The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-06-28

is the avenue that is open to him.
In it he finds warmth and life
and companionship, human fellow
ship. Here the man is dressed like
other men. He treats his friends;
he talks with freedom that sur
prises himself; he learns the news
of the day. He goes home feeling
warm and comfortable and stecled
against the facts of reality there.
Three quarters of his motives for
visiting the saloon were something
deeper than the desire to drink
If this were the main thing, we
should have no saloons. Every cor
ner grocery would sell liquor; men
would telephone for it or carry it
home and drink.
1t can not be denied that men
crave alcohol also. 1t is a stimu-
liant which grasses the harsh lines
and angles of life. SO long as life
for the majority of people remains
the dull grind which it is today, just
so long will they seek alcohol or,
if it is denied them, substitute
that will do them far more harm.
We cannot at one blow refashon
the lot of mankind. We cannot
change the human nature which seeks
escape from the severity of that
lot. But what we can do is to work
in harmony with these given facts
of human nature, and of the world
not at cross purposes with them.
This is precisely what Mr.. Sell
fridge and fellow members of a COM
mittee are attempting to do in Eng
land. They are working for new
form of public house, or saloon. They
want it pr marily recreational; sec
ondarily, drinking place. Games,
moving pictures, the taking of food,
the opportunity for human compan-
ionship, are to be it's first purposes.
Men can go there whether they
drink or not. They can buy drinks,
but only of the lighter alcoholic type,
such as beer and light wines. The
founders of these reformed public
houses are willing to finance the
first few of them, but they believe
that they will be self-supporting.
They want the government to aid
the new institution by granting it
a less expensive liquor license than
must be bought by the old-style
drinking place.
Does not this point out to US the
line of procedure in this country?
About the saloon, because it is to-
day mainly drinking place, great
evils have accumulated. Let US have
a constructive policy to supplant the
saloon by something that really takes
its place. The abolition of the sale
of whiskey and other heavy intoxi-
cants-from which the saloonkeeper
now makes most of his money
would tend to force men who sell
beer and wines to combine that oc-
cupation with some other business,
probably the serving of food. A con-
scous private and governmental pol
icy could do much to lead the saloon
into new lines.
The progress of the human race
has been the history of the appro-
priation of the forces of nature to
the use of man. The wind, in itself.
is force of destruction at sea. Yet
man learned to catch it in his sails
and run before it, freed of the labor
of the oars. When he had invented
the keel, he could sail, quartering,
against the wind Fire is the most
destructive of all natural forces, vet
mans life upon earth is founded up
on the intelligent use of fire. The
craving of the masses of men for
human fellowship with their own
kind, and for a moderate stimulus
that takes the edge off the sharp
ness of experience-these, too, are
not evil things. Even if we consider
hem as wicked and destructive
forces, they are nevertheless funda-
mental and ineradicable. We shall
get on much further by turning
hem to our uses than by attempt
ng to defy them.-New York Even
no Mail-Adv