The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-22
TIE W. [. I. J. WHY THE DRINK HABIT Is Opposed By the 0rganiz- ation--Various Reasons
 Given.
lcommunieated.l

Communicated
 The Woman's Christian Temperance union. for reasons fully satisfactory to It's members. is unalterably opposed to the liquor traffic and its kindred vices. That the opposition is amply justified by facts, no one can successfully dis pute. There are no plausible argu- ments in it's defense-not even that of necessity, for there are no necessary evils. Every justification of the drink business becomes an apology, and what must be apologized for is lacking in merit. They argue thus.
 1. Indulgence in strong drink is @ blow directed against the constitution of man whether intentional or unin- tentional His health, strength, and perfection suffer at every indulgence, imperceptibly at first, but suffers nev- ertheless; and he is less and less a man with each indulgence. Hence to promote indulgence by giving legal and commercial sanction to it and con- stituting it a business is wrong, doubly wrong. In all ages strong
 
 deceptive, and destructive-sp sparing neither king nor subject, man or wom- an, in its blighting course. From the earliest, every index along it's road has pointed downward, ruinward; and ev- cry attempt to limit it's ravages by legalizing 1t and restraining it, has but made the danger and wrong more apparent. It has always been the viper in the bosom and always will be. Strong drink has humbled more than one nation in the past, and those of to-day may easily read their doom in the sanction they give to the debauch- cry of their citizens. An indulgence that has no other result than the de- terioration of the life current, the de- struction of the power of persistence, the closing of the gateways to excel lence, the dethronement of reason--in deer utter defacement of manhood, has no sanction in nature and should not be promoted by statute. What nature disapproves cannot be made right by law.
 ?. For the reason that the drink habit Is at variance with the welfare of the citizen as an individual is it impolitic to justify it, and make strong drink legal traffic. No state dares make the drink trade one of it's avow- ed purposes. By implication if not by explicit statement every American constitution is aginst the spirit of the business, and its legalization. Every law authorizing it, is, then, in viola tion of the spirit, and purpose of our institutions-is concession to wrong which must sooner or later react upon our interests with disastrous effect The genius of all our fundamental laws, is Ito make it as easy as possi- ble for each citizen to do right and be good in his own and his related inter- est, and as difficult as possible to go wrong and make a failure of his life." TEflc highest good of tho largo5t num- ber, and special privilege to no one to wrong another, either directly or in directly" is implied in every Ameri- can constitution. The liquor traffic in Its workings, recognizes neither of these principles. The restrictions plac- ed upon 1t by law and the excessive watehHulness necessary to limit its de- predictions, are but acknowledgements that the business is dangerous, harm full and unexcusable.
 3 The moral aspect of the subjects seems to have lost it's power. To speak of 1t from this standpoint is to court sheer. Men are becoming harden ed to this highest of all reasons, by constant familiarity with the fearful t..1<. -..I q Tlax ..f,, Pope little:
 'Drink is monster of such hideous
 mien,
 That; to eb hated, needs but to be seen; But seen too often, familiar with it's
 face,
 We first endure, then pity, then em-
 brace
 To say that the business debauches decency, destroys virtue, lowers the standards of righteousness, defes the claims of responsibility, is to urge a worn out argument. To point out that 1t brutalizes everyone that has any thing to do with 1t, that it spares neither age nor sex, neither man, nor woman, nor child, in it's constituencies greed for money and patronage, is to invite opprihious epitnets To call attention to the fact that in it's re- faorseless wake only ruined manhood blackened womanhood, and blighted childhood are to be found, is to awak- en unreasoning resentment. To say aloud that not virtue, not trace of innocency, not a semblance of decen- cy, not principle of justice can be found to justify the drink traffic before any self-respecting community, is toe often to invite more saloons at the hands of the licensing power. The day of taking God into account con corning the drink matter seems tc have passed. The cry of the under child, woman and man falls on deal ears Some time it will be heard however as other wrongs in our nat ure have been heard, demanding an answer in blood
 1. It avlls little, also, to urge the destructive effects of the traffic upon society. Slowly but surely, it is de- monstrated, all phases, or commonly called ranks of society, are being in, vaded to the destruction of their tone and morals. The tolerated and patronized saloon, always marks a de- cline in church school and intel