The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-05-15
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT..
EDITED By THE woMEN's CHRISTIAN
~ TEMPERANCE UNION.

llsg
s'KEEP TEMPERANCE OUT OF POLITICS. =
Wherever darkness hroods, there light is
the remedy. Christ says to His followers:
ssBe not overcome, of evil, but overcome
evil with good. ~ 1t is unworthy of our
faith to fear lest He upon whose shoulder
the government shall be cannot purify the
'sStygian pools," if only He is present
| there in the person of His followers.
1.-The times are out of joint Good
men have in great measure withdrawn
from politics and as a natural consequence
machine methods" and s'Bosslsm" pre-
vail. 1t was not always thus. In the early
| days the best Christians and noblest patriots
were part and parcel of the government,
and they must be again or the Republic is
failure. e,s8, fAsas,ig 3el aI
But public measures can enlist good men
only as they involve the welfare of human
ity. The absence of great philanthropic
ideas from politics always marks period
OF decadence. We can only attract the
best characters in the community to caucus
and convention by the assurance that living
| issues will be discussed, and efforts made
for human betterment. What subject
brought out the votes of three hundred
Thousand of Ohio's noblest citizens ? 1t
was temperance in politics." aI llfi
| A party shOuldered that question of con-
stitutional amendment; party sent rep
resentatives to the senate and the house
who voted to submit the great question of
| outlawing the liquor traffic. Only through
parties can we make the slightest move
ment in the realm of law. This is so trite
fasaying that it needs but little illustration
An Ohio, the party that submitted the com
| StitutiOnal amendment lost it's grip, went
back on prohibition and was defeated by
the christian in politics. who voted an
Independent ticket, or, having cast his
ballot ''f0r the amendment, y declined
either to bolt his partyland vote the inde-
pendent ticket, OF to accept the candidates
Of his party knowing they were pledged to
licenses But in Iowa a party has gone,
further, and after submitting prohibition
has stood by it through cloud and sunshine
until it is a fact accomplished. During
the period when temperance people are
working for the adoption of cohstitu-
tional amendment it is wellInot to accent
more strongly than we must, the political
Tor partly feature Of the movement. a9oal
When the statute is secured it's recogni-
tion is inevitable, for then the voting pop
ulation is sharply outlined in two opposing
camps in every municipality; one favorable
to the enforcement of law, the other,
anxious to make it dead letter. all 5hli
|, This is the invariabIei history of the
thirty years war'' for prohibition and
will to the end! but when you have
two opposing camps of voters on the issue
Of making or enforcing prohibitory law
you have temperance in politics" Every
step taken toward inducing the state to 4
go out of partnership with the liquor
traffic is step into politics, a step toward
enlisting the interest of Christian voters
and hencela sure step toward the puri6ea-
ton Of s'the Stygian pool. "e9ml It'll 10
Good men are waking from their leth-
argy. It is no longer regarded as a. Chris
tian act to keep temperance out of poll
tics.'' Wherever the Goliath of the liquor
power sends forth his challenge, there the
temperance Davids rally; and since the
doughty giant is to-day the chief figure in
the political arena, Home versus the Sa-
loon''i the war cry and as the Temperance
soldiers rally for the fray it will be seen
ere long that no party can win in iAmeric a
unless it frankly and earnestly espouses
the cause of HOME. Union Signal! yl2aiei
ExIGov. st. John of Kansas, has just
concluded a most successful lecture trip
in Illinois, speaking nineteen times in this
State. The most fattering reports have
been received from places where he has
spoken. Immense crowds have flocked to
hear his fearless advocacy of prohibition,
the proofs of it's success in Kansas, and
his whitening denunciations Of cowardly |
politicians, who have not thecourage to do
right, ''for fear of hurting the party
He predicts a wonderful breaking up in |
the ranks of the Republican party, if it
still persists in enacting the great politi-
cal show and farce of bearing alofta a
licensed saloon on one shoulder and Sun-
day school ON the other. eii 1ioii aAi ilE I
u The people are tired and Disguised with
s'hob-nobbing politicians wishy- wishy,
high license, pseudo temperance men. and |
are asking to see and to hear men whose
feet are planted on the solid rock and
whose spinal columns are made of bone,
and not of India rubber. issnilt 9<i9 aili =