The midland journal., 1886-10-15

NIX. LDlTOR:-l mao maze up my mlnO
to remain silent during the campaign, but
at such a time as this, when such large
number of devoted men and women are SO
unsel6shly striving for al noble purpose, it
seems impossible to refuse to do som ething
though little it be, to assist them in resist
ing foe that costs 100000, and destroys
$4,000 lives annually, before which war,
pestilence and famine pale into insignifi-
cance Horrors that no writer or speaker
has ever been able to hold up to view and
which can only be compared to the serpent
as he draws his Shiny folds through the
kissing, seething ashes of hell, and as all
true temperance people agree on the horrors
of intemperance and disagree only as to the
best mode of promoting temperance I re-
gard it as impei eiative for us to choose the
least of two evils, both laws being imperfect,
both ,sumptuary if you please in legal
sense, andlas defended by Webster and Wor
cester. Hence we can only look to the re-
suits of both laws, and candidly ask our
selves which we shall choose as rational
creatures, keeping in view the greatest good
to the g:eatest numbers.
The license system has been in force Gen.
turies and if it has ever saved one man from
drunkard's grave or softened the dying
pillow of one of Gods unfortunates 1 don't
know it; under its workings even ministers
of the Gospel used it at the family gather
ing upon every public occasion. Its use
was deemed as necessary as water. The re-
suits of such system can never be told
short of the final day of all accounts, its hon.
or being such that man in his desire to bet
ter the condition of his fellow man looked
about for some remedy. Hating, weak and
feeble though it may be, and always fear
will be, until the manufacture, and sale of
liquor is prohibited by the Constitution
of the U. .. The remedy in question is any
one that opposes liquor selling, one that ag
itates and by every known means confront
it in public and private, eyer presenting
solid front to the foe of all good. Prob lbi-
tion is doing this to the best of its ability.
That it is surely and steadily gaining ground
No one can deny. its cause is truth and right
and must prevail.
The analogy between this evil and slav-
cry is close and it is my candid opinion
that but for the war declared to abolish
slavery Prohibition would have been practi-
cally settled as there is universal desire to
do something to put an end to it.
The great heart of the nation is torn and
bleeding from the terrible effects of inte m
perance. Chulcl, school and family are
aroused and at work and it will not be
long ere it will burst in a storm of indigna-
tion that nothing can Withstand, not like its
great twin sister slavery. to be subdued or
wiped out by blood, but by the onward un-
irrestible force of public sentiment. And in
face of all this it surely is not the time to
indulge in special pleading as to sumpt-
uary laws which really have no force
in the U. S. and to split hairs
as to which is the better law; but to
write temperance on our banner and
forward by single file, hy companies, by
battahons, by regiments, by army corps;
yes, by armies composed Of every man
women and child in the Union, till the
greatest of known evils is conquered.
DR.. Crosby one Of the greatest op-
posers of prohibition says the saloon
must 20, but does not say how it is
to be done. Can it be done in any 9th,
er way than to agitate and oppose it by
all known mean? Such l regard the
work of prohibition and as such
will support it. l never had any doubt
of the final result, but when was con
vinced that temperance people were re.
living on a law to enforce itself, that
the only way was to do something to
arouse them to enforce the present law
or get better one. How could this
be better accomplished than to give
them high license law side by side
with local option law, made stronger
and better by amendments, which al.
though it may fail to some extent. will
be the best that can be done an its pas