1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



973 



OVP^ 



byA.LROOT 



Woe unto them that are mig-hty to drink wine, and 

 men of strength to mintrle strong drink; which justify 

 the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteous- 

 ness of the righteous from him.— Isaiah 5 : 22, 23. 



Editor McClure, of McGlurc's Magazine, 

 has been making a thorough investigation of 

 the situation in San Francisco. Below I have 

 made an extract of his report to a represent- 

 ative of the San Francisco Evening Bzdleiiti: 



What you've done here is to lay bare the exact mech- 

 anism that's revolving every American city, big or 

 little. It's the use of politics to increase and protect 

 vice, and it's the canker of every community in the 

 country — a little more severe here, perhaps, but much 

 the same everywhere. Here we have a mayor who is . 

 merely a creature of ward politics, and councilmen 

 who represent nothing but the saloon. 



May the Lord be praised that we have at 

 least one editor at the head of a great maga- 

 zine who has the courage to speak out and 

 tell us the truth. If San Francisco were the 

 only city in the United States of which this 

 is true, it would be sad; but the conviction 

 is forcing itself upon us that almost every 

 city of any consequence, and many of our 

 towns, even the small ones, are dominated 

 by whisky rule. Of course, desperate efforts 

 have been made to break away from the 

 thralldom of this evil. We have been told 

 through our magazines of the "shameful" 

 work that has been going on in this or that 

 city, and it has been brought to light and 

 held up to the view, of the people at large: 

 and we supposed a new order of things was 

 about to be put in force. But the reform, 

 we are sadly forced to acknowledge, has 

 been only transient. The brewers with their 

 millions have subverted justice, and it is a 

 question just now whether even "prohibition 

 Kansas" is going to succeed in enforcing 

 the law and banishing the brewers and their 

 wares from her domain. May God help us 

 in this terrible and unceasing conflict. We 

 have great men and good men, and we have 

 a God-fearing President — one who seems 

 more fearless, perhaps, than any other we 

 have ever had. But as I dictate these words 

 on this second day of July it seems to me al- 

 most a question as to whether Roosevelt, even 

 with the United States of America back of 

 him, is going to make the richest man in the 

 world stand up and testify, or go to jail 

 Perhaps I am extreme; but it seems to me 

 just now ttat no other object-lesson can be 

 so helpful to our great republic as to see a 

 multi-millionaire go to jail unless he obeys 

 our laws strictly to thef very letter, exactly 

 as any common day laborer should be made 

 to do. 



It is well known, at least here in our own 

 part of Ohio, that our neighboi'ing city of 

 Toledo is now and has been under the dom- 

 ination of the sj^loon f(jr years past. When 



McClure was speaking of the mayor of San 

 Francisco I could not help wondering how 

 many mayors of our large cities were more 

 or less guilty in a way similar to what the 

 mayor of San Francisco is. 



liev. D. T. Robertson, of the East Side 

 Presbyterian Church, Toledo, O., came out 

 with a sermon on Sunday, June 30, that is 

 stirring that city. From a I'eport of this ser- 

 mon in the Cleveland Leader of July 1 I take 

 the following: 



" There have been some things thrown at me on ac- 

 count of giving the stamp of respectability to the spy 

 system; but I quote President Roosevelt as saying 

 that 90 per cent of the most dangerous criminals could 

 be brought to justice only through some such system. 

 No one ever saw a rogue who felt the halter tighten 

 about his neck but had complaint about the law and 

 those who brought him to justice. The Board of Pub- 

 lic Safety says we must have more police. I should 

 like to know where are the 113 we have. I walked 

 one night for Ave hours, and never came across one. 

 The policemen seem to be in evidence only on pay day 

 and election time. Mr. Tonson, of the Service Board, 

 says the all-night and Sunday saloon is responsible 

 for the present conditions in this city, and cites an 

 instance of saloon violation of the law. There are 

 dozens of them doing business in direct violation of 

 the law. I was at the interurban station on Sunday, 

 and saw an officer standing in front of a Superior 

 Street saloon. He had to sidestep in order to let in 

 four men who entered the front door of the place." 



And again: 



" I have seen the red-light districts of Chicago, New 

 York, and Pittsburg, but for its size Toledo has the 

 most freely patronized, most hideous, and lowest col- 

 ony of segregated vife. Evil is openly flaunted, and 

 vice hangs out its sign under the eyes and seeming 

 protection of the police." 



There is one special point in the above 

 which I wish to touch on, and the minister 

 has given us a most remarkable illustration 

 —namely, that when a rogue begins to feel 

 the halter tighten about his neck he com- 

 plains of the way in which they succeeded in 

 getting hold of him and bringing him to 

 justice. The Anti-saloon League has been 

 most severely criticised — yes, and by good 

 Christian people — because they have employ- 

 ed detectives or "spies;" and when the 

 Chi'istian man or minister of the gospel goes 

 into these low dives as a spy, some good peo- 

 ple (or, at least, some who 2^'''^t'encl to be 

 good) hold up their hands in holy horror. 

 Well, my friends, / do not like the detective 

 and the spy business. May God help me if 

 I shall ever be called on to do such work. 

 What little work I have already done along 

 that line has been only after most thorough 

 and earnest prayer in my own closet that 

 God would help me to do my duty, even 

 though it be repugnant to all my better feel- 

 ings. I dislike war also; but, dear Christian 

 friends, I am led to feel that we had better 

 have war, and have it right speedily, than to 

 continue letting our children be led astray 

 and ruined by the blind tigers and other ti- 

 gers that go about claiming to be under the 

 patronage and direction of our civil law. 

 The liquor papers are now very bi/sy criticis- 

 ing the "spy" business, even though our 

 President tells us that 90 per cent of our most 

 dangerous criminals would go on unharmed 

 did we not resort to spies and detectives. 

 The officer or policeman who stepped aside 

 to let the law-breaker enter a saloon, was 



