The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-11

disgrace our flag, degrade our state,
trarnple down the laws and constitu-
ton, and when Office men are selected
by conventions shall these men be
bought by liquor men,
We have to meet a foe which has al
ways been against US, from the infancy
of the republic until the present time.
This course proposes to enter every
state and permeate every corner and
home, and take our boys and destroy
them and then laugh at the misery
which it has caused. 1t is its spirit
which murders our men, burns our
churches, destroys our property and
laughs at the laws.
President J. w. G1eed said in part,
in making his annual address: ''The
object of the organization is the pro-
motion of temperance. There are many
who look upon such an object, with pity
and contempt, who regard the temper
ance cause as one fit only for little
minds, the weak of both sexes To them
only money and glory and offices and
power and pleasure are worth striving
for. The members of this union and a
majority of the people OF Kansas have
radically different views of life We re-
gard the temperance cause, the promo
ton of temperance and the discourage
ment of the whisky traffic as the finest,
highest wisest object to which time,
talent and strength can be applied; a
cause which has engaged and is engag-
ing the wisest, Worthiest and strong
est men and women of the world.
Whisky drinking kills $4,000 men in
the United States every year. God
knows how many women and children
whisky poverty and whisky sorrow de-
stroy The American people spend
1000 million dollars annually on intoxi-
eating liquors. That is not merely SO
much money wasted, burned up or
thrown into the sea. 1t is so much
money deliberately spent to injure the
body, impair the brain, ruin the soul;
to increase the number of suicides, muir
Ience; so much spent to increase the
numbers in our jail, reformatories,
penitentiarieS and poor houses; so much
spent to enlarge the expenses of gov
eminent, the burden of taxation and
claims of charity upon US, so much
spent to increase human misery; so
much spent to sadden all men who have
hearts and sympathies; so much spent
to deprave and brutaliZe human life
God has kindly made it Impossible for
you or me or any man, however keen
and broad his sympathy, however ex-
tended his observation and experience,
however vivid his imagination, to have
any conception of the innumerable
hearts that ache, of the weary eyes
that stare into a future of hopeless
blackness or in any substantial degree,
really to see, know, feel or comprehend
the woes, the horrors, the terrors, the
sufferings, the pecuniary losses, the
moral and political degradation, the
monstrous and crushing load of indi-
vidual and social public evil which the
American people endure, as the direct
product of the drinking saloon.
drunkenness is a disease and in a
true sense, a. contagious disease; left
to itself unopposed it spreads. Drunk
| enness makes the saloon and the OBJ
| ject of the saloon, too well accomplish
ed. is to spread drunkenness.
1--WE must educate the public to I'M
derstand not only the extent but also
the deadliness of the disease, and its pc
culiar contagious, cunning, insidious
character. We are prompt and ener-
getic and unanimous about the small
pox, because 1t works quickly. Alcohol
ism is more deadly, but it takes it's
time. This work of education and agi-
tation is then our first duty and it
should begin with the children. The
condition of society depends in the last
analysis wholly upon the teaching of
the children in the home, the school and
the church The chief concern of eff
fort for human improvement whether
religious, social moral or political, is
and should be the proper nurture and
admonitfon of the young.
1--WE believe that the prohibitory law
has been enormously beneficial In its
results; we believe it has enormously
diminished the consumption in this
state of intoxicating liquors.
ION the one side are those who care,
those who really desire to diminish and
exterminate the evil, those who show by
the public welfare to some degree at
heart.
''On the other side are those who do
not care or who have an interest in
breaking down the law. There are those
who brew and distiH All those who
make money or think they make money
out of the liquor traffic. There are
those who want to drink and drink as
much as they please and when they
please, and without regard to conse-
quences.
LET us move steadily forward. Re-
suits are with God, but let every man
do his duty The Christian man, the
Christian community and tie Christian
state will do the saloon all the harm
they can in every way they can, in
| every place they can. That is my
| creed.''
In making his annual report, Mr. T.
| 2. Stephens, secretary of the union,
! went over the early history of Kansas,
| and told of the invasion of the saloons,
! their effect, and the passing of the pro-
| hibitory law. The hard time that was