The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-19

II ~
latine the divine law formulated in the Bible.
| incorporated in the human heart inwrought into
the body rolitic.
! 1t may be questioned whether we have legisla-
ton enough to last fifty years. but we have
| enough for the present Legislation is already
| far in advance of public sentiment too far, as
| we have seen, for it to feel the spur of public
! sentiment OF little town in Massachusetts
| the citizens,- in town meeting assembled, voted
| for prohibition and against license by vote Of
SO to l. and they appropriated $500 to enforce the
law. In that village were opened. during the
ensuing year, three houses where LIQUOR was
sold where anyone could, and many did, freely
buy, without attempt at let or hindrance or
| prosecution. What could more law do for them}
Public sentiment was strong enough to enact
| law, but not strong enough to enforce it when
enacted; strong enough to forbid selling but not
strong enough to prevent drinking
Its appalling to see well meaning persons
turn away from present work which, though
difficult. is not impossible to future work whose
impossi5ility is not less because not Immediately
demonstrable. Instead Of bringing the COM
munity up to the execution Of laws already
enacted, by machinery already existing, we
clamor for new laws, for a constitutional
amendment. for the womans ballot.
In prohibitory State, shortly after the Novem-
Der election, heard clergyman, who had seen,
| apparently, in the whole campaign nothing but
prohioitory amendment to the Constitution,
| deliver sermon on the prevalence OF drunken
ness In his own city, the crimes consequent, and
and the great neglect of duty in the enforcement
| OF liquor lawsl II the appetite of drunken men
is too strong, if the conscience of temperate men
| is too weak. for the laws that inclose them at
| home, what is to be effected by future law at
| the center of government thousand miles
away The one enemy to be grappled with lie a
consuming thirst and weak will in the indi-
vidual man. Few weapons are further off or
more Intellectual than an amendment to the
national Constitution. What is wanted is an
amendment to the mans own constitution. Far
more practical and pointed is the truth contained
In the pithy philosophy that the only way to re-
form man is to reform his grandmother We
may find this hard, but less hard than to reform
man by act OF Congress or by three-fourths
vote of the States. The grandmothers of the
drunkards of the future are closer to us than
constitutional amendment that shall prohibit and
prevent the manufacture of intoxicating liquors.
Here women can lay hold on temperance with
mighty hand The president of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union claims that the en-
forcement ballot of the Nation must be womans,
because-because women, as a class, are free
from the appetite for drink! This is foreor-
dained failure. Not one step is ever made by
resisting somebody's else temptation Mans
appetite. pitted against womans muscle, will
always win. What women cannot accomplish
by moral power they cannot accomplish by
physical power, because men stronger than
women. A ballot is not might any more than
| bank note is money The bank note, by common
agreement, passes for money and is convenient
device. The ballot by the common consent of
the highest civilization, stands for physical
power, and is even more convenient. 1t would
be very clumsy to fight out every election, but
voting it out would be Of no use except to show
| that it could be fought out if necessary. A low
civilization in the Democratic party in 1860 re-
fused to let the ballot stand for physical power but
found, after four years of fighting, that physical
power was what the ballot meant. A very low
| form of the civilization in the Democratic party
In Albany, in November, 1884 threatened to
make another trial of the same kind, which
would have the same result with even more en-
phasis. Women make a great mistake in
Stunning that ballot is but piece of paper,
which a woman can drop into box just as easily
| as a man. A ballot means a bullet and bayo-
net, forced marches, digging trenches, sleeping
on the ground. carrying knapsack. Physical
force, whenever needed. must be administered
| by men. The physical power of women is not
even a factor in the political problem In our
civilization she never has been. and she never
will be, called upon to lift her hand in the en-
forcement Of law, any more than if she did
not possess hand No access of women
voters would bring any access of material
strength to the Nation No access of woman
prohbtionists will lend any material strength
to the enforcement of the law. Whatever
| women cannot do by moral power, by spiritual
| energy, they cannot do at all AS long as men
will to drink, drink they will. Women do eff
fective temperance work just so far as they free
men from the appetite for drink and no further
Prohibition is valuable just so far as it helps to
free men from the appetite for drink and not
one step further. The only preventive of drunk
enness is character. The only remedy for
drunkenness is character-and, possibly they
now say, cocaiae The formation and develop
ment Of character is woman's business. The
cure of souls is her mission work The child
that is built up strongly within, increasing in
wisdom as he increases in stature. disciplined,
sef-controlled under the reign of law, will never
he Ivrxx, Nd - I.,slL
being is no easy work. but it is an easier work
than, after he had shambied thrust his way
up into violent, indolent, self-indulgent, weak
willed adult, to keep him from continually laps
ing into degradation Whatever can be done to
shield this unhappy creature from temptation,
without trenchlng upon the personal liberty of
the unfallen it is the eager desire Of all temper
| ate persons to do; but when that is done the
hardest work remains-to build up the man him
| self, to supplement the defects Of his training
| TO substitute healthy for diseased tissue to
| change weakness into strength. This is hard;
but if it is impossible, then all temperance work
| is futile Societies, pledges, platforms, legsla-
| ton, are worth only their effect on the drunk
| ards tissues on the drunkards will Audiences
| gathered, newspapers circulated, towns visited,
| are no test whatever Of work done. Men res
cued from low habits, children reared to high
tastes, an orderly and elevated social life--by
| that sign alone we conquer.
The only hope of an unrestricted liquor traffic
is the Democratic party, and the one hope Of the
Democratic party is the Prohibition party. Be-
| fore temperance as public sentiment as NOR
| al principle, as manly habit, the saloons must
| go down. AS political plank, as an election
| contest. as a constitutional amendment, temper
| ance is a mere diversion from the main issue, is
not feared is indeed desired, by the Democratic
| party. There is not State in which they do
| not hail it as relief from impending immediate
| danger. lntemperance apprehendS no harm to
| its craft from the Prohibition party while abso-
| lutism is always endangered by the triumph of
| the Republican party. The Democratic party,
| of all men, has no chance before the peonle! In
the South. where the Democratic party has in
trenched itself by force political prohibition is
not suffered to move the wing or open the
mouth or peep. In Georgia three-fourths of the
counties enforce prohibitions in Georgia. of
total vote of 143 6l0, the Prohibition candidate