The Legalized Outlaw

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE SALOON AS A CAUSE The intelligent discussion of any question requires that the particular proposition to be dealt with shall be clearly defined; otherwise the writer may be drawn into a consideration of irrelevant matters. The temperance question is a very comprehensive subject, but it is the purpose of the writer to deal with only one phase of the subject?the saloon. There is a vast difference between the drink saloon of a community and the drink habit of an individual. The saloon is a public institution, while the drink habit is an element of individual character, but, yet, the two are necessarily inseparable. The immoral, the debasing, the degrading and pauperizing results of the drink habit are universally known and recognized, and an enlightened public conscience must treat these deplorable results as the natural effects of a precedent, producing cause. The drink saloon creates, develops and produces the drink habit, and is, therefore, the responsible cause of all the evils flowing from the latter. The drink saloon is a cause, and the evil results of the drink habit are its natural offspring. It is the purpose of the writer to concentrate the attention of the reader upon the cause?the mother. No proposition of reason is clearer and truer than the statement, by their fruits ye shall knoiv them, hence the character and legal standing ofthe saloon must be determined from an investigation of its natural results. The character of the effect must determine the character of the cause. If the natural effects invite legal sanction and approbation, then the cause is entitled to legal approval, but, if the inherent effects deserve the condemnation of the law, then the law, inevitably, must condemn the cause. The Saloon A Poison Store. The stock, ha...