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Liquor Traffic and Prohibition
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the curse of intemperance forever rest like a blight upon the civilized
world? Must it continue to sweep, every year, like a devouring fire
over thousands of happy homes? When a ship is wrecked in sight of
shore, people do not idly look on. They risk their lives in the effort
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to rescue men and women from a watery grave. How much greater
the demand for effort in rescuing them from the drunkard’s fate!
It is not the drunkard and his family alone who are imperiled by
the work of the liquor seller, nor is the burden of taxation the chief
evil which his traffic brings on the community. We are all woven
together in the web of humanity. The evil that befalls any part of the
great human brotherhood brings peril to all.
Many a man who through love of gain or ease would have noth-
ing to do with restricting the liquor traffic has found, too late, that
the traffic had to do with him. He has seen his own children besotted
and ruined. Lawlessness runs riot. Property is in danger. Life is
unsafe. Accidents by sea and by land multiply. Diseases that breed
in the haunts of filth and wretchedness make their way to lordly
and luxurious homes. Vices fostered by the children of debauch-
ery and crime infect the sons and daughters of refined and cultured
households.
There is no man whose interests the liquor traffic does not im-
peril. There is no man who for his own safeguard should not set
himself to destroy it.
Above all other places having to do with secular interests only,
legislative halls and courts of justice should be free from the curse
of intemperance. Governors, senators, representatives, judges, men
who enact and administer a nation’s laws, men who hold in their
hands the lives, the fair fame, the possessions of their fellows, should
be men of strict temperance. Only thus can their minds be clear to
discriminate between right and wrong. Only thus can they possess
firmness of principle, and wisdom to administer justice and to show
mercy. But how does the record stand? How many of these men have
their minds beclouded, their sense of right and wrong confused, by
strong drink! How many are the oppressive laws enacted, how many
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the innocent persons condemned to death, through the injustice of
drinking lawmakers, witnesses, jurors, lawyers, and even judges!
Many there are, “mighty to drink wine,” and “men of strength to
mingle strong drink,” “that call evil good, and good evil;” that “jus-