The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1869-08-20
Temperance and Politics,

OOfS NAN hS'AS"iuS ihN'h "hN
NoRTnEPS INDEPENDENT, published at Alba.
ny, N. Y. We endorse its sentiments, and
recommend them to the consideration of our
readers. The positions taken are invlncible
and are the only solution of tie vexed whisky
question:
1t has become pretty we'll understood
among all that class of Temperance men who
are in dead earnest, that nothing but the bal
lot can have any effect in arresting the Ii
quor traffic There was period, and that
not long passed, when many honest but igno.
rant friends of Temperance were afraid of
making the question a political issue, and
anxious to use nothing but moral suasion.
But that class of temperance men, happily
for the cause, are becoming very scarce, al
though we do not mean to say they have ell
become warm advocates of direct political
action. BY no means; for many have sold
out to the dominant parties and ceased to
take any interest in the cause, while Others
are only converted in part. This last class
are willing to vote and urge Others to vote,
but they do not rely mainly upon the vote
they only use the vote in conjunction with
other agencies. They must have the pledge
the society, secret, or open, and all the mis-
cellaneous adjuncts Of an oldfashioned tenn
perance organization, when Temperance was
supposed to depend as little on civil law as
secret prayer does. Such persons are as in a
transient state; and ''see men as trees walk
ing;" they are partly enlightened, and will in
time we trust get into full liberty. The suf
| hciency of the ballot for this great reform is
apparent at glance, if we contrast a prohi-
btory law with other penal statutes. Take
for instance the crime of theft. Who thinks
of getting up an anti-stealng society, and
adopting as basis of such an organization
q pledge not to steal or countenance steal
ing, secretly or openly, by aiding and abet-
ting thieves? Who would not regard for
NAL organization of this kind as entirely su-
perfuous? And who would be foolish enough
to get up such a society and institute such
pledge had we law creatinga board expressly
for the purpose of licensing men to steal? Is
there man in this nation SO idiotic as to
think of suppressng the crime of theft by
voluntary agencies such as we have just
named, and at the same time to allow the
law authorizing men to steal to remain unre-
pealed on the statute book? We believe not.
The case is without parallel. Had we
statute authorizing theft as we have author
izing selling and drinking, which are the sour
ceS OF all drunkenness, 10 sane man would
think it necessary to do more than meet the
try are virtually made 1t would be deemed
the height of folly to make long arguments
or form societies and take pledges to abate
the evil, when the whole work could be in
stantly doneby the ballot
Every man having any proper conception
of the character of law, or the duties of citi-
zenship under our representative system,
which is controlled by the franchise, would
instantly say that nothing more than the bal
| lot was necessary. Nor would he hesitate
moment about bringing the question into
politics, for he would see at once that the
thieving business was established by law.
He would not be mbecile enough to suppose
! that substituting prohibitory law for per-
missive one, was pushing the matter to ex-
tremes or in any wise making it more polit!-
cal than it always had been. 1t would be
clear to him that stealing was legal right,
and that to abolish it was only varying the
application of the business. All temperance
people who are worth anything to the cause
and who deserve the name, have come thus
far. They see Temperance as creature OF
the lava creature of the corrupt politics Of
| the day-a nuisance which the ignorance and
vice of former times have legalized and made
inevitable until we not only abolish the infa
nous statutes which sanction it, but utterly
I forbid the traffic which necessitates it. Re-
| lance on anything but the ballot is the veri-
est nonsense under heaven. The monstrosity
will down, but it never will down until it is
voted down. Ballots made it, ballots alone
can unmake it. What need have we of 9TH
er agencies if this is all sufficient? Why
pledge that we will not drink when we have
destroyed the drink and made drinking i'm
possible? We do not object to other agencies
but we do object to relying upon them for
any considerable part Of the work, since the
| ballot of itself is omnipotent If the ballot
| fails we may then fall back on other agen-
cies, provided we are not forced to the con-
clusion that the cause is utterly lost. To ar
rest the abomination Of the liquor traffic
seems to us quite as easy and quite as leglti-
mate to the functions of civil law, as to arrest
other denominations that we now successfully
control. We have banished other branches
of commerce that we felt to be a nuisance,
and why not this? There is in the very ma
ture of the thing an exact identity in the
prohibition Of the liquor traffic with all pro-
hibtory legislation, and if one part falls the
whole must.
Ballots are arguments, and for the present
they must be our only arguments. We must
henceforth, until the liquor traffic is made
felony, debate the question with ballots alone
They constitute the only form of speech that
has any significance in this controversy. 1t
may as well be known first as last, that all
other talk goes for nothing, and that by votes
alone can we make ourselves understood. All
short of the ballot is consummate trihing SO
long as it stands by itself. Until we vote
we have said nothing and done nothing. The
ballot is the only mode of reasoning that de-
serves our regard, or that can convince the
rum-seller that temperance men are in ear,
nest. So long as we consent to talk, organ
ize, to anything and everything but vote,
the liquor men know that there is no SINGER
ity in us-that whatever we say, we mean
nothing. In short they see that our whole
movement is sham and unworthy of re-
spect.
L