The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-02-10
Temperance and Politics.

AS the opponents of the political tenn
perance movement are sometimes de-
nounced by its advocates as hostile to
the best interests of the temperance
cause, it may be of interest to note how
two of the great temperance workers of
the age regard the third party scheme.
William Noble, the English temperance
agitator, who has organized hundreds
of temperance clubs in Great Britain,
said, recently: "The work in England
is directed at the individual, and not at
the state. We believe in educating the
nation through the individual. You
cannot secure laws or enforce them
without having the sentiment of the
people properly directed. In Massa-
chusetts, in one of the towns l was in
recently, they had adopted local option,
and were organizing a law and order
society to enforce the new law. If
public opinion had been properly edu-
Gated to the passage of the law, they
would no more have been obliged to
form such society than they would to
organize to enforce the law against
burglary. 1t was useless to pass the
law without public sentiment to ap-
prove it," Mr.. Noble further remarked:
81 recognize that there are a great
many noble men and women in the
prohibition party movement. l think
they are making mistake for the
cause. see vast difference between
the warm and sympathetic temperance
movement, as it existed here in 1877,
and the present condition of things.
The contrast is very marked. There
is no 'go' in the present movement.
If you attend meeting, the question of
temperance is dealt with in the abstract
The speakers talk about what we would
do if we had the power and control of
the government. They have no words
of sympathy to drop in the ear of the
drinker to encourage him to begin a
new life. In 1877 the talk was all for
the individual, and in succoring the
poor fellows addicted to drink the con-
test grew large and great. If l was
living in America l should be repub-
lican, and l would not under any cir
cumstances encourage a party temper
ance movement. regard it as essen
TALLY dangerous to the cause itself.
Why, in Ohio they told me that after
all their agitation they are to-day worse
off in the matter of saloons and drink
ing than they were twenty years ago;
the laws are worse now than they were
then, and such laws as are on the statute
books are enforced with laxness and
even become dead letters. 1t would
not be so if the temperance movement
was still in the line of moral suasion."
Francis Murphy, in arecent interview
in Ohio, said he had no objection what
ever to stopping the use of whiskey as
quickly as possible; but his idea is that
this object can better be secured by
closing the mouths of consumers, by
personal appeals and persuasion and
by a pledge-signing crusade. Under
his method of work, pledges have been
signed by ninety-five thousand persons
in Philadelphia, thirty thousand in
Cleveland and large numbers in other
places. He says he has had little as
sistance from the political prohibition
lists, because they aim to influence men
by law and not by moral suasion. OF
the third party movement in Ohio. he
says; "The organization of prohibit
ton party to promote the cause of tenn
perance in the state is, | believe, the
worst thing that could happen. 1t
makes divided house. We must di-
vide on something else. The very power
by which temperance work has been
made success is absolutely killed by
the party. Men and women who have
joined themselves to the prohibition
party declare that the people who refuse
to join with them are immoral, and, not
content with that, they have endeavored
to prevent gospel temperance work.
Letters have been written ahead of me
warning temperance people not to in
vite me to their city, lest by my coming
l should destroy their organization"