Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1904-03-10


was sinking within plain sight OF
the harbor at Victoria, and three
boat loads OF women and children
were perishing ia the icy water Of
drowning or exposure, the owners OF
the steamers at the city's docks re.
fused to risk the damage OF their
vessels by going To the rescue II
is so cheap that the officers of the
big ocean liner which passed few
miles astern of the Clallam never
Stacked her engines for one moment
to investigate how poignant was the
distress which her flying signals
dumbly proclaimed.
1t is in the awakening to the
heartlessness that causes such cal
antilles as these that we see the
shocking disregard Of human life to
which we daily close our eyes while
it goes on around us with very
commences that renders it I'M
noticed and unrebuked. The TRACE
dy at Chicago was national calam-
ity and aroused the greatest com
motion; yet if for that day the sui
cides, the murders, the premature
and accidental deaths that are di
rectly traceable TO the liquor traffic
ia the United States were added up
into one grand total, the holocaust
would fade into insigniticance in
comparison. The anguish a. Chi
cago, at which the world weptin
Sympathy, could not be keener than
the anguish in many a drunkard's
home to which is given not even
passing thought.
Human life is cheap; so cheap that
the liquor traffic which causes more
agony than all the tragedies of fire
and water combined, and which
would not be couutenanced five
minutes If it were not for the money
it brings into the pockets of the in
fluential, has today more supporters
than the religion of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The nation accepts the ex-
cuse that men will have il and it is
useless to try to abolish it, but it
isn't the man who is a slave to drink
who upholds it; he may crave it and
seek it, sell life and body, sense and
soul to get it, but it isn't his infu-
ence that prepetuates the traffic, it
is the man who sells it, the man
who manufacturers it, the CRATER
who profits by it, the business and
political element, which thrives and
hourishes on the weakness of 1.-THE
tougher element, ~ that fosters and
promotes it.
We cry out against the footpad
and the house breaker who kills his
victim in cold blood to rob him as
he dies; for these we keep in active
vengeance the old Jewish law Of a life
for life. In the souls of the man
who stabs his victim in the dark for
the sake of his watch and purse, of
the man who shuts his eyes to mis-
cry and death he is dealing out in
every rum glass, because it brings
him in an easy and luxurious living,
and of the man in high places who
neglects his duty at the price of liv-
ing sacrifice, will the great God,
who notes the fall of every sparrow,
be able to distinguish black from
white.
424 Bird Ave, Spokane, Washing
ton.
Rev. Irl Hicks editor of Word
and Works says: The truths enun-
ciated in the above paper ought to
be sounded through the land in
thunder tones. Our claims to civ
| hiHdOiohi soy ihS uVehipS VI CHI 10
tianity, are half irony and mockery
until the public conscience and sen
timent shall come up to such moral
level. We beg our correspondent
out on the Pacific to come again and
often.
[Oh yes, human life is cheap, so
cheap that we must give our boys
to this monster intemperance so
that a few families in our midst may
live in ease and luxury so cheap
that we must uphold the saloon ia
order to increase the business of our
city; so cheap that we forget that
portion of the Lords Prayer, which
says: Lead US not into temptation,
but deliver US from evil" so cheap
that we place all the pitfalls possible