The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-04-12

city for a certain type of socia
life. There are scores; and 'hundred
of men, young men in particular
who have no place to go to spent
an evening. The Y. NJ c. "a, tn,
Christian Endeavor societies ant
Epworth leagues are not Il substi
tute for the saloon. For. an eXpen
diture of five cents man can ge
a place where he can go and smoke
meet his friends for business OF
pleasure, keep his hat on or take
it off, and feel as if he owned the
place.
Saloon Changing Base of Appeal.
"The saloon IN this country il
changing its base of appeal, under
the guise of being a social institu
ton. 1t is demanding. What car
take it's place? Men can be sociablt
without drinking. William Jennings
Bryan and William Howard Taft
have proved that. We honor such
men; we admire them. Young meI
who are temperate in their senti
ments and habits are at premium
today. A certificate of church mem
bership, implying as it does habits
of total abstinence, is the best ere
dentials a man can carry with him
| Our fight is not with the saloon
keeper. Why should it be? You
yourselves have put him there. The
man who stands behind the ban
and sells whisky is no more worthy
OF being ostracised than the man
who stands in front of the bar and
drinks it, or the man who rents
a building for saloon purposes, OF
the man who votes to make the
thing lawful in his town. AS some
one said about the bedbug, it is an
interesting animal, and a beautiful
animal when examined under the
microcrope; all I've got against it is
the way it makes it's living.
Clean VS.. Dirty Saloon.
"At the brewers convention re-
Gently they said: This wave of
temperance is rising, not receding.
To save our business we must see
that only clean moral men go into
it. That kind of a saloonkeeper
is bigger menace than the vile,
dirty saloonkeeper, into whose joint
the better class of young men will
never go. A relative of mine was
arguing with me about the clean
saloon he was running. He kept
strictly within the legal hours, new
er sold to minors or drunkards; he
never drank himself, his wife and
were now studying in the university
and never touched it. But | said
to him all that is an argument
againts the liquor business. What
would you think Of a drygoods mer-
chant if he and his family never
used any drygoods, or shoe deal
err whose family never wore any
shoes. If your business is such
that you are glad to protect your
self and your family from it,. it lis
not right morally or legally for you
to be preying upon others. No
amount of license will make it right
for you to do to others what you
would not do to yourself. If it is
right for others to drink, you ought
to drink yourself, and your wife
and children ought to drink. j..
Saloon Destroyer of Manhood.
"The licensed saloon as a social
institution is the destroyer of man
hood. 1t is not only the rough
and uneducated who are the victims
of the saloon, but the refined and
educated. A traffic that will lay it's
hand on gifted manhood and de-
grade, debauch and finally damn
sent for five minutes in any COM
munity where God gives me breath
to speak against it. ...-.
"The saloon as social institu-
ton is the destroyer of the home.
Anything that destroys the sacred
ness and peace and power and per-
petuity of the home is a menace;
it is the greatest enemy to the
church, to the state, and to civiliza-
ton. 1t would not be possible to
conceive of more diabolical meth
cd of destroying the home. 1t is es-
timated that 100000 people die
every year from strong drink. Sup
pose we bring it down to one huI.
dred thousand for the sake of argu-
ment That would make row OF
corpses placed side by side thirty
eight and half miles long. One
hundred thousand moderate drinkers
must be marching every year to fill
the ranks of the drunkards who have
died. One hundred thousand young
men must be marching to fill the
ranks Of the moderate drinkers.
Where do they come from? These
young men and boys come from
our homes. The United States at
great expense built monument to
John Howard Payne because he
wrote Home, Sweet Home Yet
here in the United States is an in
stitution, living by the consent of
the government, of the community,
that will claim its hundred thou
sand victims from our homes every
year.
Should Rise Up Against 1t.
Every man and woman should
rise up lin holy war against it. I