These  two  men,  while  intoxicated,  shot  and  killed  a
citizen.  One  of  these  men  was  twenty  and  the  other
was  twenty-one  years  of  age.  Young,  ripe  fruit  of  the
saloon,  developed  into  murderers  before  reaching  man-
hood, "living  according  to  his  own  good  judgment,"  as


THE  IRREPRESSIBLE  CONFLICT      167


Prof.  Wilson  advised  all  men  to  do,  but  the  trouble
is  that  the  saloon  prevents  the  developement  of  good
judgment  while  in  their  "teens."

The  lawmakers  who  enact  the  laws  to  licenses  saloons,
and  the  governor  who  signs  the  the  laws,  under  a  pre-
tense of  regulating  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors,  espe-
cially to  minors,  have  done  their  work  so  well  that
school  boys  may  drink  and  become  murderers  before
they  reach  manhood.  Hypocrisy  is  a  pretense  to  be  what
one  is  not,  or  to  do  what  one  does  not  do.  There
can  be  no  better  illustration  of  the  word  than  is  found
in  the  pretense,  and  the  real  action  of  the  lawmakers:
and  there  can  be  no  better  illustration  of  ''fake  reform"
that  Mr.  Wilson  speaks  of,  than  the  liquor  laws.
The  two  murderers  referred  to  would  not  have  com-
mitted murder  if  they  had  not  been  intoxicated;  and
they  would  not  have  been  intoxicated  if  the  saloons  had
not  sold  them  intoxitating  drinks;  and  the  saloons
would  not  have  sold  them  intoxicating  drink  if  the  law-
makers and  the  governor  had  not  licensed  them  to  do  it.
