The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-11-15

we have a campaign in behalf Of every
wreck his stomach with fried potatoes ::
The suggestion Is absurd. Everybody
grants at once that q mere detail Of
FOOD Is not worth Quarreling over: man
has more important interests: he would
not demean himself so. Then why
should grown men agitate in behalf Of
mere article Of drink, even though
they do like the taste Of it? Doubtless
some persons eat fried potaties withou:
hurt to their digestion, even as some
! men drink liquor with no discernible
i'll results. But it is established. be-
yond any mans denial. that the ne.
result Of the drinking of liquor is in
furious to mankind. Then why let a
small matter of taste interfere with the
public welfare? The principle Of gov
ernmental supervision of food has
been thoroughly established by the
pure food laws; it takes but a slight
extension of the same power to abol-
ish, in the interest of public health,
the manufacture, importation or sale
OF intoxicating liquors. After this has
been done, our children will wonder
why We ever allowed small matter
Of appetite to stand superior to the ma
tional well-being.
One form of temperance propaganda
that will never grow old is the recruit
young. A 'Lincoln-Lee Legion Pledge %
celebrating two of the great total abb
stainers of the Civil war period, Is now
being circulated by the Anti-Saloon
League. The aim Is to link the spirit
Of patriotism with that Of total absti-
nance.
An Illuminating side light upon the
liquor business in the United States is
thrown by the western editor of THE
Congregationaiist," who has extracted
from the american Contractor" these
comparative figures of expenditures
for building operations in 1906. 1912.
1913:
Breweries and distilleries: 1906, $14.-
$4,000; 1912. 81, 1881. 1888; 1913. a months).
$429, 500.
Churches: 1906. s., ss2, 7s1; 1912. $14,-
$40, 506; 1913 a months), A,3S9, 1885,
Money talks is the succinct COM
ment Of the editor upon this showing.
New forms Of temperance literature
are springing up day by day. The
Philadelphia North American recently
published an editorial "Something' g
The Matter With Kansas" which was
the most brilliant and unanswerable
presentation Of the success of prohibi-
ton in that state that has ever been
written. It is now being circulated all
over the land as a tract. Out in Iowa
some member Of the w. C. T. U. like
wise produced a contribution to tenn
perance arguments that is doing ma
tion-wide service. The Iowa Retail
Liquor Dealers association had been
welcomed to Cedar Rapids by the
mayor. Scandalized. the good women
issued a keen supplementary address to
the convention, in which it analysed the
character of the business represented
and why it was not welcome to the
city. From every direction new
weapons are pouring a deadly fire into
the business of the saloon.
This is the era of statistics. Our
| scientific day demands exact data upon
| every given subject. Survey and
Investigations are the rule. Hundreds
of trained experts are at work in thus
analysing social. commercial and re-
| ligious situations. The result is that
a mass of accurate evidence, simply
overwhelming in its character, is being
massed against the saloon. From dis
| interested and irrefutable sources we
are learning that the baleful effects OF
the saloon are more widely distributed
| than even the most earnest temperance
advocate had imagined. It is a poor
| Gay which does not produce an addf-
ttonal reason why this needless waste
ful and hurtful traffic should be abol-
ished.
John Barleycorn makes the trou-
| BILE; Father Penn settles the bills. -
That is the conclusion reached by a
Pennsylvania temperance circular, which
reported that in 1911 the state had paid
out for eleemosynary and penal in
stitutions $7.693. 1868, more than 80 pei
cent OF which is shown to have beer
made necessary by the ravages of in
temperance. In exchange for this bill
the saloons put 81, 1925. 1897 into the state
treasury. That is to say, the LIQUOR
business does not even pay it's own
repair bills. Yet there be those who
talk about the revenue to the state
from liquor business!
The past year has been rich in reve.
lations of the relations which exist
between the liquor interest and the
political parties. This menace to our
legislatures. and especially to our ju-
dietary, touches the basic patriotism
of the people. Let a passion of pure
and intelligent patriotism possess the
hearts of the citizens. and the liouo,
traffic will quickly end
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS.
Doing what can't be done il the glory
Of livfng.-General Armstrong.
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