X i" U im jp.. .;,.,,,, I 1 I TjTn-yj! 5,--i,5r;r5t7rr:pyjriri,-' t"TyITT,,y"nT, - " "-c. jmSTt; v ir-7fy. ojst- t . an' jfjiyS" EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER PHILADELVLL1A, THURSDAY, AWUL 17, 1919 $Wy& i - . t ,'W .i ,P'' Where will they go ? Prohibition "leaves a dangerous vacuum in certain sections of our social life" Rev. George Henry Hubbard. 85 MjTffirirTrBS Mi ,000 Saloons - foil rent ! Prohibition is more than a problem of Drink Over four million men must change their habits of Life What would be Your substitute ? ON July 1 there wiil be "For Rent" signs on 85,000 Saloons in the United States. At one stroke 85,000 men's clubs will be closed. Four million men, an army twice the size of the American army in France, will be turned away. Where will they go? The abolition of alcohol is a great reform. Yet like all great reforms, it demands a gigantic work of readjustment. The tavern has been with us for centuries. It is 'disappearing over night. What will take its place? For many, the saloon has been a social center, a place where men could meet in a democratic way. What sort of social center will those men have when the saloon is gone? The saloon has been the unofficial employment agency for hundreds of thousands of our population. In the saloon a workman could usually get news of a job. What other employment agencies will we have? The saloon lias been the daily lunch room of almost one mMion men. Where will those one million men be likely to go in the future? In the saloon, says Charles Stelzle, the great authority on prohibition, the poorer people "have their christenings, their weddings, their dances Unless they are connected in some way with the church, most of the people ia tle community look upon the saloon as the social clearing house of the neighborhood." What is the substitute P Democratic, self-supporting substitutes are not easy to find for an institution like that. Will the answer be motion pictures? Every week at least 25,000,000 people in the United States go to the movies. JWill it be soda fountains, coffeehouses, community centers? Will it be billiard parlors? Will it be thcY. M.C.A.? Will it be drama or music ? Will it be the home? Will it be the church ? What intelligent opinion is turning to this great problem ? What progress is being made toward developing in America a healthy individual and community life? One leader in the movement The Christian Herald has been a leader in the fight for prohibition, The Christian Herald has always believed that alcohol was a physical, mental, moral and industrial evil. It has never been one-sided in its antagonism, but always constructive in its thought and leadership. To-day the Christian Herald realizes that the victory has been only half won, the change only half made. In this week's issue, Orrin G. Cocks, Secretary of the Affiliated Committee for Better Films, and the Rev. Ernest A. Miller argue for the movies as the best substitute for the saloon. Next week Charles Stelzle writes on various other ways of "Finding a Substitute." "Workingmen will never write letters to the news papers," declares Mr. Stelzle, "or hold mass meetings making a demand for a saloon substitute. To them the beer and the social features are one and the same thing, and the bitterness of workingmen in the, prohibition discussion is less that they have been deprived of their beer than that they have been deprived of a center in which they can give expression to their social life." Substitutes that have been proposed THE community club pro ides a meeting place," says Dr. John Willis Slaughter, director of the Community Councils of National Defense,"where men can gather and talk, and do all those things that they did habitually in the saloon, with the difference that there will be no liquor sold " In the New York Evening Post of March 31, he declares : "The o;ily solution for the saloon problem is to recognise the advantages and defects of the saloon and then to sot up something that will answer the needs of the people. Philanthropy cannot do this because workingmen will not accept chant), no matter how well i mentioned it is. It jnust either he a commercial enterprise run on a new basis, or it must be a community undertaking, something created by the people of the neighborhood for their own benefit and in their own way." t "'T"HE substitute," says Harold Channing in the J. New York Times, March 16,"is the community room (or rooms). In all districts there should' be rooms, large,well-lighted, and warm, liberally supplied with all the daily papers and current magazines (minimizing the 'high-biows'), and with such games as checkers, chess, cards, puzzles, etc., then, as an adjunct, coffee and cocoa of good quality at cost (perhaps soda in summer), supplemented by some rolls. Let those who come smoke all they want, talk within reason, anil bar no man unless he is quarrelsome or unnecessarily dirty." ML, I -n MIL I - v Limit The canteen has been, during the war, the club-room and social center for 4,000,000 men. Can our substitute (or the saloon be built along these lines? What five prominent men, in this week's and next week's issues of The Christian Herald, say concerning the substitute for the saloon. "QOMEBODY recently foolishly said 'No one wants J a substitute for Spinish Influenza or for the bubonic plague no more does the saloon need a substitute.' "It would be absurd," continues Charles Stelzle, in an article to appear in next week's Christian Herald, "to insist that the saloon never served any good pur pose. It is true that good in the saloon was outweighed by the evil that was in it. But there was good." HAVE you considered the motion picture as the log ical successor of the saloon?" asks Orriv G. Cocks, Secretary of the Affiliated Committee for Better Films, in this week's issue of the Christian Herald. " The motion picture scres more people than any of the others. It has something for every one. Its appeal is universal. It furnishes emotional excitement, mental stimulas, and a contrast to drab realities. It draws all members of a family instead of age or sex groups alone. It is a democratic, wholesome and self-respecting entertainment." "T?VERY new church today should be built with a JL suitable and commodious assembly room which may be used for motion-picture purposes." Rev. Ernest A. Miller, Pastor, M. L. Church, Cuyahoga FJIs, Ohio. "TT has been true always that the motion picture has JL been the great foe of the saloon. This ha been particularly noticeable in small towns, where, prior to the inauguration of the mowe theater, there was not much to do for entertainment, and the saloon had things pretty much its own way. It has been shown already that motion-picture theatres are exceedingly prosperous in prohibition territory." S. L. Rotimpfel, of Rialto and Rivoli Theaters, New York. "XT'OUR idea of linking thrift with the saloons. is .ex X cellent," declares James H. Collins, of the War Savings Organization, in this w cek's issue of the Christian Herald. "Figure a wage-earner drawing $20 a week, spending two dollars over the bar Saturday night and getting no permanent good, then the same man putting two dollars weekly into War Saving Stamps, and the growth in interest." $2.50 a year 52 issues, illustrated Single copies may be obtained ot the largernewsstandsand at railroad stations. Trial subscription at the special rate of " $1.00 for six months. Current issue will be sent upon receipt of 1 0 cents in stamps. Address The Christian Herald, New York. The Christian Herald Ir ri r u gw Ra&ixsr ( The Christian Herald's circulation is 300,000 the most influential members of every community. GRAHAM PATTERSON, PUBLISHER ff 'faM '-,-" ff V VFT.' V"! - ,- " :j , ftti Cwl M $ k f 1 1 4 -i l $ r ,.j w i ,01 1 H J it i 4 Vl ' 1 VI Pi . fI J--?! 1 iHfll!llil!lM -?&: ') r t-' i - 'A" r
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers