Chapter 14

The question is often asked how it is that society tolerates such a confessed violator of law and order as the saloon has demonstrated itself to be. If an individual defied the law as a large number of the saloon keepers do, he would be quickly punished. Nay, more, if a poor, starving man steals a loaf of bread to appease his gnawing hunger, or to save the life of his starving family, he is sent to prison, _that the majesty of the law may be vindicated_. But when a saloon-keeper breaks the law in keeping open on Sunday in selling liquor to minors, or in making his saloon a rendezvous for women of bad repute, nothing is said because (1) of the moral apathy throughout the web and woof of Christian society; (2) professing Christians are more loyal to party-hacks and demagogues than they are to their own homes and their country, (3) the saloon is a unit in its voting strength, loyal to its tools and relentless to its foes, and the voting power of the saloon element in any great city when united with the voting strength of the Christian element in either of the great parties, turns the scales for the minions of the rum power. Let me illustrate. In Chicago there is about 5,600 saloons. These saloons will average not less than two voters to the saloon, the proprietor and the bar-keeper; as a matter of fact, I expect four votes would come nearer the correct figures, as numbers of saloons have several bar-tenders. But placing the number at two, we have a voting strength of 11,200. Now each one in this army can surely influence _four persons_, many can influence from six to ten votes, but placing the figures at four, we have the enormous total of 44,800 voters to be added to the 11,200 engaged in the traffic, giving a startling aggregate of 56,000 voters, which the saloon power can count on with reasonable certainty, when any measure affecting its interests is to be acted upon, or when persons are to be elected who can enforce or ignore laws enacted to restrict the liquor evil. This argument presented to the political parties is usually irresistible; they simply permit the saloon element to dictate its policy and its candidates. And against this army of home destroyers, this solid battalion of evil, this power which prostitutes political integrity, destroys virtue, breeds crime, fills prisons with victims and homes with misery, and requires the expenditure on the part of the government of millions of dollars in punishing the criminals and the paupers it annually makes,--I say against this army engaged under the banner of the rum traffic, what counteracting opposition is springing from the home loving, the upright and pure-minded citizens of our great cities? What concerted action is the church with her tens of thousands of communicants putting forth? It would be an easy matter to thwart the allied power of rum, if a few persons in every church and every society for ethical improvement were ablaze with moral enthusiasm, and wise enough to adopt lines of action similar to those successfully carried out by the liquor interest. For example: Suppose in every church four or six earnest men and women form a league for the protection of the home; let them secure the pledge of every voter in the church who has love for his fellow-men and respect for decent government, that he will vote for no man for any office who patronizes the saloon, who fraternizes with the liquor element, or who is supported by the rum shops, and that he will use all honorable means to further good government, by seeking the advancement to office of pure and upright citizens. Something like that would be all that would be necessary for the general membership to sign. Then let each league appoint an executive committee of three or five to act precisely as do officers in an army, to confer with the executive committee of other leagues to _secretly_ arrange _or map out a campaign_, and to give commands to the army. It would be an easy matter to poll the saloon vote in such a way as to ascertain exactly where it stood in cases where there was a question as to the position of candidates, after which the word could be given that no votes be cast for the choice of the saloon element. I am speaking now chiefly of municipal elections, as they most intimately affect the saloon power in our great cities. If something like this policy was followed, and every church had its active league, it would not be long before there would be enrolled on the side of pure government and true morality, an army far eclipsing in strength and number the rum element, an army that could easily turn the balance of power into the hands of high-minded citizens, who would enforce the laws with equal justice, without fear or favor. I merely throw out this as a hint of what might be accomplished, because it has become fashionable for good but easy-going people to dismiss these matters with the remark that nothing practical can be done to meet the demoralizing and degrading power of the saloon.

HOT BEDS OF SOCIAL POLLUTION.

