The Press., 1886-09-23
THE THIRD PARTY.
lFrom the Boston Journal.ln

The well known prohibition advocate, Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, president of the women's christian temperance union of Iowa, having been in Boston, yesterday on brief stay, representative of the Journal was afforded opportunity for an interview, particularly with reference to recent polit- ical phases of the total abstinence move ment.
 "What is the legal aspect of prohibition in your state now ?' was asked.
 "Constitutional prohibition" replied Mrs. Foster, "was enacted about four years ago. It had been enforced by leg islative statute, which was easily evaded, but at the last session measure, which has been known as the Clark bill, was en- acted, under which the penalties were passed"
 "Has that act been effectual in closing the saloons? ?"
 "It has-all except those in large cities. Y"
 "What answer would you give to the promoters of an independent prohibition party who argue that the republican party fails to enforce prohibition in the large cities ?'
 "I would say that ill scarcely one of these cities has the republican party any authority. The large cities are nearly all under the control of the democrats.
 ''Has the republican governor exerted his authority in this direction ?' "Gov. Larrabee has gone to the very limit of constitutional power in his desire to assist the cities in their heroic attempt to maintain law and order as against the incendiary and anarchial saloon element This is a very delicate point, as all students of our political system know. No man could have done more than Larrabee has done" ..
 "How does the third party movement stand in Iowa ?"
 "It has so little strength that it has scarcely been taken into account at all Prohibition Bin Iowa has been movement of the people, by the people, and for the people, and now good men in all parties are supporting it. The democrats at the last state convention resolved in favor of local prohibition, a thing which never oc- cured before. A democratic platform without personal liberty and Ianti-sump- tuary law plank is & unique incident in the political history of Iowa"
 "How do you account for this change in the democrats?"
 "The fact is that the prohibition senti. ment of Iowa has become so dominant | through the agitation of the question by non- partisan methods that even the demo- cratic party has become leavened with it, and the democrats from the rural districts have been able to control the whisky dem- ocrats from the large cities in the direction of the prohibition.
 sfWhat is the general effect of the third party movement throughout the country P
 ''My sentiments on that point are well known and are only intensified by time. l believe that the third party movement is based on 0 wrong idea of the relation of reform to party action. The results have been disastrous, and only disastrous. Ii is beyond my comprehension that any I temperance man should say, as an advo. cate of the third party movement IS quoted as saying, that it makes no difference whether any party nominates total absti nence clergyman or @ beer thinker. Ii appears to me such utterances indicate more of desire for party building thar for temperance promotion. I have nc sympathy with the desire to kill any party but am in hearty sympathy with tk; desire to destroy the liquor traffic"
 tsWhat has been the drift of the thirt party movement in Maine ?"
 ''It is seeking to defeat Ex- Gov. DingleN for congress, who for a quarter of a cen tury has been one of the stanchest cham pions of prohibition. In congress he hal lchampioned the bills for commission Q inquiry into the liquor traffic, for the en actment of constitutional prohibition, ans ! for the scientific instruction of the evils o alcohol, which as recently passed in con gress makes 1t requisite in the educationa Isystem of the District of Columbia and o