Charlevoix county herald., 1911-05-06
w. c. T. u. /
Questions in
Temperance Economy
REV. A. s. FAIR


Hoo. Doolittle. pref ssor OF politi-
cal economy, saws that the industry
Of the race Is the great desideratum
In political economy.
Equally true whether applied To
small communities, nations or indi-
viduals.
A nation may have great wealth,
while its subjects In countless num-
bers are suffering extremes Of poverty
and wretchedness. In such conditions
there can be no economy.
Economy is frugality, discretion In
expenditures and investments, or dis
tribution OF everything In its proper
place whether practiced by a nation
or an individual.
Any acts of the government tend
ing to induce idleness or dissipation
Of mind aud morals, declare war with
every principle OF political economy.
These premises being true, the gov
ernment has no right to authorize the
traffic In liquors.
The government that should assume
to make a grant To one or more indi-
viduals to corrupt the air or the water
which Is for his neighbours use, or TO
sell as heaithful ailments such kinds
of food as ihjure his health, manifest
ly acts without right, just as IL would
be for the government To attempt the
repeal of the Ten Commandments, or
any other statute Of heaven.
1t Is in violation OF the first great
principle upon which society Is found
ed and the rights granted by the un-
aterable laws Of God, carrying de-
graduation and misery In their train.
Such conditions have been witness
ed from the licensing Of lotteries and
gambling houses and are fearfully
illustrated in the lice 1sing OF The
traffic In liquors.
What would be thought OF gov
ernment by Christian community
or by the civilized world which should
directly authorize the commission OF
the same crimes which are the legiti-
mate fruits Of the liquor traffic, which
they do authorize?
Strip the license law or tax law Of
its false attire and IL would read thus:
Be IL enacted bv the authority Of
the government that any person or
persons who will pay into the public
treasury S25, or $500, more or less, for
the use of the government shall be
permitted TO become idle, dissolute,
profane aud abandoned in his charac-
ter, TO abuse his own family and COM
nit violence upon the property and
persons Of others whenever he Is thus
disposed. or he may induce Others TO
do IL if he thinks proper.
Such law would be harmes3ness
itself when compared with the licen-
sing of the whskey traffic.
Is not this legalzed cruelty? Or as
Lincoln said Of both slavery and the
liquor traffic. is IL right, III not is il
wrong; there is no middle ground lati-
tude on this compass.
Ask the men who favor the continu-
ance Of the saloons what they would
say TO traffic furnishing an article TO
the very SWINE they feed, If it should
have the same effect upon them that
the liquor traffic has upon the humau
SPECIES, giving no nOurishment TO the
animal, but bringing disease, suffer
ing and premature death; even against
the counteracting OF facts Of all nu-
tritive ailments that could be admin
istered. Would not the very swine be
entitled To legislative protection
against the common enemy OF their
species, and would not the trade oe
denounced as great pubic calamity?