Chicago has many dark places, not the least among which are the low theatres, the concert halls, and other similar resorts where immorality nourishes as it flourished in Rome during that long moral night when Messalina dragged down an already debauched court to unspeakable debasement, when Nero thirsted for blood and wallowed in the sewers of moral degradation, and when Domitian's frightful cruelty only equaled his gross sensualism. The saloon, the black plague of nineteenth century life, overlaps all other degrading evils, its miasma of death fills every rendezvous of degradation, and until its ever increasing power is checked, nay, more, until its power in American politics is broken, other allies in crime, debauchery, and moral death will flourish. By the side of the rum curse flourishes, as our author points out, the low theatres and concert halls, but he wisely observes that these places must not be confounded with the first-class and reputable houses, whose managers are ceaselessly striving to entertain and elevate their patrons. Music may be made one of the most inspiring and ennobling agencies, while the theatre holds a power for the education and elevation of the masses possessed by few other popular agencies, for it appeals simultaneously to the eye, the ear, and the heart of the people. It possesses the power of educating while it entertains, it may be made to elevate while it amuses. I am profoundly convinced that Victor Hugo was right when he claimed that the theatre held possibilities of the widest and most far-reaching character for the education and enlightenment of the masses; and when the leaders of moral thought and reform work come to realize this, they will call to their aid this most powerful agent for touching, thrilling, and swaying the heart of the people which a noble cause can summon. But while the possibilities for good possessed by the theatre are well-nigh inestimable, its capacity for evil is no less marked. In many of our large cities to-day low theatres and concert-halls, masquerading under the robes of respectability, are feeding all that is vilest and most repulsive in life. In these places in Chicago there are nightly enacted practically above board the same revolting scenes which marked the lowest depths of human debasement in the day of Rome's greatest depravity. To feed the rum-inflamed lusts of men, the managers of these craters of bestiality and depravity have nightly exhibitions which mark the nadir to which abandoned womanhood can sink. No one can enter those dens of infamy without inhaling the contagion of moral death. The records of the commissioners who investigated the concert halls and low theatres sickens one much as the frightful revelation of Mr. Stead sickened while it appalled the civilized world. And let it be remembered that this unutterable social depravity is flourishing in a city richly jewelled, with magnificent temples dedicated to Deity; a city which contains the moral power to quickly banish her monstrous evils, if the conspiracy of silence be broken and the leaders of thought be brave and wise enough to boldly move in concert against the great forces which every thoughtful man and woman admit are, more than aught else, the source of social demoralization, crime, and human degradation. If the Church has any mission worthy of serious thought at this juncture of civilization, that mission is to overcome these evils, to cleanse society of these plague spots, and avert the spread of that moral degradation which, unless checked, will as surely sap away the life of our Republic as it has destroyed proud civilizations of older days.

THE POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

When one turns from a view of the magnitude of these giant evils, fostered by our social conditions, to a contemplation of the great moral power resting in the hands of the Christian ministry, he may well ask whether the nineteenth century clergy of the palatial, stone, heaven-piercing, turreted temples are not _materialists_, on whose souls the life and teachings of their reputed Master work no greater spell than they did with the Sadducees of old, who regarded that great life, burning at white heat with moral enthusiasm and holy love, as a troublesome interloper, a disturber of religion and society worthy of death. With a few noble exceptions,--who are bravely battling for justice, for the poor, and for the light to be thrown into the dark places, our city clergymen merit arraignment at the bar of civilization for burying their talents, for trifling away the power which has been given them as standard bearers of the cause of human brotherhood and universal justice; for truckling to wealth and cringing before a cynical and supercilious element who, by an unhappy chance, wield some influence and succeed in making the superficial imagine they represent popular sentiment and culture. It is a crying shame to-day, that with the magnificent intellectual power and influence swayed by the great divines who preside over the wealthy temples of Boston, there should be such frightful wretchedness within cannon shot of their churches and the homes of their wealthy parishioners; or that with the brilliancy and power represented in the pulpit of Chicago, there should be such iniquity flourishing unrestrained as depicted in "Chicago's Dark Places." Whether the clergy can be aroused to recognize its duty and be touched by the world of wretchedness and sin sufficiently to dare to assail our present evil condition, is a question of vital importance, inasmuch as it wields a vast moral influence. Unto the clergy much has been given, and if its members believe the impressive declaration of their great Leader, from them much will be demanded. _Their responsibility is as great as their apathy is marked_; an indifference which springs from timidity or ignorance. If from timidity or fear that honesty of thought and a brave unmasking of evil conditions would cost them their positions, they have no right to bear aloft the banner of Him who rejected all life's comforts, all honor of the rich and cultured, respect, power, and popularity; who, turning His back at once on ease and conventional thought, chose to live without a roof, save the azure dome, that by mingling among the poor, the sin-diseased and miserables of his people, He might ease their suffering, bring sunshine into their darkened and wretched abodes, and lift them from the sewers of animality into the pure health-giving and soul-inspiring atmosphere of true spirituality. If on the other hand (and I believe this is the chief reason), our clergymen are _ignorant of the deep degradation and the dire want_ which is flourishing within cannon shot of their homes, they are treating with culpable contempt the life and teachings of Jesus, who constantly mingled with this class, never weary in seeking to aid them, and who taught so solemnly and impressively that His mission was "_to seek and to save those who were lost, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach liberty to the captives, and opening the prison to them that are bound, and to comfort all that mourn_."

WHAT THE CLERGY MIGHT ACCOMPLISH.

