Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-24
w. C. T. U. Department
BY JNLIA A. GARRISON

, accomplice in the slaughter of these
| little ones. How many babies have
Won killed by your vote? How many
| babies have you slaughtered by your
! Indifference to the great temperance
cause?
Ex-Governor Hanly of Indiana, who
| has seen something of the evil that
has come to helpless childhood through
| the American saloon, says:
"In the name of these little ones, its
! innocent dead victims, the victims of
a hundred years. l demand verdict
! against it, a judgment of condemna-
ton and of abolition. Let not the
verdict be delayed. Let not judgment
be postponed Let not execution be
stayed. Today is war time. This is
the day of judgment this the hour of
! execution"
SCHOOL CHILDREN DRINK
A policeman of New York city one
evening was called to care for two
boys who were lying in the street
drunk. They were oblivious to the rain
that fell on them, and dead to the
world. Both were of tender years, the
elder not more than twelve years of
age. At his feet lay half-empty bot
tie of whisky. A curious crowd sur
rounded them, some merely inquisitive,
but others uttering expressions of pity
that boys so young should be in that
sorry plight. Both lads were taken to
the station house, and soon after the
older one was placed in the alcoholic
ward Of the Bellevue hospital. And
yet New York has more than ten thou
sand agencies licensed and protected
to produce such results. While their
license does not cover the right to
sell to boys, little does the saloon
keeper care for the law, and apparently
little do the officers of the law care
whether the statute is obeyed or not.
DR.. T. A. MacNicholl of New York
says that of the thirty thousand
school children in that city whose con-
ditions he has studied 52 per cent
drink some form of alcoholic liquor oc-
casionally or regularly.
There is one school in a suburban
town. for example, where, in kinder
garten department of one hundred chill
dren, ninety-six regularly receive in
toXicating liquors, and where five
year-old boys come to school drunk.
In several schools in a New Eng
land state. which perhaps is not ex-
ceeded in the percentage of native-born
population, school children have been
found who drink both cider and beer,
and high school boys were found who
were habitual drinkers.
BURDEN OF CRINIINALITY
Six hundred million dollars annually
is the estimated amount now spent i'll
the United States on criminality. Ac-
cording to multiplied statistics, whisky
is responsible for the larger part of
this expense. The report given by the
Massachusetts bureau of labor, as the
result of an official investigation made
by that body under the direction of
the legislature, was to the effect that
So per cent of all Offenses committed
against the law were traceable either
directly or indirectly to the liquor traf-
fic. The chaplain of the Missouri peni-
tentiary says that out of 2279 convicts
in the prison when he made his investi-
cation SO per cent came there directly
through the influence of liquor, and
5 per cent came there indirectly from
the same cause. Wherever investiga-
ton has been made a similar condition
has been found to exist.
But if not more than half, or so per
cent, of the heavy criminal expendi-
lures could be eliminated by the pro-
hibition of the liquor traffic, more than
the amount of the liquor revenue would
be saved. Why waste thought, then,
over the raising of revenue If this
nefarious traffic should be abolished?
Gladstone's wise foresight cOmpassed
the problem when he said, "GiVe me
a sober population, not wasting their
earnings in strong drink, and I will
know where to get my revenue"