In responding to the invitation of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement
Association of Hyrum, I beg to say that press of other matters has
prevented me from preparing myself to speak upon this subject as its
importance demands, but I can submit some statistics which show the
effects of intemperance on the human body and soul more forcibly than
anything I can say.
Intemperance, license and prohibition have recently been somewhat
fully discussed through the columns of the Utah Journal. Those who
advocate strict prohibition as a means of checking intemperance among
our people, seem firmly impressed with the idea that every pos sible
safeguard should be thrown around the youth and those of mature age
who have not, within themselves, the power to resist temptations that
are fast sapping the foundations upon which have rested the
prosperity, morality, and purity of great Christian nations, that are
now wallowing in the filth and degradation of intemperance. Holding
that there are some, even among the Latter-day Saints, too weak to
resist the tempting cup when pressed to their lips by the hands of
false friends, yet who are too good to be left to destroy peace and
happiness, desolate home, and die, perhaps, in the gutter, I am an
uncompromising advocate of prohibition. No man is permitted to
sell poisoned food. Who does so knowingly, to the destruction of life,
answers the law on the charge of murder. Why should any be held less
guilty of crime for dispensing liquid poison?
Put the essence of tobacco into the mouth of a rattlesnake and see if
the venom which makes its fangs the instrument of death, possesses
neutralizing force sufficient to counteract the more deadly poison of
the vegetable drug. And yet I have seen tobacco in pieces larger than
my hand in barrels from which my brethren and friends had drank the
whiskey that extracted from that tobacco its deadly narcotic
properties.
I have beheld with horror the effects of double-distilled,
tobacco-poisoned whiskey. Untainted by it, I have seen man face perils
that spoke of death, and under the sway of reason and calm judgment
offer his coat to save the life of his companion; when the fierce
blast of a winter storm was searching the marrow of his bones,
chilling his vitals and clutching with icy hand the benumbed, almost
frozen spark of life. This was the natural man, whose generosity the
fear of death could not conquer.
Driven wild with whiskey, the heart beating like the quick throb of an
overworked engine, reason dethroned by distilled poison burning like
living coals in the brain, he who offered the coat to save, sped the
ball which pierced the heart of his friend, whose warm blood, rushing
through the murderous rent, curdled in crimson clots on the frozen
snow, and the hearts of two mothers broke.
Who shall declare that to be a legitimate business which, in its
effects, makes man a demon, dyes his hands in blood, and sacrifices
tender and loving hearts upon the altar of intemperance? How can any
man with one spark of the milk of human kindness in his heart, offer
to his fellow man that which he knows may destroy the body and ruin
the soul? How can any father or brother ask our lawmakers to legalize
and thereby become responsible for the crimes of those who seek to
lead the weak and unsuspecting into temptations, which if yielded to,
generally end in misery, pauperism, and ignominious ruin?
Look at the home of the drunkard who would move heaven and hell in
order to secure the means for gratifying his unnatural appetite! Is it
a cheerful, prosperous, beautiful and healthful home? Does he educate
his children and feed and clothe them well, or does he permit them to
go barefooted, half-clad, and otherwise exposed to disease and
suffering? Does he not pay whiskey bills while denying wife and
children the means with which to keep the wolf of want from his door?
Look at the waste of property all around him! If he has a house, look
at the tattered rags hanging from the broken windows, the leaking
roof, creaking doors, fireless hearth and general cheerlessness of the
place he calls home. Gaze through the sorrowful eyes down into the
pain-stricken heart of his wife, and see if you can find a sentiment
there which calls for a single blessing upon the head of the man who
has assisted in the degradation of her husband. Look at his lean
horses and starving cattle, if he has any left, as they perish in the
pitiless storms that chill their marrowless bones, and say that no act
of prohibition should be enforced to assist in checking such an one in
his downward course.
Is it possible for the inebriate to confine the
results of his intemperance to himself? No, it is not pos sible! It extends to others in spite of all he can do, and insofar as it
injures them, his agency should be curtailed. With kindness and long
suffering, with gentleness and good will? Yes! and if necessary, by
removing with every legitimate and lawful means the temptation which
he cannot resist unaided.
Should the acts—the agency of the brother who, a short time ago,
deserted his post at midnight and left exposed, by reason of his
engendered love of liquor, a hundred thousand dollars' worth of
property intrusted to his care, be in any way restrained?
Do intemperate men usually stand at the head of banking, railroad,
manufacturing and commercial affairs? Do they stand at the head and
control matters in which the Lord and good men have delight?
Contrast the intelligent look, the energy, the mental and physical
endurance of the temperate man with those of the intemperate. Contrast
the difference between their surroundings, homes and families, and
then say which you prefer, and which you will imitate.
