Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-09-29
AGAINST THE OPEN SALOON.
An Address by DIR. G. D. Beard, Burlington.
BY Reouest1

tnlk of our duty in even this great temper
ance issue, so called, and still to be tenn
perate. possible. too. to be temperate and
kindly and at the same time, absolutely
true to ones own convictions. Here is an
Issue that thrills and stirs, because it is IN
lSsEe of life and death to so many. Yet
ttat Is no reason why men should call ore
another names because they differ IN
Judgment concerning it. To call man
rascal because he honestly advocates
licensing saloons. or call another man
fanatic because he believes in prohibiting
saloons adds neither light nor right to tina
discussion. AT any rate, the present
speaker claims no monopoly of either wis
dom or goodness in the matter either for
himself or for any body of men with whom
ae may agree. He simply asks you men
and women who are used to Judging with
unrrejudiced judgments, and you who be-
lieve you ought to judge in that way not
to shirk the question, nor to suppose it
necessarily settled in your own minds; to
keep on thinking about it, and to be will
Ing to hold to your present convictions, OF
else to change your minds, as reason and
love for humanity may lead you. In these
Issues. which are largely moral we cannot
necome-we ought not to want to become
conSctcnceS for one another. But we are
elongated, every one of us. to use our own
consciences and with Gods help to make
our support of men and movements square
with me Judgments or our c0nScienreS ar
whatever cost
Another thing it is we'll to discriminate
carefully. Although this matter of TIE
saloon is so closely associated with that
other question of individual abstinence.
and although both go back at least for
their final test to the law of love- or good
will to ones neighbor, the two questions
are different; and to-day we are thinking
solely of the social problem of the saloon
conscientious 70
face the personal question when it arises
and ask our duty personally from the
Christian standpoint. The personal duty
of total abstinence seems clear and strong
TO many of us. But a man may not him
self be total abstainer, and yet may be-
l1eve heart and soul, in the abolition Ct
the drinking saloon from our American
society," great many do. The prohibition
OF saloons in our own State does not rest
or course, as many would mislead us to be-
lteve, on the thesis that all drinking Of
|, intoxlcants is a crime. AS social policy
as matter for legislation, it rests solely
on regard for the community welfare and
the question is simply, What does the best
coed Of society demand?
In trying to answer the question, shall
assume that we all know and admit the
vast evils of intemperance. These have
touched too many of our homes for us to
be ignorant of them. And yet it is hard to
know. Out of 216a cases coming before
the criminal court of the county in which
J lived few years ago, 80 Of the criminals
were abstainers. 25S moderate drinkers
and no less than 1S72-six- sevenths of them
-tntemperate men. Judges and juries
everywhere unite in saying, as the Chicago
grand jury Of December 1900. said: cat
least 30 per cent of all criminal cases COM
ing directly before us have some saloon
connection" Yet it is hard to realize that
Physicians and superintendent of insane
asylun1S tell lis. as the doctor in charge
or one of the State institutions OF Massa-
chusctts told me a year or two since, that
from two to three-fifths Of the insane sent
to our asylums are sent there because Of
drink; yet it is hard to realize that nearly
all of the extreme poverty of our objects
of charity; untold horrors of disease and
accident perfectly preventable; misery in
broken homes and blasted lives such as
Cod only knows; these and much else be-
long to the long sad tale of hard. I'M
deniable facts about the tendencies of
liquor drinking and the liquor traffic.
Would to God We could realize it.
But, just now, l must assume all this.
And, coming directly to the question:
what ought we Vermonters to co about
IL? Let me say, first, that there are some
things which, it seems to me, we should
AL be agreed about at the outset One Is
II
lative enactment. Again and again laws
have helped men to be temperate But the
proposition that we cannot fat-wise, leg
islate men into morality would seem al
most selfevident, were it not so often re-
peated as a sort of challenge. Let us Ell
say this together: A Christianized heart
life, with God so loved the world" for its
inspirational power. and Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself'' for it's central
principle. is Indispensable to a thorough
going, effective temperance
Another thing pretty evident, is that no
system whatever will wholly stop the
drinking of intoxicants. The habitual
irunkard will always find way to satisfy
his depraved appetite; and intensely selfish
people--whether habitual drinkers or nor
will care only to please themselves and
get what they want, whether or no. In
his imperfect world our problem general
ly Island certainly is in this -case-How in
this State at this time is this evil we
have to face. reduceable to it's lowest
limits?
And then it is hardly worth while to de
bate about the perfect working of the
present prohibitory law and agency sys-
tenn. F'rothings about this law breeding
hypocrisy, perjury and lying" of course
count for little with thoughtful persons
IT is true with every law that it brings
hypocrisy and lying to the surface. That
Is conspicuously true Of high license laws.
The strength Of crime-like the strength
# sin. is always the law; but the fault is
not with the law on that account. 1t is
with the crime. And a man who will lie
to get his drink, to sell his liquor, will
lie whenever he thinks his own selfish in
terest demands it. For all that let it
be agreed that this law is not perfection
There is no evidence that anyone ever ex-
pected it to bring in the millennium I" The
vital question is: Is any other law within
reach better? One thing is true of all
laws. They do not work themselves. The
worth of prohibitory law; the worth Of
liquor agency. the worth of every in
stitution under the SIN, is the worth nf
the men back of it.
These things being generally admitted.
will try to give you now some of the rea-
sons that appeal to me for doing our ut
most TO keep the legalized saloon out of
Vermont. and to continue the prohibitory
law with its liquor agencies, till something
better than high license is offered I must
state these reasons very consisely. with
out much argument. They are not there