The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-11-05
TEMPERANCE AND POLITICS.

A meeting OF tho American Temperance Union In
Cooper Institute held yesterday afternoon Pres-
dent Cady In the chair The principal speakers, u
viii be seen, urged their temperance friends to stand
by the prohibition ticket and try TO send mon TO Al
bany who would repeal the obnoxious laws egaliztng
the sale Of liquor. One OF them also presented .
broadsids OF figures showing the extent to which
crime and the burden Of heavy taxation could be
traced TO the liquor business and intemperance.
Mr., c. q Leigh tex-member Of Assembly, said II
there Is any one thing any ono subject the Ameri-
people instructed In II IL drunkenness From
their youth up they have before them. Every paper
take up furnishes . picture In favor OF temper
ance, in The list Of MURDERS assaults, highway rob-
beres and crime In shape. Tho great question
is, How can the American people DO freed
from this terrible evils A number Of plans had
been proposed The women OF the West had
already done work that exactsd the approval
OF temperance people, not only IN THIS coun-
try but In Europe. IL was found that men
could not arrest the curse; but When women-our
mothers wives and daughterstook up the cause they
saved many thousands Yet the fountain head had
not been reached, the great source from which the
evil flowed. Mr.. Murphy had accomplished "A great
deal aud was capable doing more. One error tenn
pcrance make, thought the speaker is that each
nad his sys.em. He was in favor Of a concenIra-
ton OF ali plans and general unity OF effort carry
out iner object me moral and legal aspects OF The
twins; they could not be divided. 10 endeavor to
separate them would be 10 cause the death OF
botn You cannot destroy one and expect 70
legislation was mentioned. He regarded those VINO
claimed TO be temperance men and yet voted the rum
ticket be worse than the boated, blear eyed tot
terpg wretch you in the street. You know him
to be druDkard, but you can't tell what the others
ares further than that, know that they hypo-
critics ana the great stumbling blocks the way Of
temperance reform. In Albany one party had Vt its
head wealthy brewer; IN this city you are asked 70
| to tho temperance cause He would urge ali temper
men, all young men, 10 turn aside from such
| candidates and vote Tor the prohibition ticket
Mr. kauiman'S speech was chte1y devoted TO q pom
derous statistical exhibit OF the evils ana disasters tho
liquor traffic entaiied upon tho county. Alter refer
ring 70 times, the commercial disasters and
cases oil individual distress and mentioning the alleged
causes therefor, he claimed that there overop-
ping all these disorders prime and principal
legazed liquor traffic 1t was their duly 10 put
1t down speedily possible. NO nation can ever
be prosperous happy II the people are gwen 10 in
temperance aud no Legislature is right which makes
1t easy TO do wrong aud SO hard TO do right. The
statistics showing the enormous amount Of money
expended In this country 10 sustain the liquor traffic.
ana bread Il would yield 10 every family IN The land
the traffic were suppressed. He commended that we
drinking every ten years an amount OF liquor that
would quidate The national debt And what have we
he asked, IN return3 Drunkenness, poverty, igno-
rance, vugarity, vice, crime on every hand, acct.
dents by land and sea, pauperism, premature old
age lunacy, prostitution local disorders, destitu-
ton by starvation among the working people.
fno'% SSa bean ascer,nned In Penusyyans
that Iwo-thirds Of the paupcrism and crime In that
State attributable to the liquor traffic The sta
tstics Of Com ssioners OF Charities and Corroc
this oily show that the liquor traffic Ia account
able Tor tnree-ourihs ofthe arrests among men, seven
eighths among and the balance could traced
to the traffic some way other. In Aassachu-
eighty per cont oil the traceable
the trafnc that iour-afths Of the crime have the
same origin and that shero not in ten
where murder or the shedding OF human blood
could not be traced 70 the same eource And yet.
saiu tho speaker, legal1e this traffic.
The speaker held voter responsible for this
oil things He said that both parties were SO full Of
corruption that they could not be- trusted, ana that
Of the temperance reformers ~ TO build
up new parly-shs prohibition party.
Mr.. Palmer and other speakers followed, the Chair
having stated previously shat he expected 10 have the
pleasure of introducing Dr. Crosby Dr. Willard Parker
ana Others from this platform before long.