I will now submit for your consideration an account of some of the
evils of intemperance in England, and its cost. In the year 1879, the
inhabitants of the United Kingdom expended for intoxicating drinks,
$640,716,320. The names of 3,000,000 persons were registered on the
books of the "Poor Law Unions" during that year, and 94,000 lunatics
were in the asylums. In 1877, 320,000 were apprehended for
drunkenness; 75,000,000 bushels of grain—an amount equal to what Utah,
at our present rate would produce in forty years—is used yearly in the
manufacture of intoxicants, which cause there annually 120,000
premature deaths. "It is the opinion of the best informed individuals
that the cost of the mischief resulting from drinking, viz.,
Pauperism, Crime, Disease, Waste of Grain, Accidents, Loss of Labor,
&c., amounts to fully as much as the cost of the drink itself, and,
therefore, if the direct and indirect cost of the drink be added
together, it will give about thirteen hundred millions of dollars as
the amount the nation loses yearly through intoxicating liquors."
In return for this stupendous outlay the nation reaps a harvest of
crime, misery, destitution, vice, disease, ruin and death. If the
money was paid to rid the nation of such evils, it would be proof of
common sense, "but to buy them at such a price, is supreme folly," and
would seem utterly impossible to an intelligent people. "During the
seven years ending in 1879 the inhabitants of the British Isles spent
for drink, $4,820,189,180, and paid for Poor and Police Rates
$505,723,590. During the same time, 3,334,110 persons—nearly ten per
cent of the entire population—were convicted of crime, and 1,271,838
were apprehended for drunkenness.
From the above tables (taken from Parliamentary returns) it will be
seen what an enormous amount of money is spent on intoxicating
liquors. Side by side we see the crime and drunkenness with the
consequent taxation, &c. How we suffer in other ways from the liquor
traffic can never be realized.
The money paid for drink during those seven years would cancel
England's national debt, and leave $1,000,000,000 to spare. It would
pay for 26,082 miles of railway which is 10,000 miles more than was
then being operated in the United Kingdom. Had the money been
invested in building houses it would have erected a new one
for every family there, and built schools to accommodate all the
children in that country.
Had the money spent by the English people during the past 50 years for
liquors, been invested in securities realizing five percent per
annum, principal and interest would now exceed by $5,000,000,000 the
entire capitalized value of all the wealth of the United Kingdom,
including its money, lands, railways, collieries, ironworks, quarries,
mines, houses, mills, and every other description of property.
Now all these things have grown and developed under the fostering care
of legalized crime. In other words, intemperance in England, and
intemperance in the United States, if not the offspring of legalized
crime is at least the bloated pauper of a system of license that
encourages drunkenness. And for this reason, having shown you some of
the fearful effects of intemperance, I unhesitatingly condemn the
system of license under which it has grown to such proportions. In
contrast I cite you to statistics, compiled by the best authority,
showing that drunkenness has decreased from 40 to 90 percent in the
State of Maine, where prohibition has been enforced. [The lecturer
here read from the writings of Hepworth Dixon, a beautiful description
of the happy condition of the people of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, who
had adopted "prohibition," and concluded by adopting as his sentiments
the following sound principles of Dr. Albert Barnes, enunciated in his
sermon, "The Thorne of Iniquity." ]
"I lay it down as a sound principle in regard to legislation that
society should not by its laws protect evil. This, perhaps, is
sufficiently clear from the remarks already made; but the importance
of the principle in itself, and the application which I intend to make
of it, require that it should be made a little more distinct and
prominent. The position is that the purpose of society in organizing a
government, and the purpose of a government under such organization,
should not be to protect evil in any form. The law is made for the
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy
and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
man-slayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with
mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons (1 Tim.
1:9), and not to protect those who practice these vices, or protect
anything which will give facility in practicing them. The true object
of legislation is to prevent, not to protect evil. God never
instituted a government on earth with a view to its throwing a
protecting shield over vice and immorality. He has never commissioned
men to sit in high places to accomplish any such work. The end of
government, so far as it bears on that point at all, is to suppress
crime, to punish wrongdoers, to remove iniquity, to promote that which
is just and true. And it matters not what the evil is, nor how
lucrative it may be, nor how much capital may be invested in it, nor
how much revenue may be derived from it, nor how many persons may have
an interest in its continuance—the business of the lawgiver is to
suppress it—not to protect it; to bring it to as speedy an end as
possible, not to become the panderer to it, or the patron of it. What
would be thought of a government that should, under any pretext
whatever, take under its protecting care thieves, counterfeiters, and
burglars? A third principle in regard to legisla tion is
equally clear, and equally important: It is that society should not
undertake to regulate evil by law. Its business is to remove it—not to
regulate it."
Having an abiding faith in prohibition, backed by local option, I
would have the Y. M. M. I. A. of Hyrum, use their influence to have
illicit liquor dealers here, discontinue their degrading, unlawful
traffic. This failing, rise up and help the city authorities to
enforce the law.
If there are any in favor of license to sell liquor in Hyrum, please
manifest it. [Not a hand was raised.] Who are in favor of temperance
and prohibition? [Every hand was raised.] May God bless and preserve
you from the blight of intemperance and the sin of drunkenness.