The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-04-17
THE SILENT OPPOSITION.

movement IS not hhOAJ "a N-S
sort. as those who circulated the petit
tion TO the Common Council are aware.
While LIQUOR importers, retail dealers
and dran1-drinkers oppose it openly as
a measure damaging to their business,
inimical to their rights % there is an
army on their side, made up Of the fol-
lowing described persons and classes:
First. Trsdesmen Of every description.
The reason they give Is, that to support
the anti-liquor movement will lose
them'the custom Of the liquor men.
Second. Clerks or salaried men, ex-
ceptin such cases as where their employ
ers are Temperance men.
Third. Some men, and many acomen,
Ito their shame be it said), who "have
no interest in the matter" "Their sons
and husbands" they say, ''give them
no trouble" These men belong to the
class who advise Us to stay at home and
attend to our households; and these
women to the class who shave all the
rights they want" and are found in the
two extremes Of society principally, the
fashionable and the coarsely ignorant.
Fourth. A good many women, who
inhablt elegant houses, and who prefer
to consult their husbands" They have
sold their rights of conscience for life
of utterly selfish, soulless, brainless ease.
Fifth. A good many men, who 'do
not drink themselves. and do not want
to have anything to do with the ques-
ton" Some of them are opposed to
agitation; some think the means used
not the proper ones, but have nothing to
offer instead.
Sixth. Men who do drink q little,
keep wines at home, and could not con-
sistently take any action against in
temperance. Some of these think
women would "be best employed teach
ing their sons Temperance principles at
home" They see no inconsistency in
opposing Temperance and teaching it
under the same roof When told that
mothers labor for years to rear up their
boys, teaching them the right, only to
have them slip from their hold at four
teen or sixteen, when they begin to i'm
itate their fathers and the men gen.
orally, whom they know, in smoking
drugged cigars and drinking drugged
liquors 10 make them nldnly-when re-
minded Of this, either they fatty deny
it, or assure us "there must be some
thing wrong with the mothers" Thus
the woman at last is made responsible
for the man without the privilege of say
ing what her own sons shall do while
minors. They cannot see that just be-
cause woman has given all her time,
strength and thoughts TO comparatively
inconsequent duties, not even asking tC
have a voice in ordering public affairs,
society has come to its present deplora-
BILE pass. Again, some men prefer tc
blame the clergy for past indifference,
as an excuse for not sympathizing with
present zeal; while still other men shell
ter themselves behind individual right:
of conscience, and take Gains view o.
the question of moral responsibility,
asking: "Am 1 my brothers keeper p
with lofty contempt for intermeddling
people.
Seventh. A large foreign element
which does not wish to abolish one o.
. its inaIienable rights-to drink beer
Perhaps those who silently resolve Il
use the whisky influence for election
purposes might be elassed under another
head-but every one is acquainted with
them.
From the above classification it viii
be seen that there is plenty Of work fol
Temperance reformers of every belief
It does not signify whether all are o.
one opinion about the particular besi
means to be used. Erery means musi
be used. Every class of opposers mus
be met and overcome. There is work
for everybody. Nothing will more
surely defeat the Temperance cause
than for sectarianism or politics TO un-
dertake its, direction. If it is Gods
work, as the Christian workers claim,
il is not dsnominational work, mol
H@AlN nOAhs NOu 10 ITt6OA-
terian nor Methodist, Baptist nor Epis.
copalian. He is neither Republican mol
Democrat nor Independent. He il
above all these; He is GoD, the Avengel
Of Sin, whom all right-feeling peopl,
will be only too glad and proud to serve
as their duty is Indicated to them by
current events.
But we had no intention of preaching
We were showing the kind of opposi
tion there is to be met in this mos
vital movement Of the times. The pub
lie conscience has been paralyzed, anC
chiefly by whisky. a strictly Temper
ance people could never have fallen int
such abysses Of dishonor as has tn,
American people, in politics and in pub
lie and private morals. Proceeding a
the present rate, in fifty years, or les
. time than that, there will be no sucl
thing known as public probity or pri
vate virtue. The few men whom the
nation felt could be trusted with the
common veal are rapidly passing away
and there are none to fill their places
nor with such a general apathy Of pub.
lie morals shall we ever find any on
whom the mantle Of their greatness car
descend.
II Is then patriotic measure, as well
- q moral and religious one, to adopt
Nuy anu every measure to arrest intem-
Perance' and the long array of couse-
quent evils. Means must he dov,sod !,
touch the "pocket nervaii 81 -. y