The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-13
PARABLE AMENDED
AS TO DRY VICTIMS
DIR. Empringham Ready to
Pour Oil Into Wounds, but
Is Silent as to Wine.
AN EPISCOPALIAN CHANCE
Temperance Society's Chief
Wants Church to Provide
Saloon Substitute.

More religion is heard in the saloons
to-day than In the churches"
The above is the leading thought in
a statement issued yesterday by the Rev.
James Empringham, national superin-
tendent Of the Episcopal Church Tenn
perance Society. with a view of remind
ing both the clergy and laity of his de-
nomination that now is the time when
all good Episcopalians may be of aid
in the dry age which has come upon
the country.
Without revealing the. sources from
which evidence as to saloon symposia
have been collected DR.. Empringham
goes on to say:
For religion is discussed In places
of worship but a single hour In the
week, but 1t forms the chief topic of
conversation now at all times in the
saloons, Men on both sides of the bars
affirm and believe that the preachers
have put one over on them Their life
time indifference toward the church has
been famed by prohibition into an angry
fame.
But no matter now furious the at
lacks upon organized Christianity one
denomination Is spared invariably1-the
Episcopal. The patrons of the saloons,
inebriated or sober, admit by common
consent that the 'Piscopals have done
nothin' to put prohibition over All this
after three years glorious warfare of
the Church Temperance Society to out
law the liquor traffic!
The saloon, in spite of its evils, has
played a useful part in the life Of the
nation. Somethins must take its place
Iin,tnF In 70 h. -, a
successfully. Who then shall supply
that something's"
Here DR.. Empringham pauses to clear
the point that the Anti-Saloon League
never can. He was city superintendent
for the league once upon q time and
basing his pronouncement upon that as
ISOLATION he declares the league can
hope TO accomplish nothing along the
line of establishing a saloon substitute.
THE hatred 1t has engendered among
drinkers has been too deep and the
league knows it." he continued. Like
wise the long and triumphant fight
waged by Methodists. Presbyterians,
Baptists and others against the liquor
traffic yill initiate against any attempts
which may be made by them to set up
a substitute for the saloon.
."I have bewailed often that our
church did not cast itself into the fight
our shortening may rebound as a
blessing. AS neutrals In the fight may
we not now pour oil into the, wounds of
those who smart from defeat"'
Following his mention Of oil, there Is
nothing in DIR. Empringham's leaflet to
meet the claims of those exegesists of
the saloons, both 'dogmatic and gram
matico- historical, who may take him up
sharply to-day. Nothing to overcome
their objection that in the parable Of the
Samaritan, from which clearly his figure
Is taken. wine as we'll as oil was poured
in. Can not then the vinous antiseptic
spoken of in the sacred narrative, taken
as a generic term, be interpreted to in
clude specifically its spurious progeny
as known TO and enjoyed by subsequent
civilizations7
But DR.. Empringham is silent on this
head, and dialectician like does not
come forward on the other hand with
any concrete offer of substitute for the
saloon which he comedies to have been sc
potent a force in the life of nation
Possibly he will propose one in a later
paper. For the nonce. with single
reservation, he commits the question &c
public discussion, saying:
THE time has come for public dis
eussion, and / hope practical suggestion
Also. Only, distinctly. the substitute
must not be religious in character. A
camoufaged mission cannot succeed
there can be no dressing up of the sub
stitute in cassock-vests or Salvation
Army uniforms. In the language of ar
= attendant IN one saloon substitute II
New York: AS soon as they come ir
and recognize our uniforms they scampeI
headlong for the door,"