The Hypocrisy of the Saloon Petition
The local editor lashes out at the moral contradiction of community members who sing hymns in church on Sunday while petitioning for a new saloon on Monday.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The man who will stand up in the choir of a Christian church on Sunday night and sing 'Nearer My God to Thee,' and then sign a petition for a saloon on Monday morning, is a worse hypocrite than Judas Iscariot. We are sorry, but it is a matter of fact, that Ritzville will soon have a second saloon. The town needs this additional drunkard-maker about as bad as a wagon needs seven wheels. The News has not very much confidence in a man who is in the habit of getting drunk, but it would trust even such a man much farther than the sober sinner who puts temptation in the way of his fellow man for profit and gain.
“The town needs this additional drunkard-maker about as bad as a wagon needs seven wheels.”
This reflects the intense moral climate of Washington before Prohibition, where public social character and civic petitions were frequently debated in the press. It highlights the sharp, polemical tone often used by local editors to police community standards during the temperance era.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.