Arizona republican., 1904-08-15
The Old Tavern.

There are those now, there always hays been and there always will be those Eho believe that the world is growing worse in spite of the daily cv- idsnse that it is growing better. correspondent of the New York Sun, possibly inspired by Bishop ?otter's dedication of the Subway saloon, ex- pressed a desire to return to the old fashioned tavern.
 The reply of the Sun is herewith re- only because it shows that even sa- luoss are improving but also because 6 contains a strong and convincing temperance lecture:
 it was the degradation caused Ly the "old tavern" which started a vio- lent temperance movement in the first quarter of the last century. {, move u,eRt which was carried to an extreme ug hypterical excitement so great that many farmers even cut down theiI ap- pIs orchards to prevent the making of csder. Every village then had it's per ynRnent drunkards of the most wretch cd sort and unquestionably drinking was 6 curse which WIS bringing moral and physical ruin to the communi :es. The consequences of the "old tavern have come down even to -his period in the dipsomaniacs descended from 6 generation which vieiated the,r com RliIutions by a too free and too fre- quent patronage of it. It left on many A family of ability and d;stinc- aian an almost ineradicable mark of degeneracy.
 The temperance movement fin the fts4 half of the last century was enc af ths most remarkable of American developments. It was accompanied by much fanaticism, doubtless, but 1t did great good in directing the then strong religious sentiment against intemper- ance. This sentiment extended to the protestant churches generally, so that usually they made intemperance a bar t0 membership or a reason for exclu- sjOn from membership. In 1888 Fath- gr Matthew, the Irish apostle of tenn treVence. began his famous temperance movement in Ireland, and in 1850 he came 10 this country to assail the "old tavern as an agent and ally of the devil Tn 1872 the now fiourishing Catholic Total Abstinence Union was fDyEsped at Baltimore.
 Undoubtedly. temperance advocates often weakened their cause by exag- EerStion and overemphasis. Intemrer- ance is not the only social ill., but even the extravaganza of expenditure induc- ed by liquor drinking is a grave econ- omical evil. for a poor man more es- pecially. Actually, poor men who are habitual drinkers are relatively to their incomes far more profuse in their ex- penditure for the indulgence of the ap- petite than are the most extravagant of rich debauchees or luxurious livers. The drinking habit, besides costing many a poor man more than he spends for food for his family, reduces his earning capacity by rendering him less desirable for employment Ac- cordingly railroads, factories and many business enterprises employing labor, skilled and unskilled, set their faces against drinking and are now among the most efficient of temperance agen- Cies.
 Meantime in all spheres of society there has grown up an inheritance of drunkenness, in place of the old-time indulgence. The Roman Catholic Plen- ary Council at Baltimore. twenty years ago, having expressed their disapproval of the liquor traffic, the great prepon- derence of Hish saloon keepers no longer obtains. Even where Irish names appear on the signs, We are told