The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-10-24

ing, that appeals are made to passion,
to prejudice, and that elections come
full often enough for the nations
good.
BY merest courtesy, we permit to
be read as true the posters on bill
boards and fences and rocks, that the
Hon. Blank "will discuss the politi-
cal questions of the day." We main
ly expect that a mixture of misquoted
history, of garbled figures, of unwar-
ranted accusations and stale jokes
will make up partisan harangue.
No party is free from the charges
thus preferred. and the people love to
have il so. / have sometimes fancied
that it would be an admirable thing
to have in every locality an unparti
san committee to attend political
meetings and review the speeches
made, and by mutual understanding
let the people "boycott" those who
are not in the main true to the facts
Of history, that people might be kept
from untruths, and find party affilia-
tions on the basis of real differences
of principle.
am led to make these general re,
marks because of o belief that the
paramount problem for this Nation
to solve is the temperance question;
because that question touches so
closely the individual, on account Of
the results of intemperance in the
person, and the effects wrought by it
upon others; because it is purely un.
sectional; because it is necessarily
political, and therefore demands for
its solution an intelligence and mo-
ralty of the very highest kind.
Glance a moment at these propo.
sitions. 1t is the paramount problem
for the Nation to solve, because it is
related directly or indirectly with
more crime, more poverty, more ig-
norance than anything else.
In short, intemperance is the vice
of vices, the mother of crimes. 1t
is more merciless than the scourge,
more relentless than the sword, more
insidious than any pest. Bewildering
statistics meet the pallld form of
thought to stagger it into faintness as
we attempt to measure their unmeas-
urable proportions. All taxation
pales into insignifcance when meas
ured beside the tax imposed by it.
The most extravagant expenditures
of unthrift, either personal, state or
national, take on the dullest glow of
pinched economy when measured be-
side the wasted resources burned to
this Molock of our times. If the
duty of telling the foe that would as.
sassinate the Nation resides in the Ma
ton, then must the Nation fell this,
its paramount and most perplexing
problem.
|
The question touches the individ-
ual more closely than any other ques-
tion. 1t touches through appetite;
latent in the blood of our nation by
inheritance; developed in various de-
grees in vaster army than ever war
rior led. From the youth, whose
blood feels the first exhilerating ef-
fects of what poetry calls the Swine
cup" but modern custom denomin-
ates "the beer schooner" on to him
who deleriously raves for some one to
remove the cursed thing, and then
curses the kindness that tries to do it,
the victims Of the vice are found.
1t touches through a0a,7te vast
army who gain somewhat OF this
worlds goods at the expense Of the
besotted, the bereaved, the neglected
and crushed ones.
1t touches through ambition the
demagogue, who uses it to foist him.
self into notoriety and power.
1t touches the hearth and quenches
the fire; the feet, and strips off the
shoes, the bed, and stripping it,
leaves only the bare floor and the few
rags with which to resist the colds of
winter or the damps of summer. 1t
touches the stomach and pinches it
| into hunger II mrs ifs uhastlv fin