OCTOBER 15. 1915 



865 



r 



A. I. Root 



OUM HOME 



And these words, which I command thee this day, 

 sliall he in thy heart: and thou slialt teach them 

 diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 

 when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walk- 

 est by the way, and wheji thou liest down, and when 

 t'lou risest up. — Dkut. 6:6, 7. 



As I start to dictate this Home paper, I 

 realize that a gi'eat crisis and responsibility 

 in this month of October is resting- on the 

 people of Ohio; and not only of Ohio, but 

 as the people of Ohio shall act and vote in 

 this coming election (November 2) so will, 

 at least to a great extent, the people of 

 other states act and vote. The great and 

 ovenvhelming victories in South Carolina, 

 over two to one in favor of banishing in- 

 toxicants, is, of course, encouraging, and 

 will help gi'eatly the desired outcome of our 

 work here in Ohio. The liquor people are 

 urging tliat South Carolina is only sparsely 

 settled. It has no great cities like Cleve- 

 land, Columbus, and Cincinnati; and they 

 are urging, also, that the rui-al population 

 has no just right to dictate to the people 

 in the large cities. They are urging, also, 

 tliat all of the nineteen dry states are also 

 sparsely settled, with few large cities. This 

 may, to some extent, be true; but it does 

 not alter the fact that the burdens in the 

 way of taxation rest on the rural people as 

 well as on the cities — perhaps to a greater 

 extent in some ways. They seem to forget, 

 or purposely ignore the facts and ligures 

 ,just coming to light, in the way our peni- 

 tentiaries and asylums are filled by the vic- 

 tims of the liquor habit. They forget, also, 

 the facts and figures in regard to revenue 

 which have been held up so much, showing 

 that the taxes are lighter in the dry states, 

 especially Kansas, and far lighter in prohi- 

 bition towns and cities, than in the wet 

 states and wet cities. An examination of 

 the facts we have given you during the last 

 few months will, I am sure, convince any 

 candid reader of the truth of what I have 

 just stated.* 



* Since the above was dictated I find a most 

 excellent article in the Ladies' Home Journal for 

 September, written by C. K. Stelze. The article is 

 headed: "Suppose all the saloons were closed, whit 

 would happen to the saloonkeeper?" 



After giving the enormous figures the " wets " 

 claim that would be lost, and the number of people 

 thrown out of employment if prohibition should 

 come, we nuote as follows: 



The entire argument is based upon the fallacy 

 that, if the lifjuor-ilealers fail to get the money now 

 sptnt for beer and whisky, nobody else will get it. 

 Tt is assumed that, if a man doesn't spend a dollar 

 for '■ booze," he will throw that dollar into a bottom- 

 less pit, instead of using it to purchase son\e other 

 commodity which will do good instead of harm, 

 whicli will have a permanent value, and which will 

 give the workingmen of the country more work, more 

 wages, and greater prosperity in every way than if 

 the same amount of money were spent for beer and 

 whislrv. 



TIlis morning 1 am thinking particularly 

 of our Sunday-schools when compared with 

 our saloons. Saloon-keepers recognize, and 

 always have recognized, the fact that Sun- 

 day-scliools are one of the worst enemies of 

 their tiaf'fie, and in a like manner the Sun- 

 day-schools recognize that saloons are their 

 worst enemies; for it is recognized every- 

 where that the saloon-keepers would do 

 away with Sunday-schools if they could. 

 Not only that, they would do away with 

 Sunday as a whole, if they could. In fact, 

 they trample Sunday and Sunday laws un- 

 der foot at evei-y opportunity. As an illus- 

 tration, let me give you a little incident. 

 Some years ago the pastor of our church, a 

 bright educated man — -a man, in fact, who 

 stood high before the world in matters of 

 education and Ckristianity — went to a sa- 

 loon-keeper in our town of Medina (of 

 course, that was years ago) and in a court- 

 eous manner urged the saloon-keeper to 

 corapl3' with the law and close up his place 

 of business on Sunday. What kind of re- 

 ply do you suppose this good man, who 

 loved God and his fellow-men, received? 

 It was this : '' I do not ' go a d — n ' on your 

 Sundaj^" etc. The reply showed his bad 

 grammar as well as his lack of courtesy, 

 and lack of care or regard as to what hap- 

 pened just so he got his nickel for drink. 

 Yes, the reply showed, also, a lack of rev- 

 erence or respect for the laws of man as 

 well as for the laws of God ; and that reply 

 shows the lack of re\erence for any laws 

 the whole liquor party has shown from that 

 time to this. 



Now, please do not understand, dear 

 friends, that I mean the Sunday-schools 

 hate or have a spite against the saloon- 

 keeper. AVe are enjoined to love our ene- 

 mies; and the Sunday-schools, even while 

 (hey recogTiize that the saloons are their 

 enemies, have no desire to injure the sa- 

 loon-keeper himself — lonly (hat they are 

 trying to have him give up his damaging 

 business and engage in something that ben- 

 efits his fellow-men. While we hate the 

 saloons, we are trying to help the saloon- 

 keeper; and we are working hard and 

 earnestly to do away with saloons and not 

 injure the saloon-keeper, nor to fight in 

 malice against him. Let me repeat briefly 

 some circumstances of years ago. 



Near the old farm where I was born was 

 a little town, or perhaps I should call it 

 four corners, where was a brewery and two 

 saloons — at least, the two country stores 

 sold beer. Sunday was their great day for 



