Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-01

Ring in full redemption III the golden To-day,
But set the old chorus TO Freedoms new lay.
Mrs. Mary A. Leavtit.
Take the Tax OH Whisky.
This is n plank in ON platform;
and it is q plank neither green nor
worm-eaten, but sound and consistent
with that perfect temperance we labor
to promoth. The liquor dealer wants
whisky free that thereby he may make
more men his slaves; we want it free
that thereby the government may cease
to be it's friend and become it's enemy
to help us thrust the thing itself into
bondage-a distinction, we trust, that
will caution Sir Dealer against taking
comfort from ottr position, and Sir Reg
ulatdr against thinking us gone daft.
Let the government get rid Of it's two
hundred millions Of stock in the de-
strictioh of the lives, souls, morals.
manner and property of the people, and
resolve to invest in nothing that will
not produce revenue to the people, not
out Of them, and promote manhood and
virtue among them, and that moment
it's present friendship for distilling and
saloon-keeping will turn to the most
wholesome hostility.
Thus the interest and patronage of
"the powers that be" would become the
allies of temperance and cease to be
the allies Of drunkenness. For there is
a kind of personal instinct and con-
science in even the government which
warn it into opposition to whatever is
VIGOROUSLY damaging to the people:
that is if it be not paid to shut its eyes
and swear that black is white. But so
long as the government is getting for
every gallon Of liquor sold more than
four times What the manufacturer gets.
it is committed by both a sham self in
terest and the rule Of ''honor among
thieves" to espouSe the side OF liquor
against the individual it is created to
aid and protect. So long as the partner
Of the rObber gets his dividend from
the spolls, he keeps silent though his
brother suffer, unless conscience loose
his tongue. Hence if Congress shall
dissolve the partnership between gov
eminent and whisky by abolishing the
tax on the iniquity and its traffic. we
shall hail the act as that of returning
public conscience.
But it must all come Off, so that the
nation may step out of the saloon Who'll
ly converted TO the faith that q sober
people is clearer and stronger than a
drunken people. We see no virtue in
a reduction Of the tax, but great virtue
in its abolition, government pocketing
five cents per gallon would be the same
criminal it is on the ninety cent reve-
nue.. We would take the tax off whis-
ky, because. also, the example Of the
national government is contagious
among states, towns and individuals.
What the supreme law and organiza-
tioh Of the country foster. the minor
laws and corporations learn not only to
tolerate but to encourage, thinking
themselves thus in the wake Of great
example, as they are.
And, above all other influences, the
fact that laws, great and small, form
the liquor traffic en- shares, so habitates
the multitude OF men to it's presence
and the humbug that public revenue
from it ave them more tax than it
makes them, that they are swindled i'll
to the idea that it cannot be stopped,
and that it is q necessary evil, hence
all right for them to take toll out of it's
evil gains. But If ore wish to settle
for himself the question whether his
favoring a tax, license or revenue Of
any sort from the liquor traffic be NOR
al, or criminal, let him suppose that his
pro-rata share in the tax, license or
revenue was offered HIM directly and
Individually, not through the benumb-
ing medium Of the public treasury,
would he take it? Not if he be honest.
Yet he Just as certainly does take it.
Would he accept q dime Or g dollar q
month from the saloons Of his town as
the price Of his vote in favor Of public
convenience with them? He would
resent the money and the insult togeth-
er. Yet the friend OF whisky revenue
clearly, does pocket the money and bar
ter his self respect for the insult.
Would he make the entry on his cash
book: "Receiyed from Bum Traffic, $40,
as dividend on my vote for license"'
No; but it gees down on the supreme
cash book. Also for each and every
mischief and infamy committed by
whisky which the politicians have
made tie public an unwilling stock
holder in, could the tax collector call
on the ceVenuehohpyisG for his pr0-r&t&
tax to meet the damage and show him
at the end of the year that his whisky
assessments were seven or eight times
his whisky dividends would he again
vote for any sort Of town, state Or ma
tiOnal collision with the lratcp Not