Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1912-03-22


improvement or Of henevolence, or is
Withdrawn from the capital Of legiti-
mate business, and no return is made
either in service or in life. Every pa
iron Of the bar-room is, sooner or later.
unsteadied in his habits, reduced in
his working force, robbed Of physical,
mental and social power, made less
useful to his family and to the com
munity And every victim of the bar
rooms success has been taken from
the ranks Of the communIty's workers
and changed from proiucrr 9a0se
life was bles ing, 10 parasite whose
life is burden. The thousands who
have lost their situations through in
temperate habits, the thousands of
drunken and dissolute out-of- works
who depend on friends or on public
charity for their support, the thous-
ands of criminals who crowd our gaols
and prisons aud penal institutions,
brought there directly or Indirectly
through drink, the thousands and tens
Of thousands of the unfit and the I'M
fortunate, in our asylums and out of
them, who have inherited the drunk
ards entail of diseased blood aud shat
tered nerves and imbecile brain and
detiied heart-all these might have
been brain workers or bread-wiuners,
contributing their quota to the coun-
try's wealth; but they were seduced by
the bar-room, and now they are not
only burden but curse. Is it any
wonder that sane men who think at
all seriously about the problems of
population and industry pressing now
upon Canada, should ask that no
quarter be given to an institution that
destroys thousands of the population
we have, that handicaps our indus
tries by ,naking their managers incom-
petent and their work men unsteady,
and that unfits the sons for takiny the
places from which their fathers have
fallen?
And that is not ALL The moral bur-
den which the bar-room lays upon the
community is heaviest of all. There
mag be bar-tendefs who have kept
themselves unspotted, their lips clean,
their minds unsoiled, their hearts
pure, eIen as there are those who have
touched pitch without deiilement or
who have walked in fire without be-
ing burned. But the bar-room trade is
twice cursed; il curses him who gives
and him who takes. How many of
Ontarios three thousand licensed bar
rooms have no dark tragedy in the re-
cord Of those who have managed the |
business? Every bartender not only |
withdraws his service from the coun-
try's crying need, stauds to suffer
moral deterioration and loss beyond |
all repair. Aud the influence of every
bar-room, both positive and negative,
in city aud in country, is an anIagon-
istic to " halever things are true and |
honest and of good report The head |
quarters of community Is deviltry /
oh' VIZ Vi hoA 10 1
most corrupting IN its life is the bar
room with its coarse jestS and vulgar |
story and dissoIute ditty. Is it any
wonder that sane men who are taxed |
fir the *apport of schools and libra
ries anG institutions of intellectual |
AMI moraI culture object 10 the perpet-
uating o an institute IN which breeds |
Fulgauty and strengthens the things |
that make for shame? /
We are not now discussing the ques- |
ton of how the social needs which the |
saloon meets hurtfully may be helpful |
lY met. Neither arc we arguing for |
total prohibition or for State owner
ship or for any other alternative. The
one point pressed INTO prominence is
that the bar-loom as a licensed insti- |
futon is an economic, social and |
moral burden, proved by all its record
to be a curse, and incapable of reform,
and that the one reasonable, business
like, prudeut course is to cut ii out of
the way without compnuction and
WithOut com nas-iOn