The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-05-01
THE SALOON OR NO SALOON
WHICH?


WHICH?
When a great moral question is SUBJ
mitted to the arbitrament of the ballot
it is the duty Of every citizen to have an
earnest and enlighte ned interest in the
result. On May 18th, next, the people OF
Prince Georges County, shall decide
wheth er or not saloon longer be licens-
ed in our midst.
This is a great question. and cold and
insensibe must be the nature to which
it does not strongly appeal. 1t involves
not mere issue of party e1pediency or
governmental policy but the integrity
Of individual character, the purity OF the
home and the general welfare Of the
country.
The vote upon the question OF the
continuance or the abolition of the
saloons, in Prince Georges County,
will test the worth Of our citizenship.
1t will decide whether we shall con-
tnue TO stand for drunkenness, that is
increasing with alarming extent,
scourge more destructive than the hur-
ricane, more devasting than famine and
pestilerce; for the sale of Intoxicating
liquor to minors and habitual drunk
ards; for the Dissertation of the Sab
bath; the federation of gambling and
prostitution, the promotion Of idleness
disorder and crime; the bribery Of the
officers of the law and general de-
moralization, so insidious in its growth
that most of US are unaware of its
enormity.
1t will be decided whether Prince
Georges County, one the oldest settle
ments Of our beloved State, once bless
ed with an unrivaled prosperity, with a
people once gallant and noble, is yet
true to its hallowed traditions.
Whether it shall arise from the pre-
sent state of depression and immortality
and claim that progressive and enlight-
ened position, to which its resources
pre- eminently qualify it, or through in
difference and culpable error, continue
the downward path Of material aeprecia-
ton and social infamy.
But why should the saloon not be
driven from our country?
Are they places that furnish to Us a
wholesome food or dens that serve a
dangerous drug?
Are they galleries or art. where ma
ture is portrayed in vivid fragments,
by the painters genius or rather
decorated with LEVIED pictures OF
lascivious sentiment, that stimu late a
low and sensual taste?
Do their walls re-echo with the sweet
and soothing melody of classic music,
or rather re-sound with vulgar speech
and ribald laughter?
Do they furnish dramatic entertain
ment. where our poetic spirit is touch
ed with hum erous error and tragic
justice, or rather the scene of shame
less leYity, that profanes the most
sublime theme of life?
Are they meeting places for an lnno-
cent social enjoyment, for the cultiva-
ton of the mind, the exaltatien Of the
soul, or rather haunts of bestile graft
fication, Of petty gambling and vile
prostitution
They are standing temptation to
our youth, unaffrighted by the herrows
of intemperance; for the wasting away
of the time and money of otherwise
good men a loafing joint for the idle
and venal.
They take away from the natural
course of business our $4,000, each
year and senG most of it without the
country; thev are the direct cause of
seventy per cent. Of our crime, that
costs the county, annually over $13 900,
as against $4,000 received from licenses,
they have destroyed an efficient and re-
liable labor class, which reduces the
assessed valuation of our farm lands
over SIS, 900, 00G, which means an annual
loss to the revenue Of the county, in
taxes, of over $80,0OO; they spread
everywhere, to individual and home,
poverty and misery and are directly
responsible for ten per cent. of our
deaths; they bribe our police officers
and debauch our politics, and more
horrible than all these enumerated
crimes, have so poisoned the moral
sentiment that we supinely pass from
bad TO worse.
And now that the opportunity is CIV
en- US to say whether or not we shall
continue this condition Of affairs, how
shall the majority of our people an
sYer?
VIII any man who knows the saloon
from personal experience, or has OBJ
served the frightful effects of drunken
ness in others, hesitate as to how he
will vote?
VIII the father, largely responsible
for the future of his boys, hesitate as to
how he will vote?
Will the memory of q mothers an
guished heart, the tears and misery of
loving wife, the suffering of many lit
tic children avail nothing On the 18th