1904 - Pledge to Not Drink Liquor

It is announced from Toronto that seven hundred children have recently taken the pledge not to drink liquor. It is a nice ethical question whether such pledges should be put to children. We do not hold a child responsible for a business engagement until it has reached years of discretion. And yet if it is not old enough to do a few dollars' worth of business, it is not old enough to say whether or not it will ever want to take a glass of wine. Still if a pledge be exacted from it after an appeal to its emotions, it must face the dilemma in after years of either accepting a restraint upon its liberty in one direction or of breaking its promise. Surely a great moral movement does not require to so take advantage of a child's trust and inexperience.