Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-04-14

one OF the largest CrOWoS UIldU ever
assembled at the court house was
there last Sabbath evening to protest
with prayer and song and oratory
against the effort now being made to
saddle saloons upon our fair young
city, noted as one OF the cleaneSt and
most prosperous in the state. 1t was
| a demonstration that made the heart
of the mother and father glad. 1t
represented the christian home and
business interests OF the city; it rep
resented clean, progressive Canton
against the saloon and gambling hell.
One speaker said that the law says
saloons now close at p. m. Ii 1t was
wrong to keep them open after nine,
it is wrong to keep them open before
nine. If it is wrong to keep saloons
open on Sunday, it is wrong to keep
them open at all.
Nearly every secret society refuses
saloon keeper membership, and
there are men who say there is moth
ing wrong with saloons We might
say there is nothing wrong with hell
but the birthstone. If it is wrong for
bootleggers or drug stores to sell
liquor, why add the third and great
est evil of the miserable business?
No man can offer one reasonable ex-
cuse for the saloon only as crime
breeder.
License or no license will never reg
ulate the sale of liquor while man has
an appetite for it. If there was not a
drop of liquor to be had in Canton or
in South Dakota, does anyone believe
that that would prevent man get
ting it If he had to send to New York
or Europe for it? You can't prohibit
a mans craving for liquor, but you
can so regulate the sale that men will
not make beasts of themselves and
make their homes a hell. Ii man
goes into drug store to buy liquor
legally or otherwise he must be sober
and he cannot stay there and get
drunk. He must be decent about It..
The druggist must be strict and care
full. The temptations OF twenty-five
drug stores will not corrupt as many
boys and men as one saloon. Every
reasonable man knows this to be true.
The town boys and the boys from the
country have little or mo temptation
from drug store. A blind pigger is
an animal that recognizes neither law
nor decency. He belongs to the vul-
ture class.
In contrast let us look at the sa-
loon. It's doors are open early and
many a laborer begins his days work
with a visit to the saloon. His one
glass calls for two and two calls for
four and steam is up. In many cases
it means no supper with the little
family, and drunken row in the sa-
loon and finally the lookup.
The saloon keeper pays heavy IL
cense, his rent is always about double
that of other business, and his help is
high priced, and unless he Is mighty
we'll healed the brewer has a rope
around his neck. 1t takes a great
deal of money to support saloon and
the rich do not patronize such places.
It's the poor man, the laborer, who
keeps the saloons alive. We all know
be cannot afford it. If the poor man
blows his weekly wage into the saloon,
God help the wife and babies. We all
know what it means and there are
many good men who think license is
the best way out of the crime breed
ing business. Nothing can be right
that is wrong. There is not fair
minded man anywhere who will say
that the saloon Is right. Nothing
good can come out of the saloon.
Isn't this true?
The writer has been in all the drug
stores of Canton hundreds of times
since the saloons went out but he
never saw bottle of whisky or any
one carrying bottle out with him.
1t is generally known drug stores sell
liquor on prescription, one way to
keep within the law, and some say
the drug stores sell little too freely,
and so it goes, but when one tries to
compare the drug store liquor busi-
ness with the open saloon, there is no
comparison to be had. The drug store
is a place where men, women and
children congregate at all hours-the
other place is "just hell" as the dead
broke mechanic told his wife Sunday
morning after an all night whirl be-
hind locked doors and darkened win
dows.
The great temperance demonstra-
tion at the court house Sunday even
ing served notice on the liquor inter
ests and agents Of the brewery that
Canton is prepared to defend and
maintain her reputation for prosper
ity, morality, decency and sobriety.
The bre brewery-distilling interests-are
willing and will blow in Doodle to
help corrupt our beautiful little City
and turn 1t into q crime breeder II
they can.
| That magnificent meeting 1t the