Smyrna times., 1885-01-21
For the Smyrna ITEMS.
Temperance.
NATIONAL AND POLITICAL.


Mr.. EDITOR Il wish to give a few |
thoughts on the above phases of the |
temperance question, for the consider
alton of both friends and opponents of
the cause.
NATIONAL.
1t is claimed by men, both great and
small, that temperance is not a national
question. The District of Columbia has
for its law-making body the Congress
of the United States. Its representa-
tives are elected by the direct votes of
the people, and its Senators indirectly,
through the Legislatures of the States.
Its present estimated population is
225, 900 Of this number the city of
Washington has 10000. 1t is admit
ted as a fact, for l have seen it so
stated, and not yet disputed, that
Washington is one of the worst drink
cursed cities of the country. l was in
formed by a man of twenty-five or
thirty years of age, who has spent sew
eral years of his life there, probably
most of it, for his father has been a de-
partment clerk for about twenty years,
that the drink habit is general, and on
Saturday nights drinking continues to
a very late hour, and the amount of
Saturday-nigh drunkenness is terrible
During Hayes administration drinking
decreased more than one-half, and the
condition of things became so alarming
to the rum trade that it was common
talk among the clan that they would
soon be starved out if that state of
things continued. Early in Garfield's
administration he was waited on by
committee of the National w. c. II. U,
and requested to take positive stand
for temperance. His reply, while not
entirely satisfactory, gave some en-
couragement to the temperance people.
| Temperance influence at the White
House, however, began to decline;
! the people returned to their old habits !;
| the saloons took courage; their trade
| partially revived the assassin's hand
! put an end to the negative influence
for good, and when Arthur, a society
man, took his seat, the tide of drunk
enness returned and has continued to
! the full satisfaction of the rum traffic to
the present time.
The nation needs temperance legis-
lation in Washington, and more vital
to the cause, if possible, to save all
classes throughout the country from
the awful consequences of drunken
ness, it needs temperance men and
women at the domestic and social head
of the nation Not wickedness in
high places" 1t is a fact as old as his
tory that the influence for good, or evil,
exercised at the head Of the nation,
goes out through all classes and to the
remotest parts, elevating, ennObling
and purifying; or degrading, brutal
iZing and damning.
Many of the most extensive manu-
featuring companies of this country
positively prohibit drinking by their
employees, the penalty for which is an
immediate discharge. Railroad cor
porations have adopted prohibition fUl
all but the hedd obicidis.
Thy nations interests are of a more
diversified character and of immensely
greater magnitude, morally and iinan-
cially, than those of any business cor
pOration in the world. Then why not
insist that every man from the Chic
Magistrate down shall be temperance
man?
Your humble correspondent and his
/
national temperance political cam
paign. We had our hands full in on
own State and did not think it wOulC
result in any good for us to take par
in it, and many of us doubted the wis
dom of the movement anywhere. Blu
were there not some things to iustit!
8 the movement? | presume that mos
of the great temperance workers ar
convinced that temperance Is
national question, and believing thus
! they believed they had a right to b
heard in the National Convention
But while all other matters were wOT
thy of a hearing and found a place to
a plank, even the poor Chinaman L
plank with kick in it), the temper
ance cause was Il "bug-bear beCaus
it antagOnizcs cause the rum traffic
. which is one Of the greatest factors,
!, not the greatest, in politics. MI
Blaine's position on the constitutions
amendment question, no doubt, CAV
force to the movement already organ
lied.
The African slave trade and ruI
) were at one time partners in business
Only about fifty years ago New Ems
land shipped rum to foreign lands an
the same ships returned with Africa
slaves for the Southern States. HO
y consistent, to send bondage and deaf
abroad and bring death and bondag
in return, for often hundreds of I'll
J negroes died on the voyage. | hay
!, no doubt but at some time, while thu
eloquent champion of abolitiOnisn
Wendell Phillips, was laundering h
anathemas against slavery, and d.
u nouncing the Constitution of the Un
- ted States as a "league with He'll an
a covenant with Death" in Faneu
S Hall, down at the wharves of BOstO
~ New England rum was being stowe
away in some ships hold ready Fl
this traffic in human death and bO
dage.
:. In reading Mr.. Blaine's review
to the slavery agitation of thirty yea
Of ago | am struck with the similarity
the features of that, with the exec
. ton of ITS sectional character, to tho
NJ of the present temperance agitatiO
v Both parties were in n measure afra
J of it. The Democrats in the Sou
sought to advance the interests of 81
very those of the North, by their a
ton, to hold together their party. ~
Wings were afraid to join hands wi
the AbolitiOnists and had to 90 dOy
9w to an unherOic grave. No wonder tn
he ex-Secrctary Boutwell, has recent
eGSt said that he believes "the question
20 prohibition is soon to become the gre
he political issue of the country"
Of For further thoughts on this pha
ice of the question, | would recommend
ct careful perusal of 1.-The Situation
as from the pen of Hon. Neal Dow, in t
we National Temperance AdrOcate, for ia
to uary, 1885, a paper that ought to
read by every temperance man.
IN POLITICAL.
I37; Politics are defined as "the scier
hin of civil government" but as genera
lis applied and understood, it means pal
will organization, or aiIiiation. In rega
ur- to temperance, it seeks to go still Fl
ely ther and pronounce as political, vOti
I%.. ors for candidate favorable to local Z
ton or prohibition, or humbly aski
a party to endorse the cause, or in a
ror way selecting and recommending
- party or man through which and
which the cause NAV succeed. I