1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



467 



Our Homes 



By A. I. Root 



Glory to ( !od in the highest, and on earth peace, 

 good will towai'd men.— Luke 2 :14. 



The.v shall beat their swords into ploughshares, 

 and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall 

 not lilt sword against nation, neither shall they 

 learn war any more.— Isa. 2:4. 



Some years ago Drummond gave us a 

 bright little book entitled "The Greatest 

 Thing in the World." And what do you 

 think it was? Love, love for all humanity; 

 just the kind John had in mind when he 

 said "God is love." I do not know but 

 Drummond might put it "the best thing in 

 the world." Well, just now I have in mind 

 discussing briefly the worst thing in the 

 world. What is it that needs attention 

 more than any thing else or more than any 

 other one thing, that humanity may be 

 protected, and that everybody may have a 

 square deal — that is, so far as such things 

 are possible? Well, it has been said over 

 and over again that the worst thing that af- 

 flicts the world and humanity just now is 

 the liquor-traffic; and, may the Lord be 

 praised, the whole wide world is waking up; 

 and not only that, it is doing things. Per- 

 haps I had better say ive are doing things, 

 for the United States has the credit of mak- 

 ing the start. Only yesterday I clipped the 

 following from the Chicago Advance: 



PIIOHIBITION IN SAVEDEN. 



Judging by a vote recently taken, Sweden is very 

 much opposed to the liquor traffic and in favor of 

 prohibition. The ciuestion \oied on was the entire 

 prohibition of the liquor-traffic in Sweden, and the 

 vote stood: For prohibition, 398,904; against prohibi- 

 tion, 8777; neutral, or declining to vote. 52,(512. Clear 

 majority for prohibition, :i07,525. Even in Stock- 

 holm, the capital city, the majority for prohibition 

 was 59,511 in a total vote of 131,381. 



It seems everyljody was astonished (even 

 the people who voted) to find in e\'ery part 

 of that nation, city as well as country, that 

 things had changed so wonderfully that the 

 sentiment of the people at large was over- 

 whelmingly in favor of banishing intoxicat- 

 ing liquors.* It made me think again of 

 that glorious old hymn, 



Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning. 



Well, the liquor-traffic may be the worst 

 thing in the world: but there is another 

 thing — another awful wrong that is almost 

 world-wide. Let me give you a clipping 

 from the Woynan's National Daily: 



* Our stenographer, Mr. W. P. Root, suggests as 

 follows: 



This is the more striking, as Sweden has for 

 many years made use of what is called the Gothen- 

 berg system, whereby the liquor-trafflc was entire- 

 ly in the hands of the government; and the defend- 

 ers of governmental regulation have made a great 

 deal out of this system as being something that 

 would eliminate the profit going to the individual 

 saloon-keeper and throw all the proceeds into the 

 lap of the big saloon-keeper, the government itself. 

 Now th.at this one crutch is knocked from under 

 the arm of the tottering beer god it makes one won- 

 der what is coming (or going) next. 



We are building great battleships, two of them a 

 year, costing ?l(i.(K)(i.(J(i(i each, and are paying 81,000,000 

 a year to maintain each one, and I wish that the 

 money expended in l^uilding just one battleship 

 could be devoted to intelligent agriculture. 



Well, now, if the above is not exactly true 

 it is pretty nearly so. Ten million dollars 

 for a great war-ship that will probably never 

 be made use of! All that money, all the 

 brains employed, are to go into the scrap- 

 heap; and after it is done it is going to cost 

 another million of dollars for caring for the 

 great institution for just one year. Who 

 pays for these great war-ships? who furnishes 

 the money? .Just recently there has been a 

 great deal said about its costing so much to 

 live. Our boys are made dishonest, and our 

 girls are tempted to something a thousand 

 times worse, just because they can not earn 

 enough to procure daily food. I do not quite 

 agree with this, and yet there is something 

 in it. Once more, a lot of poor peoi)le have 

 saved up a little against a rainy day. They 

 have been wanting to deposit it somewhere; 

 but so many have lost their hard earnings 

 — yes, washwomen and hired girls have been 

 swindled out of their careful savings so many 

 times by so-called millionaires — that these 

 poor hard-working people are at a loss to 

 know where to put their money. .Just now 

 I can say, God be praised, for we have, final- 

 ly, postal savings banks. Of course the in- 

 terest is not much — perhaj^s 2 or 1]4 per 

 cent; but the money is absolutelv safe. In 

 discussing the matter here in our town of 

 Medina a few days ago I was told that, while 

 our savings banks do pay 4 per cent, if you 

 live inside of the corporation the town taxes 

 will amount to about ;i per cent; so the wash- 

 woman or hired g rl has been getting only 

 about one per cent for the use of her money 

 — that is, for i)Uttiiig her money in the bank 

 against a rainy day. I asked the question 

 • why it was necessary to tax these poor peo- 

 ple so much. . The rei)ly was that it was for 

 tlie various improvements in town, educat- 

 ing our children, and other good and praise- 

 worthy purposes. The taxes which we pay 

 cheerfully and honestly — at least the most 

 of us do — are for the general good of the sons 

 and daughters of America. My informant 

 said, further, however, that the great burden 

 of taxation falls on ])eople who have money 

 deposited somewhere. Men who have mil- 

 lions invested in various enterprises do not 

 pay any thing like the taxes paid by those 

 who have a little real money. The trouble 

 is. Uncle Samuel has not been able, as yet, 

 to get any spectacles that will enable him to 

 see luho owns every thing so he can look in- 

 to the matter, and also see how our million- 

 aires, big trust companies, and great railway 

 combinations list their property in order to 

 pay taxes like the wash-woman and hired 

 girl, l^et me digress a little. 



I have lately expressed my joy to hear of 

 the good and v\ ise measures that are being 

 taken now to save human life. Our school- 

 children and the babies (God bless them) 

 during the i)ast heated term in our great 

 cities have received ice free of charge wher- 

 ever it would help to save their lives. God 



