Temperance by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 15, 1881

Temperance.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

“BETTER CLASS” SALOONS.

THE following paragraph we notice has been recommended to the serious consideration of the temperance people of California:—

“At a recent temperance meeting in Chicago it was stated that there existed in the city 3,400 saloons. The speaker thought that by raising the licenses the number could be greatly reduced. The better class of saloon men favored this move, as it would tend to drive out of the business many who keep low and disreputable places to their detriment. Accordingly a resolution was passed recommending the city authorities to pass an ordinance embodying the views of the meeting.”

The question is by no means a new one. Saloon men have always favored it. It is simply a question of whether whisky shall be sold at 3,400 places, or at 2,000. The “better class” of saloon men favor it, because they would get the profits which the smaller saloons now get. The amount of whisky sold would not be diminished. It is time that people understood about this “better class” of saloons. In what respect are they better? Does the phrase “better class” signify that they are more moral, that they incline towards sobriety, encourage temperance, and sell whisky only under protest? Is the whisky that is sold any less poisonous than that sold in saloons kept by men who cannot afford to pay so high a license? Is there anything about them that tends to elevate and ennoble? No one supposes for a moment that there is anything of the kind. Then in what respect are they “better class?” Simply in point of display. They have fine rooms elegantly furnished. Everything is tastefully arranged and made attractive.

And it is this very thing which makes them doubly dangerous. Persons are attracted to these places, who would not go to one of the so-called lower class saloons. Many a youth takes his first lesson here, but would have been repulsed from a less stylish place. They frequent them until they have gotten hopelessly in the toils—until they begin to get seedy, and their money becomes scarce; and then they are passed on to the saloon that is content with smaller profits.

The very fact that any saloon keepers favor a limited license, is enough to condemn it. A general does not usually consult the enemy as to how to conduct his campaign. Napoleon said that the essence of good generalship was to find out what the enemy least desires you to do, and then do just that. Or in other words, find out what the enemy desires you to do, and then do just the opposite. Now it is known that every man who is in the liquor business is the enemy of temperance—that he is bound to sell all the whisky he can. If he advises temperance people it is only for his own selfish interest. We do not believe that anyone who has the cause of temperance really at heart, will ever assent to any such scheme. There can be no compromise. It has been well said that every compromise with evil is a victory for the devil. Absolute prohibition in this case is the only remedy. It is a desperate case, and temporizing would be fatal. E. J. W.