The aegis & intelligencer., 1899-03-17

various parts of the country prompted
by the newspaper discussion of your
recent address. / believe it will be a
service not only to our readers but to
the community at large t. have an
authoritative statement from you.
Yours very sincerely,
LYMAN ABBOTT.
The OutIo0k. 2S7 Fourth Avenue,
Few YORK, February ?, 1899.
My Dear Dr. Abbott:
Your letter, asking me for Fifteen
hundred words on the saloon evil"
came to this address while was in the
West, hence my delay in acknowledg-
ing it.
l wish | could comply with your re-
quest; but, alas, fifteen words, crowd
ed as u, are almost as impossible
as fifteen hundred. Nor, indeed, if it
were otherw Sc, is there any thing new
to say. 1t is the old 81 uation-as old
as the religion of Jesus Christ-with
the Scribes and Pharisees OH the one
hand the Sadducees on the other, and,
over against them, the Truth.
No more perfect reproduction of the
first named has appeared in our day
than the Prohibitioist, ct id omne
genus, arrogant, denunciatory, ignor
ant. unscrupulous, and untruthful;
holding one meager fragment of the
truth to their eyes, and denying great
and fundamental facts in human
nature, in their foolish and futile en-
deavor to to remedy the perversion
of human instincts by extirpating
them, true children of the medieval
systems of monastic asceticism, which
they would fain substitute for the
freedom of a regenerated MANHOOD.
The grotesque hypocrisy of the pro-
hibition system, from Maine to Kan
sas, is sufficient commentary upon
their theories. Meantime, the en-
deavors of wiser men and women to
better the condition-the homes, the
domestic life, the recreations-of their
less-favored brethren go untouched of
these, fit successors of those to whom
Jesus said "Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrite, for ye bind
heavy burdens upon mems shoulders,
and grievous to be borne, and ye your
selves will not touch them with the
tips of your fingers!''
And over against them, as Of old ARE
the modern Sadducees, critical, indif-
ferent, apathetic. The dissensions OF
those who are not agreed as to the
problems of intemperance and its cure
are entertaining and amusing to these
and no more
Yet let me not do them injustice.
What I have said has its considerable
aud inspiring qualifications; and men
of wealth and intelligence who had
originally dismissed the saloon"
question, and all that it involves, al
equally hopeless and insoluble, have
in recent years, and in some conspic-
uous instances which l need not recall,
grappled with the larger problems of
the housing and betteriug of wage
earners in all the various aspects in
which those various problems present
themselves; and have done noble and
generous things along the line of a
wiser and more brotherly considera-
tion for their fellow men.
But the whole movement is as yet
il its infancy, and waits fer guidance,
enlightment, and, abov all, co-ortli-
nation. AS yet we have been but
fumbling with social problems,
whether in this country or elsewhe e,
unable or unwilling, apparently. to
recognize that the radical changes in
our industrial and social conditions
which have come to pass during this
century have brought with them de.
mands upon wealth, experience, scien
tific sympathy, and self-sacrifice which
the favore classes are as yet but slow
to recognize. The permanence, how
ever. of cur presenl social structure
will depend upon their recognition;
and of the appreciation of this fact
am glad to see that there is daily in
creasing evidence.
OF course, in this larger aspect of a
vast question, the saloon is a mere in
cident. Its causes; its phases; its re-
lation to the home life, as we'll as the
individual life, of communities; the
evils that feed it; the miseries thai
support it; whole host of questions
such as these wait for d consideration
which as yet they have hardly had.
Meantime, it may be well to relieve
the minds of fanatical and hysterica'
people by saying that there is no one
cure for so cast mischief as the sd
loon stands for; and, generally, that,
in dealing with humanity and its per
verted instinct, and appetites, the
Divinest Teacher that the world has
had would seem to have taught us
law Of tranSf formation, as that for the
regeneration, whether of society or of
the evil instincts of individuals-no
extirpation.
In this connection, wonder if you
have seen a remarkable book, "Civili
zation and Progress" by John Beat
tie? 1t is we'll worth reading and
pondering.
Very faithfully yours,
H. G. POTTER.
Diocesan House, Lafayette Place,
New York, February ] 1, 1899.
The outlook.
WAR NEWS.