Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-05-18

es. We frankly say that this League is,
in its constitution, a protest against a
political temperance party.
The object of this organization is to af
ford medium of temperance effort to
large numbers who have not hitherto Ia
bored in this line of reform; and others
who have been repealed from their former
temperance labors by the revulsion Oc-
casioned by recent events, and others
who are jealous lest they be brought into
relations which will give quasi support
to ''third party measures. On lines Of
practical temperance reform, we propose
to stand shoulder to shoulder with all
true temperance workers. Practical tenn
perance will generally constitute the sta
pie topics of our public meetings. But
to-day, and probably on some other occa-
sions also, we emphasize our non-partisan
characteristic.
Observation convinces us that those
temperance advocates who take an active
part in partisan temperance lose their
zeal in practical temperance work. There
are exceptions, but how many dwindle to
mere partisans. These partisan leaders
wonder that all temperance people will
not follow their leadership; but we have
learned to distrust men when they be-
come intense, trimming partisans. Party
politics often arouse the lower elements
of human nature, and then partisanship
dominates over principle. This is as con-
spicuous in temperance partisanship as
in any other. To drag moral and social
reform, however good the cause, into the
arena Of bitter partisan contests, and in
volve it in the swirl of struggles for par
ty offices, can only harm it. The reform
element soon deteriorates under such in
fuences, and personal ambition gains the
ascendancy. Hence it has often been no.
ticed that partisans are not proverbial for
their undue anxiety to promote reform.
The experience of English reformers is
full of instruction. They have worked,
each within his own party, and also in
organizations formed outside of the par
ties. A writer in an English paper re-
Gently said: eve have always had to
form outside organizations to bring pres
sure to bear on the parties, to wit: the
Anti-Slavery Society, the Reform League,
the Anti-Corn Law League, ETC., etc"
The Anti-Corn Law League was parallel
to the position Of the non partisan tenn
perance organizations of our times.
During all this century two parties
have figured in English politics, the
Wings, more recently called Liberals, and
the Tories, now generally called Conserv-
atives. But what great reforms have
been effected-the abolition of slavery in
the British Empire, the repeal Of the corn
laws, the free trade reforms, &C., SC.
None of these great reforms had dis
tinct political party; nor was there ever
any great reform measure carried in Eng
land by political party organized for
that end. The organizations have been
outside of the parties. The popular mind
has been penetrated by the agitation of
the questions involved, that caucuses and
Legislatures have felt the popular demand,
and thus the reforms have been transmit
ted from the hearts of the people into the
statutes and DEGREES of the State. How
much wiser than to link snch reforms
with the fiuctuating fortunes Of a politi-
cal party, the ups and downs of polit-
ical Adventures.
Any true reform touching an evil which
involves moral and social interests so va
ried, so vital and so widespread in mod
ern society as the suppression of intem-
perance, is too deep and broad for any
single political party to settle.