Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-04-19
The Churches and the Saloon Issue.

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with enmity or malice towards any
saloon-keeper or his family within
It's bounds. The supreme law of
the church is love towards all. To
depart from this spirit is to prove
false to Christ, the great head of
the church. There is not a church
in this county which would not
welcome to it's worship and instruc-
ton any man or any family of any
sort, provided only that the church
could not and must not pledge
itself to silence and religious falsity
in order to secure such attendance.
That the churches, however, should
line up against the saloon, while
conscious of no hatred towards the
saloon-keeper is not at all surpris-
ing when we remember how the
saloons are lined up against the
churches.
The patron of the saloon is not
as rule church goer. The kind
OF stimulus and enjoyment he gets
In the saloon utterly unfits him for
the worship of the true and only
living God. The two atmospheres
are separated as far as the east is
from the west. Let us suppose a
church where no direct attack is
ever made upon the liquor business.
Does the frequenter of the saloon
find himself much more at home
there? Even if he praises this
kind of church, does he go much
more? No-not if the atmosphere
of that church be spiritual, brother
ly, and righteous. His absence
from church simply means that
without knowing why always, he is
yet conscious of not feeling at
! home.
There are twice as many men in
the saloon business in this county
including bar-tenders as there are
priests and ministers; and these
men, sometimes directly. and al
ways indirectly, are drawing the
people away from the ministrations
of the Gospel.
The men who support the saloons
do not as rule support the
churches. Their beer and whiskey
costs them fully four times on the
average what their religion would
cost them if they had one. And
what do they get out of it? Let
our doctors and our divorce courts
and our jails testify But this is
free country and the man who wants
to support the saloon instead of the
church has the liberty of course to
do so to the extent that the law
allows him.
But on the other hand the church
of course has an equal liberty to
discern clearly the forces that are
working against her and to protest
and antagonize in very legitimate
way. -
Especially is this true when lit is
apparent that the liquor interests
are working nightly to entangle
members of the church in ways and
habits which put stigma and
disgrace both upon them and the
churches to which they belong. The
church has to work with mighty
idials in weak materials and be-
cause of this fact even those who
know better and in their best moods
live better, sometimes slip and fall.
Whenever any member of any of our
churches, be he Congregationalist.
Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic,
Episcopalian or Baptist, appears on
the streets of DEBORAH or any other
town in this county with unsteady
gait and tangled feet he is dis
grace to his church and is doing all
that he can to discredit the Gospel
of Christ. And who are the men
who are tempting him to this and egg
ging on such downfalls? Our
saloon men and their allies.
What wonder then that our
churches should contend against
these bats and traps of evil? The
saloons fight us with their beer
and whiskey and the demoralizing
effect OF their loafing places. And
we fight them with the latest scien-
tific facts as to the effect of alcohol
the inspiration of better fellowship,
and the ballot.
But it is claimed that ministers
have been too prominent in this late
fight against the saloon petition
Let the laymen come forward and
wave the ministers to back seat
and no men will retire to appropri-
ate obscurity more gratefully. 1t is
altogether false. however, to assert
that this movement is only the ILL
advised action of few clergymen
who had better be attending to
duties more purely ministerial,
There are laymen who are quite as