The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-09-24
DiSPENSARY VS.. PROHIBITION

tne Liquor OueStiOT-!nlnkS the
Cause of Temperance Receives a
Setback When Whiskey Selling is
Made Respectable Enough for Chris
tians to Engage in the Business.
EDITOR GOLD LEAF: Dear Sir
Since it is the opinion of some that
the signing of the petition to the
Mayor and Board of Commissioners
to order an election on the question
whether or not the town may have a
distillery and whether or not Il dis
pensary may be established, commits
one to favor either or both of these
questions, | write las signer) to
explain my views Oh the questions
AS to the distillery, l can vote no
with a good conscience and without
hesitation. 1t is well known how de-
bauching they are to the morals OF
the communities in which they are
established, and it would seem that
few outside of those Immediately in
terested in the revenue derived from
them would favor their establish
ment in their own community. But
when it comes to the other question
the dispensary-we find that it is
one that is ''open to debate" and
upon which good men disagree. AS
a source OF public revenue it has un-
doubtedly been more profitable when
carefully managed than the license
system, and that it is somewhat, and
in certain directions a restrictive mea-
sure cannot be denied; but that it is
the best solution of the liquor ques-
tion, us many of its advocates claim,
| think is a great mistake-unless it
meant that it is the best way we can
have liquor. But even that phase of
the question is open to doubt. AS
one writer has said, ''It may be con-
ceded that the measure is partly
good Gn its restrictions but it is
partly bad, also, lin its provisions)
and when a thing is partly right
and partly wrong, it is, as IL whole,
wrong. Since it is wrong the cOnse-
quences will be bad, hasty superficial
observation of its working in other
places to the contrary, nOtwithstand-
ing.
"Then it is argued that one drink
ing place is better than a dozen. But
the dispensary is not to be a drink
ing place. Drinking places will be
made of barns, woodsheds, cellars.
shops, rOadsides, fields, stores,
homes
The argument that treating will
be cut off is offset by the fact that
while treating would usually only
embrace Il drink or two, bottles will
be passed by men who now go to
saloons and drink and carry no bot
ties away with them.
And what about the moral tone OF
a community that has deliberately
engaged in a business that has ever
been considered as Outlawed in a
moral sense? How the public con
science is being defled by Christians
engaging in a business that is con
tinually debasing both body and
soul, for ''the nature of an institu-
ton is not changed by it's form. The
saloon is a wolf and you cannot
make it a lamb by draping it in a
sheep skim
Rob it of its attractions of cut
glass, mirrOws, paintings, etc, there
yet remains the more potent and
more fatal attraction of a more re-
spectacle personnel in it's manage
ment''-for if a Christian manage
ment hugs the dispensary to its
bosom as being ''the best solution o.
the liquor problem,' "the next best
thing to prohibition" "a steE
towards prohibition, 1t stands tC
reason that it ought to be under the
control of the best element OF society
We must take the business of dis
pensing liquid damnation away from
men the people are preiudiced against
and we must get a Christian MAI
who stands for the best moral tone
of the community to stand at the
head of the business. 'We must
make it the 'holiest' place in town
the only place where liquors cannot
be drank and, instead of the sigr
Bar Room or Saloon, against
which people are prejudiced. we must
put up the sign-in large lettering
Next Best Thing to Prohibition.
Mr.. Editor, ''are we proposing tC
lessen crime by becoming crimina
ourselves?" Oh, the moral color
blindness that has smitten our peo
pie!
The dispensary question swrappeC
up in most assiduous and and most
dangerous sophisms. "The end jus
tifies the means" at is the bes
thing we can do" "Public sentiment
is not ready for prohibition, there
fore it cannot be considered" "Th'
dispensary will be step toward pro
hibition." "We are bound to hav,
| the dispensary or the open saloon.
81 would be throwing away n,
vote,' etc.
| wish the issue might be made fai
| and square for the saloon or for tota
prohibition of the liquor traffic.
| wish provisions mi ght have beer
made for advocates of real reform t
have shown their cOlors under prope
leadership and with Christians unite,
| in their determination not to yiOlat
their own consciences and not listen
ing to the voice of Prudence sayin!
"the end iustifies the MEANS" bu
| needing the clear voice OF Duty q
she says, DO as thou shouldst do
let come what will" Under thes
conditions, each cheering and Ell
couraging one another, we wOul'
find that not we alone were left t.
advocate the cause of Jehovah bu
that there were 81 1000 that has no
bowed the knee to Bael." Junet. il
his elements of Morals" says: ''On
must take great care lest by subtl
doubts he obscures either within
himself or in Others the clear and dis
tinct decisions of conscience An,
further he remarks ''that men ofte
fight their own conscience with sopf
isms.'
How much of that, l fear, will b
done in this election. The clear ca
to every Christian man at least,
| = l.