The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-10-28
he AmerIcan people.
manufactures

the American people.
While the saloon manufactures
criminals. and although the percent
age of criminals incarcerated is great
est in saloon centers, nevertheless 1t
gives but little idea of the enormous
criminality productiveness of the sa-
loon. as 1t uses all Of its influence To
keep the criminals IL manufactures
out of prison, and while IL Is BUR
den for honest and Industrious peo-
pie to support criminals in prison, it
is cheaper and safer to do so than
to support them at large.
The saloon spreads disease among
its friends and sends many of them
to early graves. The exceptional man
who goes through life supporting the
saloon and remains uninjured by II
is not a good excuse that many others
should be ruined. Because one man
fell from a high building and was un-
injured Is not a good reason why 9TH
ers should follow him. Because a
man went safely through the Niagara
whirlpool is no good reason why 9TH
ers should try to do likewise.
The man who should lead others to
the saloon bar and to their ruin and
then die of old age himself is Ike
the Judas Iscariot steer they had at
Chicago stock yards in Chicago who
led thousands of his kind to their
slaughter, but died of old age him
self
~The American saloon is no respecter
of nationalities, and as the people OF
each nationality and their descend
ants become Americanized they will
find the American saloon their worst
enemy IL they prove friends of II.
AS we turn over the pages of his
tory. we read of the dire effects Of
drink, both upon individuals and
nations. Assyria was a great nation
until drink sunk IL down to rise no
more. Egypt flourlshed for thousands
of years as a temperate nation, took
to drink and went the way of drink
ing nations. Rome fourished for 500
years as a republic, then lasted for 400
years as an empire. win this nation
of ours last 800 years? 1t would not
if II were to follow in the footsteps
of Rome. Rome flourished as tenn
perate nation; but 1t became a drunk
en- nation; RIGHTEOUSNESS followed
drunkenness and went hand-in-hand
with II. AS Rome became drunken,
llcentious and corrupt, the wealth OF
the people passed from the hands oil
many into the hands of the few un-
I'll nearly all of the wealth of the
Roman empire was In the hands of
few and the mass of the people were
sunk i'm poverty and degradation; ana
then Rome fell.
We see in our land that as the sa-
loon flourishes drunkenness increases
until government records show over
400 600 arrests for drunkenness i'm one
wear. AS drunkenness increases, 80
do RIGHTEOUSNESS and poverty, the
wealth of the people passing into the
hands of the few. the rich becoming
richer and the poor poorer, until we
might say I'm the words of the poet
slightly changed;
an fares the land, to Fastening Ills
prey,
Where saloons accumulate and men
decay"
Some people tell us that they re-
gard the respectable saloons as al
right, but they are against the low
down dive. But the young man
starting out in life would not begin
a drinking career in low-down dive.
such a place would repel him, ana
II that was the only kind of saloon
omen TO him he would not be apt to
begin saloon career But when
there is the so-called respectable sa-
loon with its iines furnishings where
leading men go in and drink the
Young man thinks 1t is all right for
him TO drink in such places, too. But
facts prove that the young man who
begins his drinking career IN the So
called respectable saloon usually
winds up in the low-down dive-thC
dive merely finishes up the work be-
gun in the so-called respectable sa-
loon-so the respectable saloon Is the
more dangerous of the two.
We have nothing against the sa-
loonkeeper as a man, but we do OBJ
| iect to his business We might re-
gard him as the poor man regarded
the bedbug when he said, II have nc
objection to the bedbug as a bug,
only object TO the way that he get
his living" The saloon can thrive
only by sapping the lifeblood of tbs
people, and as the saloon hourishe'
the people go down in degradation
A Priests Condemnation.
No works of mine can describe thu