The Springfield herald., 1912-08-30

attention is the evil OF social impur.
ity. That this awful sin Is working
havoc In our land to-day. none but
the evil and the uniformed would
presume to deny. The health and
power of people lie In their chastity
and virtue. A licentious people is al
ways a weak people. Lust and licen-
tiousness are demoralizing tens OF
thousands OF our young men and
women every year. The facts are
appalling. over 1000 innocent girls
are torn from parents and friends
each week and sold into n life Of
shame. This means over 100000 each
year. Seventy-five per cent Of our
young men have diseases resulting
from impurity. The white slave pro-
curer phys his trade and seduces his
victims in almost conscious security
in many places. Our great cities are
seething centers of every form Of So
cial evil. A walk through Market
street In Denver. the Queen City Of
the Plains. year ago brought me
face to face with these appalling con-
ditions, as saw prostitution carried
on as openly and boldly as II 1t had
been the selling of vegetables. Moth
1
will ever safely hold our young people
in the hour Of temptation at this
point. And these religious convictions
are lacking in multitudes. No Bible
and no Christ In the home. leave our
sons and daughters open to this most
seductive of all vices, and their down
fall is inevitable. That such condi-
tions are not only tolerated, but &C.
tually fostered, In twentieth century.
civilized, Christianized America. is
enough to arouse us to read the hand
writing on the wall.
!" A third evil. that threatens the
wholesomeness of our national life 1s
the divorce evil. The divorce question
is one of the great problems before
us for solution to-day. Statesmen and
judges are recognizing 1t as such. We
hold the unenviable record Of grant
ing more divorces per 1000 of our pop
ulation than any other nation on the
globe, with the possible exception of
Japan, a practically heather nation.
They are being granted at the rate OF
100 a day, and are steadily on the In
crease. This means that over $4,000
American homes are broken up every
year by this unhallowed institution.
Fifty per cent of the boys sent to the
by divorce. Divorces are granted for
the most trivial causes, and often, it
would seem, for no cause at all. This
simply means that the sanctfty OF the
marriage relation is at low ebb In
this country. The sanctity of the mar
riage relation guards the home and
family life; and the family is the foun-
daton of society. Anything that strikes
at the purity and continuance of the
family, strikes at the very foundations
of our social structure. For the first
500 years of the history of Rome, Il
divorce was unknown. Then she was
pure and vigorous. But when the en-
pire was at its height, and just before
its fall, divorces were SO common that
they were taken as a matter OF course,
and the marriage relation was almost
totally ignored. This is given as one
of the causes of the downfall of the
empire. Cannot We profit by the past?
History repeats itself when causes are
repeated. Our country sadly needs
some stringent divorce laws. founded
upon the principle that marriage is n
divine Institution. and its sacred ties
cannot be abrogated for every cause.
A fourth great evil is to be found
in drunkenness. One OF the indelible
stains on the fair fame of our nation
is its completely In the abominable
liquor traffic. The saloon and the
drink evil is the one great. legalized
curse of our land. Our congressman
will wrangle over the miserable tariff
question, or whether We are to squan-
der our money in more dreadnaughts.
and utterly ignore the liquor question,
which is one of the greatest moral and
economic issues before the country to-
day. The total destruction of the sa-
loon and liquor traffic would save
more money for the people In one year
than the most radical revision of the
tariff downward would in fifty years.
The curse of strong drink Is doing
more to destroy the prosperity, health.
happiness, and morals of our people
than any other one thing. This nation
is in grave danger of becoming rich
and drunken, and utterly incapable OF
fulfilling the high destiny to which
God has called her. Our pride Will not
save US from the demon alcohol. Our
boosted wealth and power will not
save us from the disaster of drunken
ness, but will the rather hasten us to
1t. When the economic loss accounta-
BILE to liquor in this country is greater
than the cost of living, we must be
QuD0S anu lOOiSp lHuCcuB IL we Cdhho-
see whittier we are drifting. Here we
find one answer to the question noted
above as to how we are spending our
wealth. In view Of all the facts pre-
scented by the liquor problem in Amer
lea to-day. it is but calm statement
to say that the saloons must go, the
traffic In Intoxicating liquors must
cease, this nation must become sober.
or there can be no hope for it down
the future. The curse of Almighty
God will fall with terrific effect ere
long, IL we do not rise up and Danish
this dread evil from our land and
homes.
A fifth peril is to be seen in the
elimination of the Bible from our pub
lie schools. The demand for this
elimination comes mainly, though con-
verify, from one source-Roman Cath
olicism. In order to sustain the aur
thority of it's system of priestcraft. it
would take the Bible out of the hands
of the people and keep them in the
condition OF the dark ages. when they
had no right to read and think for
themselves. Our public school sys-
tenn forms one of the strongest bull
warks of our national life. The lives
and characters of the great masses of
our children are largely formed under