The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-11-27
IS It A BUSINESS
OR A rim {?

(By Clarence True Wilson, D. D., &c
neral Secretary Temperance Society
of the NJ. E. Church.)
All human activities are divided In
TO three classes-business charity and
crime. Business is an exchange of
commodity or service for profit: char
ity is the exchange of commodity or
service without the profit; and crime
Is getting the profit without giving
the commodity or service.
When a man goes into any bust
ness transaction and spends his money.
he has somethig to show for 1t, either
substance acquired or work done,
but If he goes into a gambling den
he will do one of two things: either
he will get something for nothing. or
nothing for something. If he gets
something for nothing. he is thief,
and If he gets nothing for something.
he Is a fool. Every State of the
Union, through its courts, has declared
| that this transaction Is not a business.
but a crime. Therefore, gambling is
outlawed everywhere in civilization.
| Does the liquor traffic belong in the
category of business charity. or crime
Here Ia row Of business houses; II
spend my money in the grocery store
nave EopO pIpNAS4eA4S oIi iiAE esA1'P y"
show for It; in the butcher shop. /
have q beefsteak for dinner; in the
shoe store. l have a pair OF shoes
good enough to wear to the temper
ance meeting; at the milliners. and my
wife will be well-dressed woman
with a hat you can't gee over, but a
man can spend his money for twenty
years over the bar of a saloon and he
will have nothing but a red nose to
show for his cash.
All these business astabltshmen
are dealing IN the necessities of life
! or the conveniences of civilization, but
the saloon deals in that which does
nobody on earth any good. If every
drop of liquor in every saloon in Amer
lea were turned into the river and
! the sea, no human being on earth
would be worse off for 1t tbut it would
| be hard on the fish)s
All these iplaces OF business are
dealing .in necessities at small mar
gin of profit--a one or one and a
half cent profit on ten cent sale,
but the saloon is getting a nine cent
profit on a ten cent sale. for that
which helps nobody. This Is not q
square deal" for the business man.
| All these business places extend
credit other customers: they trust
them by the week. by the month. by
the year and sometimes forever; but
| the saloon is run on strictly cash
basis: another advantage for the vice
and disadvantage for the business.
| All these business houses lose by
unpaid bills, but the saloon has taken
no such risks and met with no such
losses Every dollar that Is spent IN
| a vice establishment is dollar less
to circulate in honest business!
| In every saloon community, nine
teen -twentteths of all the bad debts
representing total loss to the mer-
chant can be traced to one thing
| the patronage OF the saloon before
the honest debts for the necessities OF
life have been paid. And yet thera
are American citizens able to raise
whiskers who can't distinguish be-
tween a business establishment ana
saloon.
| Wherever you find it. the liquor
traffic Is the blood-sucking leech upon
| all the business Industries of every
community 1t belongs in the cate
CORY with the brothel and the gambl-
ing hell. and must be dealt with as
thew have heen-pre hibited.
! You can't run a sawmill without
loge. or gristmill without grain, or
a rock crusher without feeding It; and
you can't run n saloon without turn
ing boys into drunkards and girls in
| to drunkards' wives To turn a log
into timber is business; to turn a boy
into a drunkard Is crime. -
| There IL not a flower in the hat of
the rum sellers wife that did not cost
a rose from the cheek Of some other
mans wife, nor flashing diamond on
| the bosom of bartender or brewer
that was not purchased at the cost
OF Jewels of manhood from American
homes! And every interest of bust
ness, home, school, church and civili-
cation demands the national prohibit
ton OF the liquor traffic for the sake
| OF a square deal"