Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-08-23
So Says Or. Wadman in Ad-
dress at Christian Church
Yesterday


At the Christian church yesterday
morning, DIR. John w Wadman, super
intendent of the Anti-Saloon League.
addressed a fairly good-sized audience
on the question Can you make men
and women moral by law" The speak
er took for his text Matthew 6 and u,
Lead us not into temptation, and
applied the teachings Of the text to
the common statement made By liquor
PEOPLE anent the subject cf legisla-
ten as il refers to their line of bust
ness. The first point the preacher
made was that this slogan OF saloon
ism is in itself reflection upon the
business which the liquor people seek
TO defend in making the same. II sa-
IconisIn were moral, why should the
liquor people endeavor to defend 1t by
stating that no legislation can made
men and women moral? "
There is no one institution" Mr..
Wadman claimed. that is the cause
of so much sin and crime, misery and
sorrow as the saloon Fully 10 per
cent of the crime committed against
society is traceable directly or indi-
rectly to the liquor traffic and we
claim that society has perfect right
to protect itself against the output OF
the saloon on this account. Saloonism
claims that the law protects them.
That is true, but society has perfect
right to change that law, for the law
itself encourages immortality, 1t is an
open door to weak men and women to
commit crime. Il
I'VE may endeavor to shift the re-.
sponsibility from our own shoulders to
that of the police and claim that we
pay the police to protect society and
punish crime, but the police UunisH
crime after the crime Is committed
and the wrong is done to society, while
the criminal himself with those de-
pendent upon him frequently berame''
a burden to the community. If you
and as upright Christian citizens did
our duty as faithfully as We should,
these saloons would have no longer
any legal right to exist and the shut
tiers Of the devils headquarters would
be hung up forever more.
But we can make men and women
moral by law in this way. Today we
are considering the relation of a mans
environment to his character and We
know that a mans conduct is largely
governed by his outward circum-
stances. Little children bred and rear
ed in vicious surroundings almost in
variably become criminal, while the
wholesome influences of our well or
dered homes create good citizenship.
Indeed, there are many people in so
ciety who would quickly fall away
into crime were a life of c,Inne mare
easy ant. SAFE So that when saloon
ism claims that you cannot make men
and women moral by lew, We claim on
the ether hand that we can do so in
so far as social environment is con-
cerned.
1T is not true that it is unwise to
legislate in advance of public opinion.
Take the case of Lincoln, or take the
case of Moses, who, in his great work
or creating a splendid nation out of a
mass of poor. degraded slaves, lifted
up a standard of law before he began
to teach them system of morals, and
after the PRONUNCIATION of his code of
laws came his splendid system of
morals. The result was "a nation born
in day
I'VE can point to Russia where the
law prohibiting the use and sale OF |
vodka was promulgated a year ago, |
far in advance of public opinion, and
now we are reading in the daily press, |
accounts of the regeneration of Russia. |
We can leaislafe in ADVANCE of nnhlic |