Temperance | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 16, 1882

Temperance.

License Law a Failure.

To license saloons is to license murder.

It has been estimated that in the United States alone 60,000 die prematurely from drink every year. When we license the manufacture and sale of these drinks, we authorize the premature death of 60,000 of our people annually, and make the saloon-keepers our agents to accomplish the work. But these men object to being called murderers. What is murder?

Webster: "The act of killing a human being, with malice, prepense, or forethought. Verb: To kill with premeditated malice; 2. To destroy; to put an end to."

But they say, "We are not angry with the men to whom we sell our goods, and hence there is no malice on our part. This is their mistake in words. Anger is not necessary to malice in its legal sense. We quote the authority again:—

Webster: "Malice (Law), any wicked or mischievous intention of the mind; a depraved inclination to mischief; intention to do an act which is wrongful, without just cause or excuse; a wanton disregard of the rights of others; willfulness."

These men engage in the work with full knowledge of the aggregate results. At least, most of them do. Those who license them to do this work, also know the results. They wantonly do this for money, in "disregard" of the rights of others. Hence it is murder, neither more nor less. If this work only murdered or assasinated men physically, it might be borne with. I know it is terrible to think that there is a foe in our land that is killing 1,155 of our people every week, and still worse, that such a foe is licensed and protected in this deliberate slaughter by our law-makers, but the worst of all is the murder of character, manhood and morals. Every one, too, who gives any attention to this question, knows this. And yet, in the face of this evil and the knowledge of it, men who claim to be philanthropists, nay, even Christians, will sanction it with their votes and clothe it with the authority of law!

We do in this as we would not do in any other evil.

If a man should come to us who is skilled in the black art, and advertise that he is competent to dement all our young men, and upon trial he should actually for a small fee, destroy the minds of fifty of our young men, would we think of licensing him to prosecute his calling in our community? Such a thought would be preposterous! He would not have wasted their fortunes, nor destroyed their physical manhood or shortened their lives, to think and reason. His work is not nearly so bad as that which is being done by the saloons, and yet no one would think of licensing it.

We prohibit the smaller crimes, and license the greater.

The power that makes is greater than that which is made. Now when we note the causes of fraud, theft, rape, fighting, brawling, killing, etc., we find that about ninety per cent. is properly put to the account of the sale and use of rum. We license one man to make another man drunk, and then fine the man for getting drunk! We license the saloon man to craze the brain of one of his customers who kills another man as the result, and then we hang the man who killed the other, while he who really did the deed, or did that which caused the deed to be done is petted as a gentleman of good moral character and standing! Why can we not learn to be consistent and license men to get drunk and then do the work of drunken men, or else stop the iniquitous business altogether. What can we expect but failure as long as we continue to act thus sinfully?

We license both the use and the abuse of drinking.

It is common for men to try to shield themselves from the consequences of the liquor traffic, by claiming that they have only authorized the use and are not responsible for the abuse of these liquors. This will not do. Any beverage use whatever, is an abuse of intoxicants. This has been determined upon by the highest medical authority both in Europe and America. Here all science is agreed. Hence, when they license the sale as a beverage, they have licensed the abuse. But we have no need of making fine points on this subject. The truth is, when we license a saloon we license that which is everywhere done under that name. We license them to do what we know they will do by virtue of the authority we give them. But suppose that those who get drunk were the only responsible persons in the matter, what then? We know that they get drunk on drink, and that they get that drink in the institutions which we have sanctioned. Such has ever been the case, and such will be the case as long as we continue the same regime.

If a baker make bread in our city which men could not eat temperately; of which if a man should once taste he would become a glutton and would then continue till he would thus kill himself, we venture to say that this too successful baker would be excused from our city. No matter how much he might plead that his bread was good and if a man would only eat of it moderately, it would do him good, and would not do him any harm, if we find that the bread can't be used in that healthful manner, we will dispense with the further service of our over-successful bread-maker. And if these men were right in claiming that their beverages might be used in unhurtful moderation, still, the fact that they are not so used, is positive proof that they cannot be so employed, and therefore should be banished from the land.—N. W. News.