A NATION'S RIGHTS by Hampton W. Cottrell

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 18, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 28.

A NATION'S RIGHTS

By Hampton W. Cottrell

Should It, or Should It Not, Abolish the Saloon?

By HAMPTON W. COTTRELL

HAS the state a right to abolish the saloon? The causes for the existence of the saloon are obviously two. From the viewpoint of the proprietor, it stands for easy and ready money; therefore it exists. On the part of its patrons, it stands for the frequent satisfying of an abnormal thirst for the crime-breeding and death-dealing liquid; hence it exists. But neither of these assigned reasons constitutes evidence that the saloon should exist.

The state was ordained of God as a guarantee to all people, even to the most humble citizen, that the natural liberty of all and the rights of each should be preserved, and that corporal punishment be meted out to the invaders of the rights of others.

Whether or not the state has the right to abolish the saloon, turns upon this pivotal point: Does the saloon promote among its patrons better, higher, and purer living, thus making of them more highly respected citizens, or is it a menace to the work of developing higher, purer, and nobler ideals in the minds of men and women who are citizens of the commonwealth?

If the saloon does not engender among its patrons, who constitute a large minority of the citizens of the state and the nation, a better citizenship, by making them better men, with better morals, able and willing to bring back to the government better results in fruit-bearing, but does directly the opposite, then it is a menace to civil government, and should be abolished.

The State's Duty

HISTORY fails to chronicle that any saloon ever built up the morals of a community. It is a menace because of the character of its work; a menace because its victims do not possess the strength of character to resist the temptation to indulge in alcoholic drink, such indulgence having become a second nature to them. The saloon is a menace because of the abominable evil lurking therein, which, oftentimes accompanied by strains of well rendered music, is thrust into the very faces of our brightest boys and girls at the age of adolescence, while as yet they are unprepared to escape the snare for their feet.

In nearly every instance, the business of a successful saloon leaves in its trail broken hearts and financially ruined homes. The inmates are often left to drink the dregs of poverty, in order to fill the saloon keeper's till. In every municipality where the saloon survives, this lamentable condition obtains.

The state has a duty to perform to protect this unfortunate class of its citizens; and there is but one course left for it to take, and that is to abolish the saloon.

Individual rights stand distinctively in two well defined classes. The first of these, natural, inherent liberty or rights, are not created by man, or imparted by him to another. Such rights are not created by a collective body of men in legislative capacity. They are God-given, and each individual has them by nature. The duty of the state toward the inborn rights of the individual is to see that civil government does not trench upon them, and that no citizen abridges them.

Inherent Rights Jeopardized

Example: Every man has the inherent right of liberty of choice to worship God or not to do so, as he may elect. Provided he chooses to worship God, and does not infringe upon the equal rights of his neighbor in his method of worship, the state owes him protection. This man also has the right of choice not to be religious. Should he so choose, he is entitled to the same protection from the state as if choosing to be a worshiper of God, provided only that carrying out his idea of true living does not trespass upon the equal rights of another person.

Again, every man has the inherent right to keep his brain in normal condition, that he may have the proper use of his mind at all times. And his liberty to remain sober ought not to be invaded by traffic in alcoholic liquors.

But those engaged in the nefarious liquor traffic hourly interfere with the right of millions of our brothers and sisters to remain sober. The state has the unquestionable right to eradicate the saloon, in harmony with its divinely ordained duty to protect the rights of its citizens.

God ordained civil government to protect every man in the enjoyment of his natural rights. The state therefore cannot, by divine right, legalize by legislation a traffic which will, in the very nature of the business, enable the trafficker to wreck the rights of each of his patrons.

The saloon personified says, "I furnish the money that makes the growth of city, state, and nation." Reason replies: "No, you do not. The money you furnish as yours is unjustly extorted from millions of unfortunate men and women, whose liberty, reason, and property you have stolen."

The state should abolish the saloon forever.