If the clergymen of our great cities would carry out the example set by their Master, would refuse to take the words of those who are blinded and callous by conventional thought and the indifference which comes to sordid natures long accustomed to mingle with wretchedness, and themselves frequently visit the exiles of society in the cities where they dwell; if its members would for one day in each week visit the miserables of society, I doubt not that _the pulpit would soon become a most powerful battery of moral power and light_, which would, in a surprisingly short time, revolutionize our conditions, so that in the place of thousands of people, sandwiched in dens of indescribable squalor, we would see healthful apartment houses; instead of horrible drinking dens and rendezvous of degradation and debauchery, flourishing and rank as tropical forests, we would find temperance eating-houses; social club houses where every evening the poor man and his family could spend an hour, looking through the paper of the day, enjoying the illustrations and the intellectual worth of our periodical literature, or, if they chose, hear in other rooms lectures or charcoal talks dealing with practical pictures of life, of history, travels, social problems, and other themes of value, and where at a very moderate price healthful and nutritious food could be enjoyed. Well-supported industrial schools would also blossom where now only here and there we find a school struggling for existence and handicapped for want of means for its proper carrying on.

INDEX TO THE FOURTH VOLUME OF

THE ARENA.

Æonian Punishment., 209.

Allen. Rev. T. Ernest, Spencer's Doctrine of Inconceivability., 94.

Another View of Newman., 475.

Armstrong. William H., Sunday and the World's Fair., 730.

Austrian Postal Banking System. The, 468.

Baxter. Sylvester, The Austrian Postal Banking System., 468.

Bellamy. Rev. Francis, The Tyranny of all the People., 180.

Better Part. The, 104.

Bismarck in the German Parliament., 670.

Bixby. Prof. James T., Doubters and Dogmatists., 683. Evolution and Christianity., 55.

Blavatsky. Mme., at Adyar., 579.

Boughton, Prof. Willis, University Extension., 452.

Bradsby. H. C., Leaderless Mobs., 570.

Brook. The, 122.

Buchanan. Prof. Jos. Rodes, Revolutionary Measures and Neglected Crimes., 77, 192.

Campbell. Helen, The Working Women of To-day., 329.

Cancer Spots in Metropolitan Life. 760.

Castelar. Emilio, Bismarck and the German Parliament., 670.

Chambers. Julius, The Chivalry of the Press., 25.

Chandler. Lucinda B., The Woman Movement., 704.

Chivalry of the Press. The, 25.

Conflict between Ancient and Modern Thought in the Presbyterian Church. The, 253.

Conway. Moncure D., Madame Blavatsky at Adyar., 579.

Davis. C. Wood, Should the Nation Own the Railways?, 152, 273.

DeBury. Mme. Blaze, The Unity of Germany., 257.

Decade of Retrogression. A, 365.

Dickinson. Prof. Mary L., Individuality in Education., 322.

Divorce Colony. The Sioux Falls, 696.

Doubters and the Dogmatists. The, 683.

Dromgoole. Will Allen, The Better Part., 104. Old Hickory's Ball., 373. A Grain of Gold., 621. The Heart of the Woods., 744.

Education. Individuality in, 322.

Edwards. Amelia B., My Home Life., 299.

Emancipation through Nationalism., 591.

Epoch-marking Drama. An, 247.

Era of Woman, The, 375.

Evening at the Corner Grocery. An, 504.

Evolution and Christianity., 55.

Extrinsic Significance of Constitutional Government in Japan., 440.

Fashion's Slaves., 401.

Fawcett. Edgar, Plutocracy and Snobbery in New York., 142. A Paradise of Gamblers., 641.

Flammarion. Camille, The Unknown., 10, 160.

Flower. B. O., Society's Exiles., 37. Optimism Real and False., 125. The Pessimistic Cast of Modern Thought., 127. An Epoch-marking Drama., 247. The Present Revolution in Theological Thought., 249. The Conflict between Ancient and Modern Thought in the Presbyterian Church., 253. The Era of Woman., 382. Fashion's Slaves., 401. Religious Intolerance To-day., 633. Social Conditions under Louis XV., 635. Pharisaism in Public Life., 754. Cancer Spots in Metropolitan Life., 760. The Saloon., 763. Hot-beds of Social Pollution., 766. The Power and Responsibility of the Christian Ministry., 767. What the Clergy Might Accomplish., 768.

French Republic. Some Weak Spots in, 561.

Gærtner. Dr. Frederick, The Microscope., 615.

Garland. Hamlin, A Prairie Heroine., 223. An Evening at the Corner Grocery., 504. Mr. and Mrs. James A. Herne., 543.

Grain of Gold. A, 621.

Harben. Will N., He Came and Went Again., 494.

Harvest and Laborers in the Psychical Field., 391.

Hassell. R. B., The Independent Party and Money at Cost., 340.

Hawthorne. Julian, The New Columbus., 1.

Healing through the Mind., 530.

Heart of the Woods. The, 744.

He Came and Went Again., 494.

Heiress of the Ridge. The, 114.

