The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-06-25
National Prohibition Platform.

National Prohibition Platform.
The Prohibition Reform party of the United
States, organized in the name OF the people to
revive. enforce and perpet0ate In the Govern
ment the doctrines Of the Declaration of Indie.
pendence, submit for the SURFACES of all good
citizens the following platform Of National re-
forms and measures. In the examination and
been proven and Is an accepted truth that alco-
hOlic drinks, whether fermented, hrewed, or
distilled, are poisonous to the healthy human
less, but hurtful, necessarily tending to form
Incorporate habits, increasing greatly the
number, severity and fatal termination Of dis
pOlluting the affections, hardening the heart
ana cOrrupting the morals: depriving many
of reason, and still more of its healthful ex-
ercise, and annually bringing down large num-
bers to untimely graves; producing in the
children OF many who drink prediSpOSitiOn
to lntemperance, insanity and various bodily
and mental diseases, causing diminution of
strength, feeblenesS of vision, hcklenesS of
purpose and premature old age, and prOduc-
ing to all future generations deterioration of
moral and physical character. Alcoholic drinks
vidual.
/. The legalized importation, manufacture
and sale OF Intoxicating drinks ministers to
their use and teaches an erroneous and de-
structive sentiment that such use is right:
thus tending to produce and perpetuate the
aforementioned evils.
q. III Tue uOme lt Is equally an enemy, prov
ing the disturber and destroyer of it's peaces
prosperity and happiness: taking from it the
earnings of the husband, depriving the de-
pendent wife and children of essential food,
clothing and education; bringing into it pro-
family, abuse and violence; setting at naught
the vows OF the marriage altar; breaking up
the family, and sundering the children from
the parents, and thus destroying one of the
most beneficent institutions of our Creator,
and removing the sure foundation for good
government, National prosperity and welfare.
3. To the community it is an enemy prOduc-
ing decentralization, vice and wickedness; its
places of sale being often resorts for gaming,
lewdness and debauchery, and hiding-places Of
those who prey upon society, counteracting
the efficacy of religious effort and of all means
for intellectual elevation, moral purity, social
happiness and the eternal good of mankind,
without rendering any counteracting or COM
erect evil, and only evil, and that continually.
4. To the State it is equally an enemy, Leg
1slative inquiry, judicial investigation and Of
dependent institutions showing that the man
ufacture and sale of such beverages is the pro-
noting cause of intemperance, crime and
pauperism, and of the demands on public and
private charity, imposing the larger part of
taxation, paralyzing thrift. industry, manu-
features and commercial life, which but for it
would be unnecessary; disturbing the peace
of the streets and highways, filling the prisons
and poOr-hOuses, cOrrupting politics, 1e2isla-
ton ilnd the execution of the laws, shortening
lives diminishing health, industry and pro-
manifestly unjust, as well as injurious, to the
community on which IT is imposed, and is con-
trary to all just views of civil liberty, as well
us violation Of the fundamental maxim of
our common law, to use your own property or
liberty SO as not to injure others.
5. 1t iseneither right nor polite for the State
to afford legal protection to any traffic or sys-
rupt social habits, and to destroy the health
and lives of the people; that the importation,
manufacture and sale of Intoxicating bever-
ages is proven to be inimical to the true inter-
ests of the individual, home, community,
State, and destructive to the order and welfare
of society, and ought, therefore, to be c]rssed
among crimes, and be prohibited.
8. In this time of profound peace at home
and abrCa d, the entire separation of the Gen
eral Government from the drink traffic, and
its prohibition in the District OF Columbia, the
Territories and in all places and ways over
which tunder the Constitution Congress has
control or power, is political issue Of the
first importance to the peace and prosperity
OF the Nation. There can be no stable peace.
and no protection to personal liberty, life, or
property, until secured by National and State
constitutional provisions, enforced by ade-
:. All legitimate industries REQUIRE the de-
liverance from taxation and loss which the
liquor traffic imposes upon them, and financial
or other Legislation could not accomplish SO
much to increase the production, and cause a
demand for labor, and, as a result, for the
comforts OF living. as the suppression of this
traffic would bring to thousands of homes "a
8. Tho administration of the Government
and execution of the laws are through politi- |
cal parties, and we arraign the Republican |
party, which has been in continuous power in |
The Nation for twenty years, as being false to |
It's duty; as false to the loudly-prOclaimed |
principles Of equal justice to all, and special |
fav0rs to fne, and OF protection to the weak |
md DEPENDENT" insensible to the mischief |
which the trade in liquor has constantly in
iicted on the industry, trade, commerce and
0cial happiness of the people; that the 1852
# sale of these, poisonous liquors, in
'olving an annual waste to the Nation
II Sl0OOOO,OOO and the sacrifice of a
hundred thousand lives, have under
Is legislation grown up and been fostered as
legitimate source of revenue; that during its
history six Territories have been organized and
i've States admitted into the Union, with Con-
titutions provided and approved by Congress,
ut the prohibition of this debasing and de-
ven the people given, at the time of admission,
he power to forbid it in any one of them. Its
istOry further shows that not in single in
lance has an original PrOhibitOry law been
nacted in any State controlled by it, while in
our States SO governed laws existing on its
dvent to power have been repealed. At its
RATIONAL Convention in 1872, it declared, as part
its party faith, that it disapproves of re-
Ort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose
removing evils by interference with the
ne State or National Government, which, the
uthOr of this plank says, Twas adopted by the
latform Committee with the full and explicit
that its purpose was the dis
of all sO-called TEMPERANCE
'rohibitOry) and Sunday laws
9. We arraign the Democratic party as un. /
,ithful and unworthy of reliance on this ques.
on, for, although not clothed with power but |
the relation of an opposition party
dring twenty years past. strong in numbers
pnvrsDn ,IIs "a