Close Them Forever by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 26, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 38.

Close Them Forever

By Editor

WHEN rioting broke out in El Paso, Texas, on September 4, an order went forth that "all saloons in the city" should be "closed until further notice."

If the saloons are such a blessing to humanity, and if they are so necessary to prosperity, as some people try to have us believe, why is it that in a time when a community is confronted with violence, the authorities think that the only safe course to pursue is to close the saloons? Any one knows that it is because if men have free access to drink, they will imbibe freely when under such excitement, and the liquor will dethrone reason, so that mobs will break forth in unbridled fury.

Events of this character are sufficient to open the eyes to the importance, in these turbulent times, of wiping out the saloons altogether.

We have had something like 1,500 strikes already in various parts of the United States during this year 1916. These strikes are generally attended with more or less violence; and whenever a strike is declared, whether violence actually develops or not, there is always the great danger that it will break out. Under such circumstances, the open saloon is as great a menace to the nation as are tanks of gasoline sitting about buildings that are on fire.

The only sensible thing to do with the saloon is to close it once and for all. The saloon is the enemy of the citizen, the home, and the nation. Let every lover of his fellow men join in banishing it from our fair land.