Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-05-22
and many other necessary comforts O

question Involved. The money is giveI
without the slightest expectation OF {
naOnied return.-The saloon keeper con
tributes to the fund with which to EN-
ploy attorneys, buy perjred witnesse!
and jurors, or in fact, to do anything, Il
defeat the law, with the expectation thai
if he is successful and is permitted tc
continue his business his money has
been profitably expended.
Producers and regular merchants are
double losers-they lose LIST, in their di
minished trade with the patrons of the
liquor traffic through their inability to
purchase, and I'd, they are compelled by
law, to provide for the drunkard from
the time he becomes a public charge as
criminal or pauper.
1t is time that we, too, we're beginning
to examine the financial side of this
question. Just as surely as we are sue
cessful in stopping the sale of liquor as
a beverage, just as surely and to the same
extent the money which now goes into
saloons will 20 into shoes, food, clothes,
and better homes for the haifstarved
wife and children of druDkards, and will
ultimately find its way into the till ofthe
farmer, the miller, the lumberman, and
the grocer. The doctor, the lawyer and
the undertaken, alone, among the legit-
innate callings, will lose by the closing of
the saloons.
Temperance people are unanimous in
their denunciations of the results, means,
and causes lot intemperance, but here
their unanimity ends, and in this is our
greatest danger. There are almost as
many plans for the abolition Of this traf-
fic as there are temperance advocates.
We see in this problem, which is now
upon us, the necessity of unanimity Of
plan and action. This harmony can
never be attained if the spirit of intol-
erance pervades our deliberations. Let
us gladly hear all that friends or foes
have to say. Let US examine carefully
and candidly every proposition Of pro-
posed truth, and from the many and di-
versified proposed plans we will yet dis
cover that which we all SO earnestly de-
sire-a solution.
In our desire to be fair and candid, we
must not mistake terms. We must not
abandon well considered position SIM
ply because an adversary attacks it, but
only when experience or logic proves it
untenable.
In our desire to unity, We must not
mistake moderation for surrender, nor
must we accept a compromise as solution.
1t would be well if al the people who
see and deprecate the devastating effects
of the liquor traffic, could and would
unite upon plan to accomplish a com.
mon end, but this is more than we can
reasonably expect 30 early in the conflict.
It is only after long conflict for the su-
premacy of factions or in tho presence OF
great danger from a dommon foe, that
factions lay aside their pccuiiarites and
unite upon common ground, determined
by present necessity. If the temperance
people of all factions continue the strug-
gle they have so bravely begun, the
jostling of opposing ideas, the very logic
of events will force them into line and on
to glorious victory For years the OPP
position Of lavery took almost as many
forms as there were individual abb lition.
ists Many believed In colonizat. on and
large sums OF money we're expended in
the furtherance ofthat scheme. Others
thought 70 puy the slaves and set them
free. Others thought if slavery was con-
fined within tt hen limits, it would die
of its own infamy. while our own John
Brown, whose brave soul is still march,
ing On, thought to destroy it by one fell
sweep py the slaves themselves. While .
these factions were upbraiding each
other and contending for supremacy,
slavery itself came to the rescue, and the
boom of the first gun at Fort Sumpter
unified the liberty-loving hearts of the
land, and slavery fell by the united effort
of once belligerent factions. Do not the
signs of the times argue similar though
not 80 bloody a cause for harmony? Is /,
not the IroQuois letter at least faini
sign that our ald-tlme enemy will yet &C
commodate us? If not in "a at least in
'8S will not the National Democratic
party espouse the cause Of the dramseiler
and force us to drop our little differences
rs to methods of aggressive warfare, and
unite upon a necessary plan of defense?
Civilization is growth by virtue of
the peculiar environments of a people,
and that growth can no more be retard-
ed than any other great law of nature
and natures God can be set at naught
The seed falling in the crevice of
the rock where it has soil,
heat, light and moisture, bursts the great
rock asunder by the simple power of
vegetable growth. Society advances in
civilization by laws just as certain and
still more powernal, and the man or the
party toat becomes an obstacle in the
way Of its psegress must abandon the
POSITION or go down before it
While it is our duty to concilfate each
,the. let Is remember that our common
enemy deserves no such consideration at
,ur hands
At the close of his remarks Mr.. WEIGH
introduced Judye s O. Thacher of Law. .
ence. who spoke at considerable length ,
% follows:
TEACHERS Address
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen.
The most cursory outlook shows how
widespread and earnest is the thought
IF society on the question oftemperance. {
It is moral in its bearing and object, and
hence pnlisfA the nohlasf and hest an