Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1908-04-01
| A SHARP 5 ADDRESS
As Delivered at the Mass Meeting
at the Opera House Last
Sunday Afternoon
ASKS AUDIENCE QUESTIONS
Then Answers Them in a Way That
That Held the Close Attention
OF All Present.

Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle
men: Since il is generally conceded
that the drinking saloon is an evil
permit me TO ask few questions: L.
it the duty of municipality to provide
for its citizens an environment con
ducive TO vice and crimeS
Has the municipality any moral right
to provide such an environment?
Is it not the duty of the munici.
pality to avoid surrounding its cit
izens with an environment conducive
to vice and crimef
Is it the duty of the municipality I,
prohibit as far as possible institutions
and environments conducive to vice
and crime and as q legitimate infer.
ence?
When crime is committed in a
municipality which fosters institions
and environments which have con
Quoted directly to the crime. is not the
municipality guilty with the Grim inal'
Is not the partaker guilty with the
thief?
AS to the first three questions you
are of one mind as to the answer: il
is with the 4th which we have part
icularly TO do, and one which there
is liable 10 be division of opinion.
And yet If we are unit on the first
then we must stand together on the
4th; 1t is this the logical sequence. II
il is not the duty of municipality
to provide an environment conducive
to crime, and it has no moral right
TO do so, il is duty to avoid ii
and the only way to avoid it is to
prohibit IL.
1t is conceded, an we all agree, that
it is the duty of municipality to
eliminate conditions, institutions and
environments conducive to disease.
Which Is worse, sickness or crime
the fever microbe or the microbe of
the debaucherg
Smallpox is more or less loathsome
disease. and we haven't money enough
to buy the privilege of inoculating
others. Drunkenness and debauchery
are more loathesme and destructive
yet you can buy the privilege of pro-
ducing them. Is it consistent? Is it
right?
The world moves. When / came to
Alma nearly 20 years ago the summer
breezss was freigthed with the frag-
rance of the pig sty and vocal with
piggy's song for his supper. Presently
the.municipality said "Such conditions
are menace to health; the sty must
go. and it went. The cess pool will
soon be ordered to follow. Are not
good morals as desirable as good health ?
1t is conceded, and we all agree, that
the saloon provides for young men,
and surrounds its habitues, with evil
and debasing influences. is the resort
of the unprincipled and the dissolute,
and is breeding place of vice and
crime. The pig sty never could hold a
candle to the saloon as a misery ma ker.
and the municipality has the same
right to prohibit one as the other.
Here is a piece of sidewalk in a
dangerous condition and Immediately
the municipality serves notice on the
owner to make II safe. lest some one
stumble aud break limb, or receive
other injury.
Here is saloon always In dan
gerous condition. yet the municipality
does not order il made safe. lest some
one stumble in to their ruin, social
and financial, body and .seul Which
is easier to mend broken leg or
broken heart "a wounded body or
ruined life Yes, the world moves.
Conditions which were considered
good enough for our fathers are not
good enough for our children.
The old schoolhouse with its vitiated
air, and unsanitary out buildings has
given place to the gr AIDED school with
its commodious rooms, sanitary plumb
ing and otherwise sanitary environ
ment. We agree that the rising gen.
eraion has the right to be started in
life with sound bodies; Has it not
an equal right to be started in life
with sound moralsg The relation of
the saloon to good morals is as sewer
gas to good health. Neither the one
nor the other should be permitted to
menace the welfare of the community.
Three or four times day our boys
and girls, going to and from schools.
pass the open doors of as many saloons
and so are unconsciously but surely
educated to accept them as an ine-
radicable birtbmark ON the body polite
instead of cancer to he cut out. With
no trace of humor in my own mind,
would not skull and crossbones be
an appropriate sign for such pIaces2
The children SEQ so much o. them,
they get so used to them the. saell
A.. <.I<~. Ln.~ A.. n.sl- -. a.