The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1877-07-26

tueH poiilcai paper stiIl ventures oi
the unsupported and rash assertion
that prohibition Is a failure, The Cat
City of Keokuk has lately done SO
with the additional rashness. by wa,
of FLIP, that 1.-The best temperanc,
workers" confess it. Dio Lewis i.
named-who certainly does not b. Ions
under that name-and Francis Muir
ply, who does, and is just as certainl.
known to be Maine law man. The
object of such editorial miss,atement.
commonly is, as i'm the case of the Gdtt
titV, to strengthen the argument
against a prohibition plank in a plat,
form, like that recently adopted al
Des Moines, or as il is usually put--to
keep temperance out of politics y
But If the argument itself is good. that
Thereby politics is not brought UP tc
morai purpose; while Temperance
Is dragged down and made the support
OF party policy,"-(as both parties will
always promise falsely, the Guto Cit,J
alleges, on each side rather than per-
form truly to their party disadvan-
tagel lit should stand on its own
strength without being weakened by
accompanying nlisstatements of fact.
There may be good reasons for keep
ing prohibition lank or license
plank out of a platform, but that Irohi
bition has been thoroughly tried and
proved failure is manifestly hot one
of them. 1t might, on the contrary,
be good reason for putting ii in, ii
there were no good reasons of the re-
ally legitimate sort, tand do not say
but there are such, though this is no,
one of them for keeping it out. For
it may be the duty of a party to take
up an issue which the public good re-
quires to have made, and carry il sue
cessfully through, just because it has
been made independently and failed,
and in the nature of things could not
succeed without an access of party
strength. Such was the case of Anti
Slavery, and the Republican party de-
rives its power and glory from its will
lingness to take up and carry through
such issues as the public good requires.
May it never lose them.
To be sure. it never can he the duty
of a political party to make such an
issue of temperance, j. e. the personal
reform of the private drinking habits
Of men and women. A political party
has to do with only such subjects as
are matters of voting and legislation
Private drinking habits can be settled
by neither. Temperance Is no more
one of these than religion. All the
State can do legitimately il, so to Leg
islate as not to hinder or discourage
them. II has no right to do either OF
these. But, to make laws, or to ad-
minister them, to the end OF reforming
individuals from vice of any kind
or from irreligion and sin, is not one
Of its objects. While the taxing of
ch0rches, the tenureo church proper
ty, the protection ofthe rights of those
who have founded them and built ed
ifices vs.. foreign bishops, or corpora
tion sole claiming their property
against them, tfor example). 10 legal
question and q question Of political
economy, and may get into politics"
any time; religion itself cannot with
any propriety. So the State admins
tration and the party platforms have
nothing to do with helping DIR. Rey-
noltis or Mr. Cough reform drunkards
any more than they have with con-
tributing to the success Of Moody and
Sankey in converting sinners. But
the question of liquor selling Is anoth-
er thing, it is subject Of voting and
legislation. and Of political economy,
though temperance is not; just as the
social and civil effects of drinking be
long to political economy though the
morality Of drunkards does not.
And while we all understand, as well
as the Gate CITY, "the folly and wrong
of thrusting temperance INTO politics."
these effects and questions are ia poll
tics, in the best sense of that abused
word, and WiU stay there, and will
emerge ever and anon In the history
of political parties 1t cannot be pre-
vented. The scheining of persons for
office. the theories Of speculative poll
ticians about what questions are polit-
ical and what not, will avail nothing
against common sense and the nature
of things.
The Gate city is evidently Him
formed on the subject of prohibition.
It does not know the facts. Maine has
demonstrated the success of prohibi-
tion. where any thing like fair trial
is had. Neal Dow says that the State
was covered knee deep with temper
ance literature" before they securedit,
but they did it. EVERY governor, ev-
cry attorney general, every State off,
Ger and every senator and representa-
tive In congress for score Of years
has united in bearing witness of the
fact that the open dram shop has al
most passed away Ia Maine" Is that
"failure?" Total .abstinance Ia the
rule, and drinking habits the excep-
tion, among the people.n How is that
for "failure?" Mark, do not say that
prohibiting the sale has made the peo-
pie abstinent, but the reverse, the alb
stinence of the people proves there is
no sale. Under the influence of our
prohibitory laws and the moral agen-
cies which they have supplemented"
says Ex-Gov. Dingley, grand Repub-
lican, 'Maine has made greater pro-
gress than any other State In the
Union, and Is now freer from dram
shops and consequent drinking habits
than any other similar civilized popu-
lation on the face of the earth.n Doe
this look like failure" New Jersey
and Maine have about the same popu-
lation. In 1874 the United States
Commissioner reported $3.50, 600 tax on
liquor In New Jersey. and in Maine
$5l ,0OO-about one-eighteenth az much.
This year Governor Dingley says, mo,
81 900 will be collected In Maine.n