Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1884-05-29
BY THEW. G. t. u.
An oyersl,a,lowing Question.


> 1t has been said That the end and the
test of good government is the greatest
happiness to the greatest number. If
this be true it must be owned that no
government extantis satisfactorily con-
Quoted. For observation shows that,
as a rule, political energy is expended
upon secondary concerns, while politi-
clans employ all their deXterity in
avoiding action upon the great prob
lens which most deeply involve the
destinies of the masses. There is to-
day in the English-speaking countries
no such tremendous, far-reaching, vital
question as that of drunkenness. In it's
implications and effects it overshadows
everything else. 1t is impossible to
examine any subject connected with
the progress, the civilization, the physi-
cal well-being, the Iellgiou: condition
Of the masses, without encountering
the monstrous evil.
1t lies at the center of all social and
political mischief. 1t paralyzes ener-
gies in every direction. 1t neutralizes
educational agencies. 1t silenccs the
voice of religion. 1t, battles penal re-
form. 1t obstructs political reform.
1t rears aloft a mass of eyilly inspired
power which at every salient point
threatens social and national advance;
which gives to Ignorance and vice q
greater potency than intelligence and
virtue can command: which deprives
the poor of the advantages of modern
progress; which debauches and de-
grades millions, brutalizing and sad
dening them below the plane of healthy
savagery, and filing the centers of pop
ulation with creatures whose condition
almost excuses the immortality which
renders them dangerous to. their gene
ration.
All these evils, all this mischief, all
this destruction of human souls and
lntellects, go on among us daily and
hourly. There are none so ignorant
and inattentive rs not to have personal
experience of some of them; some
hearth darkened; some family scat
tered; some loving heart broken; some
promising career ruined: some deed of
shame done. Yet how hard it is to get
this gigantic evil attacked seriously.
Temp organizations have indeed
been lighting it for years; yet popular
inertia has resisted their utmost efforts.
But has all been done that might and
should have been done by the organized
agencies that represent the higher life :?
What are doctrinal points for example,
compared to this ever-present, ever
active, insidious influence? What are
sectarian differences by the side OF this
national curse? Can the churches fold
their hands and tlatter themselves that
their duties are all fulfilled, While the
masses prefer the saloon to the pulpit,
and while rum rules in politics and So
ciety? Are the higher educational
agencies dong all in their power to ad-
vance civilization While they ignore
this obstacle to progress? Can any po-
litical organization be sad to represent
the best aspirations and the strongest
needs of the people, while this abiding
source of misery and crime and poverty
is allowed to spread and flourish?
There is needed something of that
sacred fire which kindles into mex
tinglnshable heat the zeal Of the aboli-
tionists, which compelled the abandon
ment of human slavery, to rouse the
national indignation and abhorrence
against this much greater evil. Nothing
short OF thus, it is to be feared, will inn
pei time-serving politicians to approach
in a spirit of earneStness subject
which is distastefnl to them manly be-
cause they think they can not afford to
do without the help and support of the
class who derive from the degradation
of the foolish and ignorant the means
whereby they continue to rule and
plunder those whose sagacity is proof
against their snares.--N. Y. Tribune.