First in the list of crime-producing, soul-destroying evils of
metropolitan life, rises the saloon, the deadly upas of the nineteenth
century civilization, the black plague of moral life. In Chicago there
are about 5,600 saloons. During the year ending March 1, 1891,
observes the author of "Chicago's Dark Places," the expenditure for
beer in Chicago alone was not less than forty million dollars
($40,000,000). He continues:--
"The population is about 1,200,000. This gives an average
expenditure _for beer alone_ of $33.25 for every man, woman, and
child in Chicago, and these results are gained after the most
conservative figuring. This would give over fifty-three gallons
of beer to be consumed by each man, woman, and child in the city.
"We are told that Germany is a great _beer_-drinking country, and
yet the official statistics for 1888 show that in Germany only
twenty-five gallons per capita were drunk. Our estimate for
Chicago shows more than double that per capita.
"Let us look now and see what this immense sum of $40,000,000
annually spent in beer might do for this city if wisely expended.
It would supply to 40,000 Chicago families an income of $1,000 a
year, or over $83 a month.
"Where would our Chicago poverty be, if $40,000 families were
each spending in legitimate trade $83 a month? Workmen would be
in demand, and business would so increase as to make Chicago in
ten years the leading city on this continent; or, take this money
and spend it directly in building beautiful new homes for the
workingmen of this city, and what should we see?
"Fourteen thousand commodious cottages built at a cost of $2,500
each, on lots which, bought in acreage in a suburban district,
could be deeded to the workingmen at $180 each, and these,
together with a check for another $180, given to each family to
help in furnishing the houses they owned. What an aggregation of
domestic happiness in home life, and all for the money spent in
beer for one year alone.
"Now, if Chicago's expenditure for _beer only_ amounts to
$40,000,000 we may safely say that for all kinds of intoxicating
beverages, including wines and distilled liquors, Chicago spent
last year upwards of eighty millions of dollars. Is there any
limit to the great good that could come to the city with this
amount expended in proper channels?"
Another well-taken point is the _lawlessness of the saloon power_. It
is essentially a law-defying, crime-breeding, and disorder-producing
element, a terrible arraignment, yet no one can question the truth of
the last two charges, while its lawless character is seen in the facts
set forth in this volume wherein it is shown, (1) that the Brewer's
Association pays the costs of all the suits and defends all of its
members, _whether they have violated the laws or not_. (2) The saloons
are required to close on Sunday, yet a large number totally ignore the
law, running every Sunday. (3) They are required not to sell to minors
without a written order from parents or guardian, and yet there are
thousands of saloons which pay no attention to this requirement. (4)
They are forbidden to harbor women of bad repute, and yet we are
informed that one saloon in Chicago keeps from twenty-five to forty
harlots, while in hosts of other saloons special arrangements are made
for the gratifying of all forms of nameless immorality which springs
from lust fed and inflamed by rum.
The influence of the saloon on the young is one of the most serious
phases of the many-sided evils of the liquor traffic. All persons who
know anything about the effect of strong drink freely indulged in,
know that like opium, it weakens when it does not destroy the moral
nature; it wipes out the line of moral rectitude from mental
discernment; it feeds the fires of animal passion as coal feeds a
furnace; it drys up the soul and shrivels the higher impulses and
nobler aspirations of its victims. Yet we are told that in a saloon
under one of the newspaper offices in Chicago one night, _fourteen
boys and girls from fourteen to seventeen years of age_ were seen to
enter; and to show that this is an evil by no means confined to
Chicago, facts gathered from other reliable sources are cited from
which we find that nine hundred and eighty-three young men and boys
were seen to enter nineteen saloons in Albany, Indiana, one evening
_within one hour and a half_. On a certain evening in Milwaukee _four
hundred sixty-eight persons were seen to enter a single saloon, most
of whom were young men and boys_.
The question is often asked how it is that society tolerates such a
confessed violator of law and order as the saloon has demonstrated
itself to be. If an individual defied the law as a large number of the
saloon keepers do, he would be quickly punished. Nay, more, if a poor,
starving man steals a loaf of bread to appease his gnawing hunger, or
to save the life of his starving family, he is sent to prison, _that
the majesty of the law may be vindicated_. But when a saloon-keeper
breaks the law in keeping open on Sunday in selling liquor to minors,
or in making his saloon a rendezvous for women of bad repute, nothing
is said because (1) of the moral apathy throughout the web and woof of
Christian society; (2) professing Christians are more loyal to
party-hacks and demagogues than they are to their own homes and their
country, (3) the saloon is a unit in its voting strength, loyal to its
tools and relentless to its foes, and the voting power of the saloon
element in any great city when united with the voting strength of the
Christian element in either of the great parties, turns the scales for
the minions of the rum power. Let me illustrate. In Chicago there is
about 5,600 saloons. These saloons will average not less than two
voters to the saloon, the proprietor and the bar-keeper; as a matter
of fact, I expect four votes would come nearer the correct figures, as
numbers of saloons have several bar-tenders. But placing the number at
two, we have a voting strength of 11,200. Now each one in this army
can surely influence _four persons_, many can influence from six to
ten votes, but placing the figures at four, we have the enormous total
of 44,800 voters to be added to the 11,200 engaged in the traffic,
giving a startling aggregate of 56,000 voters, which the saloon power
can count on with reasonable certainty, when any measure affecting its
interests is to be acted upon, or when persons are to be elected who
can enforce or ignore laws enacted to restrict the liquor evil. This
argument presented to the political parties is usually irresistible;
they simply permit the saloon element to dictate its policy and its
candidates. And against this army of home destroyers, this solid
battalion of evil, this power which prostitutes political integrity,
destroys virtue, breeds crime, fills prisons with victims and homes
with misery, and requires the expenditure on the part of the
government of millions of dollars in punishing the criminals and the
paupers it annually makes,--I say against this army engaged under the
banner of the rum traffic, what counteracting opposition is springing
from the home loving, the upright and pure-minded citizens of our
great cities? What concerted action is the church with her tens of
thousands of communicants putting forth? It would be an easy matter to
thwart the allied power of rum, if a few persons in every church and
every society for ethical improvement were ablaze with moral
enthusiasm, and wise enough to adopt lines of action similar to those
successfully carried out by the liquor interest. For example: Suppose
in every church four or six earnest men and women form a league for
the protection of the home; let them secure the pledge of every voter
in the church who has love for his fellow-men and respect for decent
government, that he will vote for no man for any office who patronizes
the saloon, who fraternizes with the liquor element, or who is
supported by the rum shops, and that he will use all honorable means
to further good government, by seeking the advancement to office of
pure and upright citizens. Something like that would be all that would
be necessary for the general membership to sign. Then let each league
appoint an executive committee of three or five to act precisely as do
officers in an army, to confer with the executive committee of other
leagues to _secretly_ arrange _or map out a campaign_, and to give
commands to the army. It would be an easy matter to poll the saloon
vote in such a way as to ascertain exactly where it stood in cases
where there was a question as to the position of candidates, after
which the word could be given that no votes be cast for the choice of
the saloon element. I am speaking now chiefly of municipal elections,
as they most intimately affect the saloon power in our great cities.
If something like this policy was followed, and every church had its
active league, it would not be long before there would be enrolled on
the side of pure government and true morality, an army far eclipsing
in strength and number the rum element, an army that could easily turn
the balance of power into the hands of high-minded citizens, who would
enforce the laws with equal justice, without fear or favor. I merely
throw out this as a hint of what might be accomplished, because it has
become fashionable for good but easy-going people to dismiss these
matters with the remark that nothing practical can be done to meet the
demoralizing and degrading power of the saloon.