The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1886-10-21
FOR PROHIBITION.
An Address to the National Republic
can Prohibition Party.
The Saloon the Special Foe of the
Working Mans Home.
Its Power Used Without Stint for
Political Purposes.
A League of Law Breakers Desttuc-
tive to All Industries.

CHICAGO, Oct 13.-The following adj
dress Of the national committee Of anti
saloon republicans was issued this even
ing:
The national committee Of anti-saloon
republicans appointed by the conference
held IN Chicago, September Is, 1886.
make, through heir executive commit
tee, TO the republican party In the United
States, and to all friends If temperance
and order, this statement and appeal,
and the committee ask for II such accept
ance and response as the gravity and /
urgency OF the mstter shall demand. |
The evils Of the EQuor traffic as en- /
bodied in the American saloon system
has reached magnitude and degree OF |
destructiYeness that threatens the foun- |
dations OF the government, society and |
the home. The time has therefore come |
when political parties and private ci,i- |
zens must take sides openly for or |
against the trs ffic with its methods and
its results. Neutrality is henceforth |
impossible, ind ference is hence
forth betrayal OF the trust
involved in citizenship. The anti
saloon republican movement recogDiz-
es and proclaims this state of thlDRe
The American liquor traffic, Whatever 1t
may once have been, is no longer a leg
serving to supply natural and unfore-
seen demand for its commodity, how
ever harmful. The saloon system en-
coureged and directed by the distillers,
brewers and wholesale liquor dealers has
become vast and viGilant organization,
forming market for Intoxicating drinks
It creates q demaLd where before none
existed, that it may profit by supplying
that demand. It arEihcially stimulates
an evil habit, that il may thrive by pam
dering 70 it. 1G mefhodic6lly breeds de-
bauchery, poverty, anarchy and crime,
for pay. Ii purposely seeks to multiply
the number of drinkers, and hence of
| dru0kards. It iDvades Every new COM
muDity, demands tribute from every
home, az lies in wait with fresh entice-
ments for each new generation If
youth 1t deliberate iy fosters the trea--
| ing question ard tends to intensity the
widespread social pressure toward drink
ing by inyentipg new preteXtR for treat-
ing and being treated. Each one of our
two hundred thousand drinking places
forms distinct center OF aggressive
forces and skillful devices for spreading
the drink habit among men. Every
plausible temptation and solicitation that
trained talent can suggest is used to en-
trap the young, ignorant, the toiling and
the homeless. with the knowledge that
customer once secured is usually cus-
| lOE 1A0 Ba1OGu eyebSHl Is III
| active cause, not an innocent result. l.
is the parent not the child, of the mass
Of human misery which everywhere ac-
| companies 1t. Experience indicates that
four fifths of American drinking and
drunkenness is due in the first instance
not 10 any native appetite OF our people,
but to the presence and sleeplessress of
| days and tweEty-tour hours day un-
restrained by any scruple and
everywhere cOptemptuOus Of public and
| private right. II the saloon is the enemy
Of society, it is the special foe of the
WOrkingman and his home. D fectiVe
laws a4.d unjust customs which bcar
hardly upon labor ought to be and must
be reformed, but the central cause of I'M
| thrift, and the resulting unrest among
wage workers, is tie frightful waste of
the wage fund included in the gross re-
ceipts OF tie saloons This absorption Of
the earnings OF labor by the dram
| shop, represe ntiDg direct yearly
waste of hundreds Of millions
of dollare, also proportionately
destroys the ability of the working ciass
to purchase and eOnsumerthe pecessaries
| and comforts of life, thus greatly cur
failing production Snd trade, diminish
ing the sources of employ ment snd tend
ing to hold wages at the lowest level.
Add to this the consequent loss of time,
N1thllly dnQ WO1A1A& pOWOI duu tnS bt-8-b
| paid by labor TO c0unteTAct the public
evils Of the drink tr6ffic, and q sum IS
produced which figures cannot represent
ana which, II returned to the pocket
of labor, where It belongs,
would largely replace misery with com
fort, idlenees with well paid employ
ment, turbulence with content, and solve
| for all time the worst phases OF the labor
problem. The So cslls4 prosperous
classes do their full share of drinking, but
the share that falls to those wOrkiugmen
who drink has become, under the sg-
! gresssvs policy of the saloons, u burden
greater than they can bear, and the
workipgmsn who himself avoids the ga
loon still shares the lo6d. Both IN md
out OF labor unions the sober sud frugal
workman carries his drinking and
wasteful comrade on his back. This law
| Ia inf1exible WoTkmen whose energy,
tTustworthi2ess and skill arc daily inn
| paired At the SELDOM determine the stand
ard OF wages for vast industries. By
| their incapsciTy through drink they fix
! low average OF daily production in great
establishments, and wsges seek cor
responding level. The representatives
| of the liquor traffic in tbe United Statss
have become league Of law-breaksrs.
Not content with resisting by personal
and political action, the passage OF laws IL
| restraint of their destructive calling, they
such lew when passed. Tney demand
the protection Of law for themselves, and
strike down the partial protection which
Law enforced would furnish to society
against the intolerable evils they produce.
Not content with unitedly refusing to
obey the law until compelled by legal
| PROCESS, they openly resist enforce
ment BY criminal means. Arson has be-
come q common weapon, uss d to inimi-
date communities which try 70 free
| the mseIves from the saloon curse. and
| the more desperate defenders OF tue
| traffic do not stop at assassination as d
| means of warfare, as the blood of Had
dock In ! wa testifles from the ground.
They predict failure nom ali restrictive
or prohibitOTy laws and use them 10
make good their prOphesies, burn the
| property or take the lives Of citizens who
| stand for the laws enforcemept.Suebo out
bresEs are always made by liquor dealers
against restrictive legislation "a an In
reference with the freedom of sale
never by liquor drinkers against il as
| Interference with the freedom Of drink
ing. Tais widespread violation of one set
Of wholesome laws breeds general con-
| tempt for all law, and opens hospitable
door for those modern allies of the saloon
| systP and anarchy. The
| crimin al class, which is multiplying fast
ter than the courts and prisons cLn dis
|
school, its incentive and its council cham
Der, in the saloon, whose keepers set
daily example of criminal disregard
Of the law and the public good.
One of the grevest political dan
| gers which now confront the reruhlic
| is the corrupt use Of money to inf renee
elecuc ne. With this evil intrenched In
our pofiticA, system and aequiesced in,
| free institutions would be Rt an end
When bribery can defeat or reverse the
willOf the majority. saif-goverDment lisa
farce. The saloon power n the United
| States Systematically uses It's
corruption fund without scruples and
with ut stint to control primaries. 20 car
~ elections by purchases OF voters. to
prevent restrictive legislation with brib-
err, to obsruct the course justice By
tAmpering with juries ard to puuish with
defeat public servants who hRv incurred
| its displeazure. This wholesale crime
against free and fair government Is not
even denied or concealed. The irTepIes
| eibls cot fltct between the saloon system