The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-05-24

Eot"o Vi hepuDllcan. Inc only question
between them is control of the offices,
and the fight is too one-sided for enthu,
slasm; but to allow the Prohibition
Amendment to be beaten is to put the
cause IN Ohio back decade.
Inc threadbare lie that Prohibition
dom prohibit, has grown too old to be
novelty, but it will not prohibit unless
there IS a public opinion behind it that
Will enforce it, and this public opinion
there is very little attempt at making.
Pr0mbltlon of murder don't prohibit it
IN Leadville, or in our county, for that
matter; but it can check it when public
opinion stands behind the law. No one
expects to enforce temperance, chastity
or decency in Cincinnati, but no more did
they in Sodom. Because drunken de-
bauchery runs riot in Cincinnati, there is
no reason why the State must stagger on
for one of the worst in the Union on the
liquor question. prohibition don't pro-
hlblt,' cries the Commercial, E7lQatire1,
and the whole pack; yet they are fear
1u!ly anxious to prevent the experiment
being tried. After all we have a suspi-
clon that they fear it might. 1t was the
writer's fortune once to do what few
Ohioans have done live two years under
Prohibition, and to learn that Prohibition
does prohibit, if public opinion will stand
behind it.
To make public opinion that will give
us prohibition and then see it enforced, is
the duty of the hour. In all ages, climes
and lands, the drink crime has been the
worlds omnipresent curse, blighting in
its demon sway homes and prosperity,
life and place, wherever it has gone. 1t
is very easy to cry out that property rights
must be respected. So they used to tell
us those of the shareholders must be, but
in the fierce blaze Of civil war, property
in man was lost sight Of 1t may yet be
in the effort to free our homes and fire.
sides from the drink curse.
| The crisis presses on us, the lines are
| forming for the second great struggle of
our century. In this fight there is no
room for neutralS. Young men, young
women of to-day, where are you going to
stand in this struggle? Said Jesus once,
"He that is not for me is against me, he
that gathereth not with me scattereth
abroad" Weneed thorough organization
take all this century and half the next
but it is to be won all the same. RevOlu-
tiOns backed by moral ideas never fail.
''They ever win who toll in great cause,
The block may soak their gore,
Their heads be strung to palace gates and castle walls
But still their spirit walks abroad.
And even if another half million of the
nations best and bravest fall, the result
is sure. 1t is not a question of this party
or that, of one church or another, of faith
or unfaith, of creed or faction-it is a
question of humanity.
Along the pathway Of time we can
trace the graves of dead empires, and
nearly all of them have carved on theil
tombs "died of drunken viciousness and
debauchery." The drink demon dragged
Persia, Greece, Rome, down to ruin. II
will drag us just as surely if left un
checked. Who will take the lead, and or
ganiZe the work? In all great move
ments the hour and the man must
coincide. The hour has struck, but the
leader in Ohio is not in sight. Who will
take the van and lead the host of Prohi.
bition to success? The Peter the Hermit
of a new cusade, the Washington of g
new revolution? He must be man wht
can write all the discordant elements, ant
not be too careful as to the past afinitie:
of his followers.
"Yes," some one says, "all temperance
movements have failed" So the priests
said when Jesus was crucified. The worlC
to-day thinks otherwise Each new
movement has merely carried the f1oOt
line Of the temperance agitation a littl'
higher. 1t has about driven all nativ'
Americans, and all self respecting citizens
out of the liquor trade. 1t has made NOR
progress in 80 years than the Christian
religion made in the first four hundred.
Elijah once stood on Carmers brow ant
propounded to waiting Israel the solemn
question, "why halt ye between two Opin
ions? If God be the Lord, serve him
but if Baal, then serve him. To US, ther
is no room for halting; we must decide
and decide at once, for the drink crime o.
against it.
"The Crisis presses on;
Face to face with us 1t stands;
With solemn lips of question,
the CnIi TN