Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-08-09
BISHOP PorTER,s SALOON.

BISHOP PoTTER's SALOON,
The action of Bishop Potter in faith
erlng the scheme for poor mans sa-
loon IN New York City is meeting with
criticism all over the land. Even his
brother bishops have taken up the
matter and Bishop Nicholson of Mil
Waukee denounces the Subway Inn
and its promoters in the plainest Ian
guage. No doubt he voices the opin.
ion OF the best people in the Episco-
pal church throughout the country
Bishop Potter's action which has made
him more conspicuous than anything
else he has ever done, is defended by
almost no one in the churches and re-
minds one of nothing so much as the
crazy fashions Harry Lehr has set in
two or three consecutive seasons for
the elite of the east. Just how this
saloon scheme of Bishop Potter's may
strike the New York Four Hundred,
in which the noted divine circulates,
has not yet been learned, but that it
does not set we'll with the people of
the west is a fact that cannot be de-
MED. Bishop Nicholson is not back
ward about telling what he thinks of
it. He says:
Il must say that feel deeply hui
inflated over Bishop Potter's action,
and in my opinion his whole connec-
ton with the affair has been disgrace
full. For my part l am thoroughly
ashamed of him. am more radical in
my views on moral questions than
many others, and l believe we should
all take the highest ground possible on
Lloral issues. have no regard what
ever for the claims made for this par
ticular saloon. 1t is bad business all
the way through. 1t is not the first
time that Bishop Potter has offended.
His attitude on moral questions never
IS high. His latest action is unfortu-
nate because it necessarily reflects on
the church, although it is his own in
dividual action and the church is in no
way responsible. Bishop Potter is
not great man in the Episcopal
church. He is regarded as influential
by some outside Of the church but not
by thoselin it,. He has no standing
with the other bishops and has no in-
e. nee in church legislation No ac-
t ! will be taken by the church, not
G, N of passing resolutions of censure.
1t is not worth it, The only thing we
can any of us do is to say we are hui
INFLATED and ashamed"
DR.. l. N. McCash, superintendent of
the Iowa Anti-Saloon league, de-
nounces Bishop Potters plan in most
pronounced terms. DR.. McCash even
goes so far as to charge that the bish-
op drinks no little himself and gives
this as a rei ION for his strange action.
In an interview DR.. McCash says:
Bishop Potter has been in the
attempt to cater to fads in the social
world, the obeisanse that he con-
stantly pays to. wealth and the 400"
of New York his readiness to submit
to newspaper interviews, have pro-
duced a general consensus of opinion
among people who think that the bish-
OF is not spiritual man, nor sincere
in his religious professions.
"The suspicion is buttressed by
well founded conviction that Bishop
Potter's own habits and the freedom
with which he uses the cup, has much
to do with his attempt to bring the sa-
loon into favor under the guise of pro-
tectlng the poor man. The impossible
has been attempted and the results
will be disappointing to every lover
of sobriety and temperance.
Bishop Potter has laid himself open
to just criticism, because he has .ov-
erlooked certain fundamental facts.
alcohol taken into the human body
whether in the gilded saloon, the pal
ace residence or slum dram shop, pro-
duces the same effect. 1t is against
the best power of nerve; it hardens
the convolutions of the brain; re-
duces the power of vision and all spe-
cial senses; soddens the flesh; demon
allies and dehumanizes the man. Bish-
op Potter therefore, in attempting to
surround the place where liquor is
vended with moral influences does not
and cannot improve the effects of al.
cohol upon the body.
"He says the poor man crowded in
to a little room with his wife and chill
dren must have club or some place
to spend his evenings and therefore
the saloon must be his place of re-
sort. If the man must have place
to spend his evenings, what must be
said of the wife under like conditions?
The saloon cannot make him a better
husband. though surrounded by moral
ind in, q