Herne. Mr. and Mrs. James A., 543.

Holmes. Oliver Wendell, 129.

Hot-beds of Social Pollution., 766.

Independent Party and Money at Cost. The, 340.

Individuality in Education., 322.

Inter-Migration., 487.

Irrigation Problem in the Northwest. The, 69.

Leaderless Mobs., 570.

Lodge. Hon. Henry Cabot, Protection or Free Trade, Which?, 652.

Lorimer. Rev. Geo. C., The Newer Heresies., 385.

Lowell. James Russell, 513.

Madame Blavatsky at Adyar., 579.

Manley. Rev. W. E., Æonian Punishment., 209.

Martyn. Rev. Carlos D., Un-American Tendencies., 431.

McCrackan. W. D., The Swiss and American Constitutions., 172.

Microscope. The, 615.

Myers. Frederic W. H., Harvest and Laborers in the Psychical Field., 391.

My Home Life., 299.

Nationalism. Emancipation through, 591.

Nationalism. The Tyranny of, 311.

Negro Question. The, 219.

New Columbus. The, 1.

Newer Heresies. The, 385.

Newman. Another View of, 475.

New Testament Symbolisms., 712.

Nirvana. Turning toward, 736.

Oishi. Kuma, Extrinsic Significance of Constitutional Government in Japan., 440.

Old Hickory's Ball., 373.

Optimism. Real and False, 125.

O Thou Who Sighest for a Broader Field., 503.

Paradise of Gamblers. A, 641.

Pattee. Chas. H., Recollections of Old Play-Bills., 604.

Pessimistic Cast of Modern Thought. The, 127.

Pharisaism in Public Life., 754.

Pierce. Edwin, True Politics for Prohibition and Labor., 723.

Plutocracy and Snobbery in New York., 142.

Pope Leo on Labor., 459.

Power and Responsibility of the Christian Ministry. The, 767.

Prairie Heroine. A, 223.

Present Revolution in Theological Thought. The, 249.

Preston. Thomas B., Pope Leo on Labor., 459.

Prohibition and Labor. True Politics for, 723.

Protection or Free Trade, Which?, 652.

Psychic Experiences., 353.

Realf. James, Jr., The Irrigation Problem in the Northwest., 69. The Sioux Falls Divorce Colony., 696.

Recollections of Old Play-Bills., 604.

Religious Intolerance To-day., 633.

Revolutionary Measures and Neglected Crimes., 77, 192.

Ross. E. A., Turning toward Nirvana., 736.

Saloon. The, 763.

Salter. William M., Another View of Newman., 475.

Savage. Philip H., The Brook., 122.

Savage. Rev. Minot J., The Tyranny of Nationalism., 311.

Scarborough. Prof. W. S., The Negro Question., 219.

Schindler. Rabbi Solomon, Inter-Migration., 487.

Should the Nation Own the Railways?, 152, 273.

Sioux Falls Divorce Colony. The, 696.

Social Conditions under Louis XV., 635.

Society's Exiles., 37.

Some Weak Spots in the French Republic., 561.

Spencer's Doctrine of Inconceivability., 94.

Stanton. Elizabeth Cady, Where Must Lasting Progress Begin?, 293.

Stanton. Theodore, Some Weak Spots in the French Republic., 561.

Stewart. George, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 129. James Russell Lowell., 513.

Sunday and the World's Fair., 730.

Swiss and American Constitutions. The, 172.

True Politics for Prohibition and Labor., 723.

Turning toward Nirvana., 736.

Tyranny of All the People. The, 180.

Tyranny of Nationalism. The, 311.

Un-American Tendencies., 431.

Underwood. Sara A., Psychic Experiences., 353.

Unity of Germany. The, 257.

University Extension., 452.

Unknown. The, 10, 160.

Wait. Prof. Sheridan P., New Testament Symbolisms., 712.

Wakeman, Thaddeus B., Emancipation by Nationalism., 591.

What the Clergy Might Accomplish., 768.

Where Must Lasting Progress Begin?, 293.

Wischnewetzky. Florence Kelley, A Decade of Retrogression., 365.

Wolcott. Julia Anna, O Thou Who Sighest for a Broader Field., 503.

Woman Movement. The, 704.

Wood. Henry, Healing through the Mind., 530.

Working Women of To-day. The, 329.

World's Fair. Sunday and the, 730.

* * * * *

[Transcriber's Notes:

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies.

The transcriber noted the following issues and made changes as indicated to the text to correct obvious errors:

1. p. 678, "hemlet" changed to "helmet" 2. p. 681, "complaceny" changed to "complacency" 3. p. 744, "impenetable" changed to "impenetrable" 4. p. 751, "beween" changed to "between" 5. p. 756, Footnote #4, "positon" changed to "position"

End of Transcriber's Notes]