and
the rent of expensive establishments
and adjourn to a kitchen or garrett or
sewer, or any other appropriate
place, 1t is not good business for them
to oppose such a change. They might
contribute $4,000 to the Worcester
Temperance Federation and work for
no-license. Every liquor manufacturer
and seller knows that this is a fallacy
I don't like to call it by its right name
1t is one of the wonders of this other
wise sane age, that some people ac-
tually believe such an absurdity. They
say there will be as much drunkenness
under no-license as under license. One
ounce of fact is worth a ton of proph-
ecy. The city Of Lynn, 1896, under
license, had 3477 arrests for drunken
ness; under no-license, 1896-'97, only
1858. Salem, under license, 1906; I'M
der no-license, the following year, 1885,
Waltham, under license, $780, under no.
license, one year later, 311; one year
later still. 260.
Next they object that no-license
makes citizels deceitful and dishonest.
1t dazes one to think that such an ar
gument could be seriously used Let us
suppose that it does, SO do game laws
so do any laws against crime It's a Gus
tom of criminals to do their crime and
lie about it. But think of the crime of
the open saloon. Put the list which it
fosters over against dishonesty attrib-
uted to the no-license law deceit, theft,
rape, murder and the debasing of the
whole moral sense.
This is as if an invading army should
say to the terrified people: Don't resist
us, or some Of you people will lie to
escape death; better let us go right
through and kill all we may, so that
they can lie anyhow.
Fourth. they object that the rights
of men are interfeced with, who ought
to be free to drink If they want to. We
answer, what of the rights of those
who do not want to drink, the rights of
mothers, wives, children and the right
to peace and security to life and prop
erty?
The saloon is the breeding place of
all crimes that menace the life of others
If we could put all the drunkards in a
pound by themselves, where they could
kill each other off, or like stealing they
could steal from each other. or vent
their passion on themseIves-sad as n
might be to give them up, their petition
may be reasonable. But in the free com
munity where they vent their spume
on innocent women and children, their
claim is absurd and subversive of ali
laws of society. No man has any right
to do anything that interferes with the