We do not desire to deceive or to mislead, nor to be misunderstood, and in all candor we declare our views to be as follows:
We believe that wines and spirits are blessings per se, intended by an All-wise Providence to bring health and happiness to mankind.
We believe that the legitimate manufacture and sale of wines and spirits is an honorable trade, and one that should be respected by society and by the laws.
We believe that the saloon and café can, and should be, so conducted that men would not hesitate to visit them accompanied by their wives and children, and that the atmosphere of such places should be beneficial to both mind and body.
Intoxication Should Be Crime.
We believe that it should be made a crime for a man to become intoxicated. We hold that no man has a right to deliberately overthrow his reason and render himself a dangerous factor in society, and, therefore, we would gladly welcome the passage of laws providing severe penalties for such offenses and a firm, rigid enforcement without regard to wealth or influence of the offender.
For the evils to which we have referred prohibitory laws have proved no remedy, and, even if they should be enforced, we believe they are dangerous to liberty, but the suggestions that we have offered are practicable, and have proven to be remedies in most of the countries of Continental Europe, where drunkenness is seldom in evidence, and furthermore, we can apply such laws without giving offense save to those who by common consent are deserving of condemnation as having done that which mankind recognizes to be wrong, and having thereby placed themselves without the pale.
That the liquor dealers should take this position is not so surprising as at first thought it seems. Economically, the best condition for the liquor business is temperance.
MACAULAY'S PROPHECY OF DEMOCRACY'S DOOM.
Fifty Years Ago the Great English Historian
Saw Dangers Ahead for the
American Ship of State.