It is the conviction of men of to-day that the saloon is doomed. We are gathering our forces for the coming Armageddon, when this traffic of iniquity shall go down in irretrievable defeat. The forces of justice and righteousness, of integrity and truth, of morality and religion, Jew and gentile, Catholic and Protestant — in fact, the good men of the nation — are arranging themselves in battle line, and opposed to them are all the forces of iniquity, captained by the liquor power.
The issue before us is a simple one. Driven from big business, outflanked on the plains of science, outgeneraled in the home, retreating from the fields of education, from redoubt to redoubt, from entrenchment to entrenchment, has the foe been driven, until it has centered itself in its last and only stronghold, the Granada of last possession — the government. Shall the government be a partner in the liquor traffic? and shall the liquor traffic be a partner with the government?
By the memory of heroic sires who sought, by their sacrifices, to perpetuate to the people of to-day their heritage of freedom; by the ideals of those magnificent American characters who used tongue and pen in the past, and spent the powers of their brilliant minds, in giving to the humblest citizen security under his "own vine and fig tree"; by the knowledge that all of these blessings have been sapped, undermined, and threatened with annihilation by that brazen power, the whisky oligarchy, with its impudent assertion of "We are the people"; and for the
A Stainless Emblem
By J. Frank Hanly
LET us go this road though we go aknee. Let us lift our hands, loose our tongues, and tell the truth about this foe of human kind.
Let us tell the truth about it, aye, tell the whole truth.
Tell it —
Until its wickedness shall be laid bare.
Until the poverty it creates shall cease to be.
Until the pauperism it produces shall disappear.
Until its wrongs to womanhood and its injustice to childhood shall be exposed.
Until almshouses and hospitals shall be no longer needed to house the defectives it creates.
Until jails and prisons shall be emptied of its victims.
Until the crime it impels shall no longer be laid upon the souls of men.
Until murder shall stop its riot, and arson its carnival.
Until the insanity it begets shall cloud the intellects of men no more.
Until men shall see it with the blood upon its naked, knotted hands.
Until fathers shall cease to neglect their offspring.
Until mothers need fear no more for the children they bear.
Until childhood, robbed no longer of its birthright, shall receive a fair chance and a square deal from every man and woman beneath the flag.
Until this corruptor of boys, this ravisher of girls, this despoiler of homes, shall stand condemned, with sentence of death pronounced against it, arrayed for the execution.
Until the nation shall hear, and hearing, be convinced.
Until this republic shall become a saloonless land, its flag a stainless emblem.
— Hon. J. Frank Hanly, former governor of Indiana.
The Voice of the Nation
By Ellen G. White
Mrs. E. G. White says:
The man who has a vicious beast, and who, knowing its disposition, allows it liberty, is by the laws of the land held accountable for the evil the beast may do. On the same principle, the government that licenses the liquor seller, should be held responsible for the results of his traffic. And if it is a crime worthy of death to give liberty to a vicious beast, how much greater is the crime of sanctioning the work of the liquor seller!
There is a cause for the moral paralysis upon society. Our laws sustain an evil which is sapping their very foundations. Many deplore the wrongs which they know exist, but consider themselves free from all responsibility in the matter. This cannot be. Every individual exerts an influence in society. In our favored land, every voter has some voice in determining what laws shall control the nation. Should not that influence and vote be on the side of temperance and virtue?
The advocates of temperance fail to do their whole duty unless they exert their influence, by precept and example, by voice and pen and vote, in behalf of prohibition and total abstinence. We need not expect that God will work a miracle to bring about this reform, and thus remove the necessity for our exertion. We ourselves must grapple this giant foe, our motto, "No compromise," and no cessation of our efforts till victory is gained.
Considering only the financial aspect of the question, what folly it is to tolerate such a business! But what revenue can compensate for the loss of human reason, for the defacing and deforming of the image of God in man, for the ruin of children, reduced to pauperism and degradation, to perpetuate in their children the evil tendencies of their drunken fathers?
Must this always continue? Will souls always have to struggle for victory, with the door of temptation wide open before them?
