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Evils of the Drug and Liquor Traffic
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breweries, distilleries, and wineries are operating all over the land,
and the liquor seller carries on his work beside our very doors.
Often he is forbidden to sell intoxicants to one who is drunk or
who is known to be a confirmed drunkard, but the work of leading
youth to become drunkards goes steadily forward. The very life of
the traffic depends upon creating the liquor appetite in youth. The
youth are led on, step by step, until the liquor habit is established and
the thirst is created that at any cost demands satisfaction. It would
be less harmful to grant liquor to the confirmed drunkard, whose
ruin, in most cases, is already determined, than to permit our youth
to be lured to destruction through this terrible habit.
By licensing the liquor traffic, temptation is kept constantly
before those who are trying to reform. Institutions have been estab-
lished where the victims of intemperance may be helped to overcome
their appetite. This is a noble work, but as long as the sale of liquor
is sanctioned by law, the intemperate receive little benefit from these
institutions. They cannot remain there always. They must again take
their place in society. The appetite for intoxicating drink, though
subdued, is not wholly destroyed, and when temptation assails them,
as it does on every hand, they too often fall an easy prey.
A person who has a vicious beast and who, knowing its disposi-
tion, allows it unrestricted freedom is by the laws of the land held
accountable for the evil the beast may do. In the laws given to Israel
the Lord directed that when a beast known to be vicious caused the
death of a human being, the life of the owner should pay the price
of his carelessness or intention to harm others. On the same prin-
ciple the government that licenses the liquor seller should be held
responsible for the results of his traffic. And if it is a crime worthy
of death to let a vicious beast kill someone, how much greater is the
crime of sanctioning the work of the liquor seller!
The argument for granting licenses is that they bring revenue
into the public treasury. But what is this revenue when compared
with the enormous expense incurred for the criminals, the insane,
the extremely poor, that are the fruit of the liquor traffic!
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A person under the influence of liquor commits a serious crime
and is brought into court. Those who legalized the traffic are forced
to deal with the result of their own work. They authorized the sale of
an intoxicating drink, and now it is necessary for them to sentence