Expert Testimony

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 1, 1908

WHEN a witness testifies against himself, his testimony can usually be relied upon. The Wholesalers’ and Retailers’ Review, a liquor journal, gives the following testimony in reference to the modern saloon:—

A man who knows the saloon well can honestly say that the most of them have forfeited their right to life. The model saloon exists chiefly in mythical stories, rehearsed at saloon men’s camp-fires. Unfortunately, the average tippling-house is a place of shame and debauchery. With comparatively few exceptions our saloons are houses of drunken men and profanity and obscenity of the vilest type.

The journal quoted hopes that in some way the liquor interests will, for the sake of preserving the business, put an end to all the vicious saloons, and inaugurate “model saloons,” “respectable saloons,” to take their places; but the indictment which The Wholesalers’ and Retailers’ Review brings against the modern saloon, should stand as well against the business which produces such places of evil. There is, in the article there trafficked in, that which cultivates the vilest passions of the carnal heart, and brings to a common meeting-place the most unpromising specimens of the human race. It is impossible to conduct a liquor business that will not have that result; for in such soil alone it thrives. It is absolutely true that “the average tippling house is a place of shame and debauchery;” but the only possible way of abolishing such places is to abolish the business that makes them possible. Shame and debauchery are not respectable. The liquor business produces and feeds shame and debauchery, and therefore can not be made respectable.