The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1886-10-07
TlG Soldiers Home DOggGry
A CHARACTERISTICALLY DEMOCRATIC
INSTITUTION!

We were somewhat surprised one day
last week, at being Informed by an old
friend in the country, strong temper
ance man, and one of the best men in the
county, that the party Prohibitionists
were telling in his neighborhood, and
produced the story in one of their patent
papers, that the beer-doggery in the Sol
| diers' Home at Dayton was established
and controlled by the Republican State
Administration of Ohio. We were sur
prised at the fact that any man outside of
the Penitentiary or the Asylum for Idiots
could be guilty of making such state
ment. There is not perhaps school boy
ten years old in the State who does not
know that the Soldiers Home at Dayton
is National institution, run and con-
trolled by the National Government. The
beer-doggery was established by the .. S.
Government, and is perhaps one of the
most Infamous schemes ever perpetrated.
If the object. as the friends of the scheme
claim, was to furnish beer to the old sol
diers from purely philanthropic motives,
then why does the Government not gioe
the beer to the soldiers? The fact is, the
whole affair is a scheme to speculate off
of the old veterans. The Government
pays them a little pension-which the
Democrats would gladly cut off if they
could-and speculators, under control of
the Democratic National Administration
rush in and open up a beer-doggery for
the purpose of robbing them of this pit
tance. But they will go down town and
spend their money" say the apologists for
this infamy. Therefore, the Democrats
make monopoly of the beer business,
and pocket the immense profits.
Let us apply the same logic in another
manner. Here is man in our charge to
whom we owe debt of gratitude. We
are entrusted with looking after him and
seeing after his wants. But we say to
him: "We are afraid that you will go off
somewhere and kill yourself, therefore
we will kill you!" That of course would
not be murder. it would be philanthropy
The idea sought to be conveyed by those
of our Prohibition friends who were tell
ing this nonsense about the Dayton dog
gerry, however, was that the infamy was
to be charged to the Republican party.
They know it is disgraceful and horrible,
and therefore they would attach it as a
stain to the Republicans. These folks
concentrate all their energies, seemingly,
to cast some stigma upon the Republican
party. So eager have some of them be-
come, that they pay no more regard to
the truth than regular, old-time Demo
cratic politician. Affiliation with the
Democracy begets Democratic methods,
and the Republican party, therefore, finds
its most bitter enemies among those who
pretend to be the shapers of human des-
tiny through the medium of the third
party. And this with full knowledge of
the fact that the Republican party con-
tains more ardent temperance men than
any great party this country has ever
known.
Note the peculiar assumption of virtue
on the part of some of those who claim to
embody all there is of temperance senti-
ment in this State. But very few years
ago the people of Ohio agitated the ques-
tion of Prohibition. 1t is but just to say
that the question was trammeled by other
questions; but fully one-half-and we be-
lieve more-Of the people of Ohio voted
for Prohibition. During that earnest,
prayerful campaign, the prohibition
Party" as few people were pleased to
style themselves, ran q little campaign OF
its oaoqa. After contemplating the mag
niicent proportion of the temperance
vote, these few people appropriated unto
themselves all the sentiment then ex-
pressed, declared that it was but an en-
dorsement of them and their methods,
and proceeded at once to denounce the
Republican party as dead, and declare the
duty of all former Republicans to vote
the Prohibition ticket. No censure of the
Democratic party. With all its horrible
butcheries in the South, all its ballot-box-
stuffing and crime. in the North, this
Democratic party, this party which muir
dered three hundred thousand of the
bravest men of the North, this party
which cast thousands of homes into
mourning, this party which has done
more to degrade society and destroy the
sanctity of the home circle than any 9TH
er organization known to mankind, this
party is the one that is courted and pet
ted, and with it's open advocacy of the
doggery interest, is decorated with a
badge of "God, and Home, and Native
Land" Oh. disgusting sacrilege!
We do not claim that the old parties
are travelling fast enough toward temper
ance reform. The Democratic party is
travelling away from it, and the Republi-
can party is creeping stealthily toward it,
but it is moving in that direction. Where,
then, is the sense, or reason, in a persist
ent and perpetual attack upon the Repub-
lican party, and petting, and apologiz-
ing for, this monster of iniquity, the
Democratic party? What do our friends
of the third party expect to gain by such
unfairness, and in far too many instances
untruthfulness Finally, do they not
know that in affiliaing with the Demo
cratic party they are endorsing the dog
gerry in the National Soldiers Home at
Dayton, and do they not know that every
body can plainly see that fact?
Facts Worth Knowing.