Western Kansas world., 1886-10-23
THE ANTI-SALOONISrS.
Text OF an Address Issued by Their Exec
utive Committee

ernment, society ana the nome. Inc
time has therefore come when political par
openly for or against the traffic, with its
methods and its results. Neutrality is hence
forth impossible. Indifference is hencoforth
q betrayal of the eust involved in citizen.
ship. The anti. saloon republican movement
recognizes and pr0claims this state of
things. The American liquor traffic, what
ever it may ouce have oeen, is no longer a
leg innate and law abiding branch of trade,
serving to supply a natural and unforced
full. The saloon system. encouraged and
directed by the distillers, brewers and whole
sale liquor dealers, has become a vast and
vigilant organization. Forming q market
for intoxicating drinks, it creates demand
where before none existed, that it may profit
by supplying that demand. If the saloon
is the enemy of society, it is the special foe
Of the workingman and his home. Defect
i've laws and unjust customs which bear
hardly upon labor ought to be and must be
reformed, but the central cause of the un-
thrifty and the resulting unrest among
wage workers is the frightful waste of the
wage fund inclnded in the gross receipts of
the saloon.
Workmen whose energy, trustworthiness
and skill are daily impaired at the saloon,
determine the standard of wages for vast
industries, aid by their incapacity through
drink they fix a low avenue of daily produc-
ton in great establishments, and wages
seek corresponding level. The represen-
tatives of the liquor traffic in the United
States have become aleague of law breakers.
Not content with unitedly flsing to obey
the law urtl compelled by legal process,
they openly resi.t enforcement by criminal
means. Arson has become q common
weapon, used to intimldate communities
Il A. L. Al
curse, and furthermore, the desperate de-
tenders of the traffic do not stop st assassin
alton as q means of warfare, as the blood of
Haddock, in Iowa, testified, and this wide
spread violation of one set of wholesome
laws breeds general contempt for all law
and opens hospitable door for those mod
ern allies of the saloon system-commnism
and anarchy. The criminal class, which is
multiplying faster than courts and prisons
can DISPOSE OF it, finds it breeding place, its
school, its incentive and its council cham
Der in the saloon, whose keeper sets daily
example of criminal disregard of law and
the public good. One of the gravest politi-
cal dangers which now confront the public
is the corrupt use of money to influence
elections aud legislation. While this evil is
intrencbed in our political system. our free
institutions would be at an end. When they
can defeat or reverse the will of the major
ity, self government il farce. The saloon
power in the United States systematically
uses its corruption fund without sc,uple and
without stint to control primaries, to carry
elections by the purchase of votes, to pre-
vent restrictive legislation with bribery, to
obstruct the course of justice by tampering
with juries, and to punish with defeat pub
lie servants who have incurred its displeas-
ure. This wholesale crime against free and
fair government is not even denied or con-
cealed. Tie irrepressible conflict between
the saloon system and the public welfare re-
manned local and subordiate matter until
the l-agued power of the liquor traffic took
the offensive, and by successive and rapid
aggressions invaded every place, however |
sacred; violated every restraining law, how
com nlete political domination by debauch- |
ing the ballot and the legislature.
The national anti-saloon republican con- |
ference, representing the predominant sen. |
timent of republicans and good citizens |
everywhere, Gays that the saloons ought to |
be puG out of existance; that the people of |
each state and municipality ought to have
ding when and how this shall be dooe; and |
that until destroyed, the saloon ought to be
crippled by every restraint and disability
which local public sentiment will enforce,
and made to reimburse as much as possible
of the public loss it causes. Il is believed
that this policy, backed by a vigorous en-
forcement OF law, commends it,elf to the
people, and that on this platform all reason
able friends of Temperance and public safety
can unite and work. It does not REQUIRE a
which is ready for prohibition
70 tolerate taxed or unta1ed saloons, until
an entire state, including great cities, has
the same level of opinion. It does
not compel communities to submit to a
Faf fno<a rvnksv l
enforce the total suppression of the liquor
Eraf13c within their limits. It does not at
tempt to apply arule uniform and arbitrary
% 60. .OO0,O 600 people living under widely very
ing conditions.
1t is permissible to reach common point
oy many roads. The saloon has entered
ooli:i - with its own methods and weapons,
It has allied itself with the democratic
arfy Of obstruction and reaction, and to-
lay rules the party With q rod of iron, and
.hlie thousands OF democrats are hostile to !
ne liquor traffic, their voice is silenced and
heir wishes ignored. The machinery, re-
'ources and votes Of q powerful organiza- 8
ion are thus enabled to defend and uerpetu-
We this cancer On our civilization. The
prestige, resources and championship of a |
.reaf, historic party are needed on the side
IT home and the humble welfare. The re- c
publican party is called to this place and ,
sork, and called by q mandate as genuine :
md majestic as that which summoned it in
o existence. Having taught the present gen. {
ration to look to IL for leadership in eyery
'rea .treform. the republican party could NOT I.
,ow refuse to hearand heed the summonsto
his forward movement without abdicatina q
But the republican party is not eoino 70 In
etire, and least Of all Is it going t. pass !
mt of existence through the patevav of
0wardlce IN the presence of q great reepon-