The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-02-15
LIQUOR LEGISLATION AGAIN.

published in the Journal on Friday last, an
nounced for himself and others that they
have allied prohibition to the mast head,
and will be content with nothing less, and
will accept neither local option nor stringent
license DR.. Brown, with the eye of courage
GUS faith, says that in hundred years we shall
have prohibition, when men will not drink
themselves drunken. The Journal can have no
quarrel with those who plant themselves
upon prohibition and oppose everything else,
nor any disagreement except upon the ground
of presentexpediency. Certainly we have said
frequently enough that the believers in pro-
ton should not abate their zeal in its adYo-
cacy, But the point of divergence is as to
what shall be done during the one hundred
years, which it is conceded may possibly
elapse before that preventive can be in effec-
tive operation. 1t is In that hundred years
we must hive, and for one we do not propose
to be driven to join hands with the liquor
league in the advocacy of free and unre-
strained whisky suffering all the evils, the
pauperism, the crime which flow from it.
If our prohibition friends think they are
doing Gods service and indicating them
selves before the people in opposing practi-
cable and attanable legislation in the shape
of high and stringent license law, we can
not helpit. While admiring their zeal we can
hut ri
ledge.
And further: No one knows better than Dr.
Brown, who has the history OF Indiana liquor
legislation at his instant command that the
Democratic party, in its present spirit and
organization, has always been, and will con-
tinue to be- the subservient tool and ally of
the liquor traffic, and that all legislation nav
ing even for It's avowed object the restriction
and regulation of the traffic has come from
and been supported by the Republican party.
What has been true in the past is likely to
be true in the future, and believing that,
sincerely and honestly, treating the matter
above the plane of purely partisan politics,
we are not to be forced into any position that
will be likely to continue the Demo-
government. If professed temperance advo-
Gates can make themselves believe that tenn
perance reform will come the sooner by con-
tributing to the continued supremacy of the
Democratic party. we cannot help it, but We
must respectfully decline to be drawn into
any such attitude ourselves, and shall use all
the influence at our command to prevent
any number of sensible practical, earn
est people from such qualification. 1t will
not do for any set of men, either, to set them
selves up as the only Temperance" men, and
abuse all who may have the temerity to diff
fer from them as to present and attain
able methods. The ark of the covenants
just now in no ones special keeping, and no
shbboleth is necessary to be pronounced by
alton in the work of temperance reform
The Journal recognizes the necessity of rea-
sonable liberality in this regard, and while
having no word of censure for any who are
pursuing their own course in their own way,
feels compelled, in the interests of public
morals and by the consideration of private
wrongs and suffering to urge all, while abat-
ing nothing of zeal in their own par
ticuar propaganda, to unite heartily
and strongly to secure from the pres
ent Legislature the best measure OBJ
70 OF tha avil Of
the liquor traffic. There is general demand
on this line To talk of securing anything
looking toward prohibition, or even to ex-
pect local option, from the present Legisla-
ture, is to expect to gather figs from thistles.
Therefore we would waste no time in futile
work. but go straight 10 the point of asking
license law the most stringent in its provis-
ions, the most easily enforced in its regula-
tons. This even the liquor league in lndi-
ana could not safely antagonize, and the lis
tory of such legislation in other States, where
strction and not to freedom, as in this State,
demonstrates that very much good can be ex-
pected and realized from such statute.
In this connection we call attention TO the
communication of ''R. c." upon this subject.
merely saying that it is from the pen of a
man who has spent the best years of his life
and has grown gray in the cause of tenn
perance reform. His letter. as it seems to
the Journal, is full of sound sense and prac-
teal suggestions. And since the foregoing
was written we have received another letter,
dated from Greencastle, also published in
this issue, which we commend TO general
reading. Like the other, it is from the pen
of one of the most pronounced prohibitonists
in the State, man whose whole life has