Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1886-10-30
From Pioneer Press
RUM AND POLITICS.

tie to his neighbors lipsn How much
more prosperous and moral this ma
ton would have been had it adher-
ed to the Bible teaching in this par
ticular, is matter of conjecture,
but the experience of the last few
wears leads MS to believe our condi-
ton would have been vastly better.
And it is pleasant to observe that the
signs of the times indicate great
change in the near future. Go
North, South. East or West and the
temperance agitation greets you, and
all over this broad land popular senti-
ment with regard to rum is under
going change. At the national
election 1872 the forlorn hope of .
political organization cast 1000 votes
~ years after in 1884 it casts l52.-
600 votes. The growth of this par
ty has been as rapid as that of the
Anti-slavery party which abolished
negro slavery and saved the Union.
Yet it's growth has only been COM
mensurate with the spread OF a sem
timent growing more and more pop
ular annually. Nor can we wonder
at the spread ofthis sentiment, when
we learn from official statistics that
we spend $900,0O0,00o annually for
drinks, and that from this enormous
sum the financial benefit derived is
as one to one hundred. In other
words we make one man rich and
one hundred poor, and of that one
hundred about 40 per cent are made
paupers. We send annually 10000
to the grave, and from 100000 to
100000 along the pathway of de-
struction through idiocy, lunacy,
the jails and penitentiaries. A
large class of thinking men are
beginning to ponder on this gigantic
evil in business like way. We say
that temperance is question of
morals, so it is, and we don't want it
in politics. How are we to keep it
out of politics. The saloons are rep
resented by 100000 men scattered
all over the land, each one control
ing in local elections about five votes
upon an average. Here you have an
army of one million voters control
ed by these parasites, and they make
it point to force whiskey into every
election, State, National or Municip-
al, and in fact, we are a rum ridden
people to-day. New York city back
ed by her 10000 saloons is always
the state pivot politically, and the
state became the pivot in the nation
al election of 1884. [ know that in
many borough elections of this state
that whiskey controls the result.
To say that rum is curse is to put
it in its mildest form. Take tor IL
lustration the recent elections to
test local option in the state Of Missis-
sippi. The Democrats had managed
through their primaries to keep the
negroes from voting since 1875. but
at last the better element Of the par.
ty growing weary ofrum and brutal
ity in their midst, resolved that ii
should go. This resolve met the Bit
ter opposition Of the other wing
who soon perceived that without the
negroes help they would be beaten
and driven out; whereupon they
swore by the powers that the negro
should exercise his inalienable rights
to the ballot. These were the same
men who ten years agosetup, what is
known from one end of the country
to the other as the mississippi
Plan one of the most diabola al
schemes ever inaugurated for the
purpose of political ACKNOWLEDGEMENT,
and their determined resistance to an
honest attempt to put away an evil
from their midst, is but anotherout.
cropping of the same revolutionary
spirit which throttled the Republic
can vote of the State in rs and which
was enthusiastically endorsed by the
State Democracy, many of whom