Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/306

 292 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

every kind of law, yet it sells liquor to minors, keeps open door all night and Sundays, from January I to January i. True, some of the down-town saloons close at 12 o'clock. But why ? In obedience to the ordinance filed away in the archives of the city hall ? Not so ; but in obedience to another law the law of demand. Those who in the daytime patronize the down-town saloons have returned to their homes and have joined the patrons of the saloons of their immediate neighbor- hoods. This is the law and almost the only law that they will obey, and it is this law that we must face and deal with unflinchingly.

THE SALOON IN WORKINGMEN's DISTRICTS.

When the poor, underpaid, and unskilled laborer returns from his day's work, go with him, if you will, into the room or rooms he calls "home." Eat with him there, in the midst of those squalid surroundings and to the music of crying children, a scanty, poorly cooked meal served by an unkempt wife. Ask yourself if this is just the place where he would want to spend his evenings, night after night ; if here he will find the mental stimulus as necessary to his life as to your life. Is there no escape from the inevitable despair that must come to him whose long hours of heavy physi- cal labor preclude any mental enjoyment, if his few leisure hours are to be spent in the wretched surroundings of a home, or, worse yet, of the ordinary cheap lodging-house, either of which must constantly remind him of his poverty ? Are there not places in the neighborhood where the surroundings will be more congenial ; where his mental, yes, his moral, nature will have a better chance for development ? Are there not some in the neighborhood who have recognized and sought to satisfy the social cravings of these men, which the home at best does not wholly satisfy ?

Yes, business interests have occupied this field. With a shrewd foresight, partially due to the fierce competition between the great brewing companies, they have seen and met these needs. The following table, made by a careful investigation of each of the 163 saloons of the seventeenth ward a fairly representative