Once it has fastened its hold upon a man,
the time which he should spend with his family is spent in defiling
his body in this place; the money which should be spent, in clothing
and feeding his wife and children, is squandered here; until the home
loses its hold upon him and he selfishly indulges his appetite, no
matter who suffers. We are faced with actual conditions and no
substitutes of better kept saloons or purer beverages can help very
much. It is a travesty of the truth to call a saloon a working men's
club; it is his destruction. What is actually needed is a reform
which will send men, who frequent saloons back to their homes. The
real problem is not how to reform the saloon, but how to make the home
better so that father, mother and the children may take delight in
spending their evenings there. The policy of some social
organizations, which work in the slums of our great cities, seems to
be by providing great public dance halls and fostering the saloons to
draw the people still further away from the home life and to make it
harder to maintain it.
After all the only real remedy for the saloon habit is
Christianity. It is only when Christ comes into the heart of a man
that he begins to care for his home and to spend his evenings
there. The Church, then as possessing the lure for the home, ought to
take more seriously to this work in the slums.
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