| Show THE TEMPEBaaCS MOVEMENT ni is reported that inone of the ward meetings on Sunday night in speaking of the antirum movement in the city one oi the preachers suggested I sug-gested something to the eflecl that ii j the signers of the monster petition recently presented to the City Council Coun-cil were to abstain from drinking there would be leaa occasion for legislation legis-lation to closer restrict the sale of intoxicating l L in-toxicating drinks Whether the gentleman gen-tleman said anything of this kind or not there is food for reflection in the hint Wo believe the signers numbered num-bered over 7000 It is to be presumed pre-sumed that these arc all adult3 or of an age to understand the evils of intemperance in-temperance If they are not then r their names have no business on the petition and the list could as well have been increased indefinitely by copying the directories from other cities We must assume that thu t signers were old enough to know t what th y were asking the Council to f do The proportion of adults to children in ordinary communities I about as one to two Jf this ratio o holds good in Salt Lake then the adult population of the city very generally signed the petition ailing the Council to put closer reetric tionaupon pUoe sale of liquor But admit tUat the proportion of adults here la somewhat greater than elsewhere it will certainly not increase the adult population more than 1000 above what it ordinarily would 10 fIt wessy the petitioners fl do not drink then there are but 1000 I 1k adults to sustain the thirtythree or J thirtyfive drinking saloons in this f city To assume such to be a fact would be nonsense One Jhouaant persons do not pay into the city treasury as liquor license 35000 a year and to the liquor sellers for expenses ex-penses of keeping up their establish menls paying for goods etc thrc or four times the above sum It is i evident that a good many of the petitioners are patrons of the saloons They are asking the Council to do something which they should do themselves and for themselves i and their families The whieky t sellers do not rush upon the t J street and dragging people into j j their shops force whisky down their throats They do not except in case of a personal friend even let people r have drink without receiving money I for it And another thing which the 5 petitioners should reflect upon is the 1 1 commercial fact that a man dces not i I sell whisky it the business becomes 1 unprofitable If the desire Teally be 1 to close the saloons and put temptation J temp-tation out of the path of the young i let the people cease buying and 1 drinking liquor If this be done we undertake to say that before tho end of the quarter the blmds will be drawn and tho doors locked of every ealoon in the city Nobody will keep f j up a bar for the sake sitting behind 1 it himself Wa would dislike to say that any signer of the petition was in the habit of drinking but we would not mind laying a small wager that if no one whose name appears in the list will drink anymore I any-more intoxicating liquor twothirds 1 of the Salt Lake saloons will be closed in six months This is a matter in 1 which the people can do much more te than the City Council The latter 11 cannot prevent a man from drinking I intoxicating liquor if that man insists I upon drinking it cannot stop drunkenness drunk-enness if people will persist in getting drunk The most that the Council can do in the premises is to use its charter authority in passing wisely restrictive ordinances and then em W ploy its power to enforce obedience to those ordinances The talk about standing by the Council is all very well but the standing by that is wanted and the only kind that will be effective is the refusal of the people to patronize and support the saloons Parent must not drink and must exercise that influence and authority over their eons which will restrain the latter keeping them out of saloons and causing them to refuse the cup When this shall be done there will belittle be-little cause for complaint concerning tbe number of saloons in the city and it will be an easy matter to confine con-fine the liquor baffle to nar cow channels The drunkards and inveterate drinkers do not maintain tho bars Any saloonkeeper saloon-keeper will tell you tbat hia profits do not come from the excessive drinkers the old soaks the men who get down in the gutter These form the least paying class of customers and the majority of barkeepers would be glad to get rid of them The respectable drinkers the men who drink regularly but do not get drunk are those who support the saloons and make it possible for the keepers to spend money lavishly in the decoration of their premises to pay enormous licensee and grow rich There are comparatively few of the first class as the police court reports and everyday observation ob-servation will prove We question if they are numerous enough to support a single saloon so long as the proprietor is required to meet the present heavy expense for licensee rents etc But of the second class there are many and theee are the ones whose moral and personal influence influ-ence and effort the City Council and the temperance cause need in com batting the rum trade Let them stand b > the principles of temperance and the difficulty will be practically at an end for it will be an easy matter mat-ter to control the business when none but drunkards drink But the support sup-port and encouragement must be in not drinking rather than in petitioning petition-ing the Council |
