Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-07-19
The Future Of the Temperance Cause.

Why do many good persons VINO nate the
liquor system refuse 10 contend against it
Is II because they are clearer headed and
more practical temperance men and do not
believe in Quixotic enterprises Though
not afraid of any labor that promises re-
suits, vet they do not believe in lsboring
for naught. Neither are they towards who
run because an enemy is near but we are
assured, they simply decline TO waste mar
tial energy warning against the impossible.
In other words, they claim, sorrowfully but
with confidence, that intemperance can
never be mastered and that effort in that di-
rection is necessarily misspent, and that
| therefore really sound-minded persons can.
not be expected to do so foolish thing as
waste time, money and strength in temper
ance work.
Granting this premise, is their conclusion
sound II, indeed, the rum system is des-
tined TO live forever, do they well not to OPP
pose it In things pertaining to morals is
It folly to aim at the seemingly unattain-
able ? And is it madness to persist even
where failure seems foreordained2 But is
their premise sound This question is the
more important because Of the large num-
Der and often high character of those who
are kept idle by the conviction that no
weapon formed against alcohol can possibly
prevail. Many Christian ministers are OF
this opinion, and for this reason have no
heart to preach temperance sermons or in
| any way TO cooperate with temperance
workers. They cannot persuade themselves
to accept the leadership of men who seem
to them unsound in judgment. Business
men, very generally, take the same view.
| They are nothing if not practical. They
| are ready TO aid any good cause that prom
| ioao fruit IIanoa thay 0iua millions tn m
sions and other benefcent enterprises, but
not one dollar to temperance work, although
| they desire to see the end of intemperance,
and would cheerfully give literally if they
did not feel certain that it would be throw
| ing money away. Many journalists, also,
would be glad to lend their aid to the war
against strong drink if they could see any
chance of success. But they do not feel
called upon to make martyrs of themselves
for nothing, and hence are silent, though
often their blood bols with indignation at
what they see.
A similar thing may be said of Christian
voters. Holding the government in their
own hands, they might easily do as they
pleased. But, not knowing their own
strength, they are also paraly zed by fear Of
failure, and shrink from throwing away
their votes" 1t is a startling phenomenon
that good men will continue to vote for an
evil which they profess to hate simply be-
cause they think it useless to vote against
it, 1t is sometimes said that men fought
to vote as they pray" They generally do.
Men who really pray against intemperance
vote against it. A prayer is an expression
of the souls sincere desire. So is an honest
ballot. When a man has not faith enough
in a cause to vote for it, he is in no condition
really to pray for it, though he may "say j"
his prayers.
| The writer believes in the duty of oppos-
ing evil even if failure seems certain. Men
owe it to themselves uncompromisingly to
resist whatever is clearly wrong. God may
be left to take care of results. One good
end is always gained-the heart is kept right
and the hands clean. A passive attitude in
presence of any confessed and aggressive
wrong is cowardly and wicked. But our
present purpose is to ask reconsideration
Of the conclusion so generally reached that
1" it is impossible to destroy the liquor sys-
tenn" On the contrary, we claim that it is
not at all unreasonable to expect the ulti-
mate success of the temperance movement.
Let the general assumption that failure is
inevitable be removed from the minds of
men and the cause of temperance will at
once receive reinforcements of such quality
and in such countless numbers as to make
triumph speedy.
The certain failure theory rests only on
assumptions. There is no evidence to sup
port it. 1t is not true, as claimed, that man
kind have natural craving for alcoholic
stimuants. The taste for strong drink is
cultivated and propagated by the liquor sys-
tenn for the sake of the money profit to be
secured. This is the sum of the whole mat
ter. Make the business Improbable and it
will at once perish. Let the business be
put out of existence, and there will be an
end of misunderstanding. The thing is not,
as so many fancy, necessary part OF the
established order of things. 1t is man-made,
is of modern origin, and may by man be
ended.
Let it be remembered that all the great
evils of the world have been successfully
overthrown by advancing civilization. His
tory is an exciting record of irrepressible
conflicts usually resulting in the triumph OF
the right over the wrong. Always the strug-
gle has been prolonged and the result rem
dered doubtful for time by the fact that
many of those who would have been glad to
see the good cause win felt sure it could not
prevail. But always through the inspired
herosm of determined few the point has
been reached at length when success began
to look possible. At that moment has com.
menced the great uprising, then the final
charge and the glorious victory. 1t has
been as when an avalanche has swept the
path. So it must be in the struggle with
intemperance.
| Let all good persons assure themselves,
now once for all, that the perpetual ascend
ency of the liquor system is impossible il
the very nature of things, and that its
downfall must inevitably result from the
operation of agencies now at work, whos'
activity no power can check, because their
origin is in God.-Geo. X. Morris, D. d.