The honor of God, the stability of the nation, the well-being of the community, of the home, and of the individual, demand that every possible effort be made in arousing the people to the evil of intemperance. . . . Let an army be formed to stop the sale of the drugged liquors that are making men mad. Let the danger from the liquor traffic be made plain, and a public sentiment be created that shall demand its prohibition. Let the drink-maddened men be given an opportunity to escape from their thraldom. Let the voice of the nation demand of its lawmakers that a stop be put to this infamous traffic.
Speed the Day!
Congressman Frederick Landis declares:
I am for national prohibition.
I am for it because the liquor traffic is a mad dog, and hydrophobia is not mentioned in the preamble of the federal constitution as one of the purposes for which this government was organized.
I am for it because no honest nation can steal baby shoes and call it "revenue."
I am for it because no just nation can plant crime and punish the harvest.
I am for it because no civilized nation can run a tollgate on the road to destruction.
I am for it because no nation can guide its ship of state by the "dipper" and escape the whirlpool.
I am for national prohibition because I want this country to have a national defense that will defy the world.
I am for it because it is more within the scope of a republic's purpose to protect little children at home than big business abroad.
I am for it because if the separation of church and state is essential to the preservation of liberty, then the separation of saloon and state is essential to the preservation of national life.
I am for prohibition because it is the pity of human progress for the weak of human kind. The bread of freedom which sustains us was baked at the martyr's fire; and we must pay the martyr, as best we can, by saving those who cannot save themselves.
The wrong is the nation's, and the nation alone can right it.
Speed the day when the American mother can bend above the cradle of her boy, when she can lift her face to the flag, and say, "At last, thank God, he's safe!"
The Dumping Ground for the Undesirables
Thus those states which still remain in the grip of the liquor interests will draw to themselves, in spite of every effort, general lawlessness and increased inefficiency. Progress will be effectually throttled. The very riffraff of society will float into their borders, to become a terrible and terrifying menace, and to make it all the more difficult to overcome the demon of drink in any future battles that may arise.
Thus those states which still remain in the grip of the liquor interests will draw to themselves, in spite of every effort, general lawlessness and increased inefficiency. Progress will be effectually throttled. The very riffraff of society will float into their borders, to become a terrible and terrifying menace, and to make it all the more difficult to overcome the demon of drink in any future battles that may arise.
THE states that have not yet established prohibition need to do so as quickly as possible, for self-protection, if for no higher motive. For as each section of the country goes "dry," the undesirable, vicious, crime-laden element, by the very law of its being, gravitates to the states where liquors are still freely dispensed.
The prostitutes, the thieves, and every kind and character of crooks will migrate in great marauding droves to the states where they can find their congenial and beloved "wide open" cities and towns.
Fathers and mothers who have young boys and girls upon whom their hearts and hopes are centered, will find it more and more difficult to keep them from the ruinous, crushing, degrading influences of the vices that accompany the licensed saloon and the general traffic in alcoholic liquors.
Will the states that are now in the fight for prohibition allow themselves to become the dumping ground for their more progressive sister states, which have engraved the doom of the liquor business on their legislative walls? This is a serious question for the voters in the six states that have this question before them this fall. Every sacred thing in home, in church, and in society is at stake. Duty can point in but one direction.
The Saloon Must Go!
cause of wrecked manhood and unhappy womanhood, of little children who stretch out their arms to us to be saved from physical, mental, and spiritual penury and death,—there can be but one answer to the query, and that is a strenuous and unequivocal "No!" American manhood must answer—"Alcohol must go."
LET us say to the liquor demon: We are going to protect the American home, the mother and the child; are going to rescue the lost manhood of our fallen brothers; to remove the strong arm of protection which you have enjoyed since we legalized your infamous traffic; we are determined to drive you out not only from a few cities and counties and states, but out of the grandest republic beneath the shining sun. Our ballots will end your iniquitous life.
Right: The same building later converted into a grocery store. How much better to sell bread than rum, which, when it enters the home, so often "strikes the crust from the lips of the starving child"!
