The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-04-12

Theodore Schroeder, editor OF Lucl
fer LauOern, VINO is visiting III otal
and is enjoying Ogden's Eastertide
has pronounced views on many SUP
iects' including prohibition and WON
ans suffrage and. In an interview
accorded a representative OF this pd
per. declared himself as follows:
"I notice during my present VISIT III
Utah that the dominant subject ol
noIiticaI discussion has been changed
to the prohibition question. Here, az
in. most other matters, entertaiu
opinions which are not discredited Dy
having achieved any great popular ap
proval. and may be i can best entertain
YOUR readers by expressing some opih
ions revived BY my recent obserVatiohS
here.
rTo begin with, l should say that for
over twenty years l have not smoked
five times, and during most oil the same
period | have been total aostalner
from alcoholic beverages and during
al, of it | have not averaged i've oc'
casions per annum when l nave IN
dulgcd in intoxicants. / attended
churches Just about the same NUMBER
OF times that I have gone to Saloons
and derived from each about the same
amount of good, to wit: none at all.
In these particulars, therefore, | es-
TEEN myself an ideal temperance man
though I am not now, nor have l ever
been, a prohibitionis'- The only thlns
which makes me suspicious ofSthc COT
rectness of my opinions, in this latter
matter. is the report that am in seem
ing harmony with Senator Smoot and
Joseph F. Smith Perhaps the har'
mony Is only In the seeming and Will
disappear when come to consider the
incidentals and the reasons for our re-
spective convictions.
"ln my view drunkenness is mere
symptom OF social or personal disease,
and you haven't cured the disease
when YOU suppress the manifestation
OF some particular symptom. Bad
nerves and wrong social and economic
conditions Will manifest themselves
I'm disorder as a matter of immutable
natural law, and in spite of man-made
regulations. MoraliZation by force has
. been tried for thousands OF years, and
Its friends. by constantly complaining
that the humanity Is getting worse
and that always more and more lawS
are necessary, unconsciously but elo-
quently admit the failure of this meth
od of reform. | believe that humanity
Is growing slowly better. not by tho
passage OF penal statutes but by virtue
OF the slow process of intellectual evO-
lutlon, which usually operates against,
and in spite OF, law and religion. Ex-
cept In the matter OF morals. the theo-
logIan has been vanquished in every
encounter with the naturalist Ethics
Is one of the last subjects to become
a matter for the application of the
scientific method The conflict between
science and religious morality is a
matter of the near future. Then moral
sentimentalism will have TO give way
20 conception of moral natural law,
Just as the Garden of Eden was abolish
ed by the discovery OF the law of evo-
luton Conduct will then be judged,
not according to the alleged mandates
Of any holy spooks. or prophets, seers
or revelators. but according to aScer-
tained and material consequences. The
absolute morality of an enlightened
Jelf-interest. Then the. theologasters
will have no occupation except to en-
tertaIn and restrain by spook-tales
those unfortunate imbeciles who can
not achieve the scientists conception
of morals. The hospital Will supplant
the jail and moralization by force will
be the shame OF the past, when the
physician and surgeon replace the Jail
or.
Furthermore. ! am unable to see
anything immoral in drinking OF smok-
ing as such, and even though it be in
dulged in by women. | have many
valued women friends who do both
Personally l find more pleasure In
spending my time and money in other
ways, but / cannot, and would not If
I could, use the coercion OF the law to
make the appetites OF all people like
my own. This leads me to comment
on the fact that most people with
whom | converse, seem TO think there
IS some great and mysterious virtue in
excluding women from saloons..I can
lot agree TO this Every woman has
The same right 10 go TO a saloon that
have. and it seems to me that only
moral sentimentalizing and stupid
cowardice would induce a denial OF
That equality of right Good and bad
women, and good and bad men are per-
mitted to breathe the same air, enjoy
the same sunshine, listen to the same
dull sermons, and receive therefrom
the same intellectual stupefaction. [
think they should also be accorded all
equal right to paralyze their brain by
booze as we'll as by spooks. To deny
an equality OF right TO sane adult hui
mans and tn admit the existance of
power that can destroy such equality
Of right, merely on account OF sex Is
Itself a greater wrong and social dan.
ger than any 1t can correct In New
York the courts have declared uncon.
sututional law which sought to estab.
lish arbitrary determinations accord
Ing to sex
When | remember that this is an
equal suffrage state. it Is a little dis.
appointing that no woman has arisen
with the clarity of vision and moral
courage TO insist upon the legal equal
1ty OF the sexes, even In the matter OF
going wrong" The absence of such
protest amounts to a demonstration
that even with woman's suffrage no
pne believes In equality under the Inv
rs a matter Of principle but on the