The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-07-23

ally pass any i'll they desire. The
measures which the people most earn
estly want, they allow to almost pass,
which appears to satisfy, in man or,
the popular demand At any rate it
serves to conceal the lobby's work
while securing all they aimed at.
This industry, for such We must consld-
er it, of robbing the public through
their legislatures, has become almost
perfectly systemizcd, and the operators
so confident of their ability to success
fully ply their business, that they scarce
take the trouble 10 con, cal it.
There is one factor in this political
profession which is of vital Importance
to its success, which is the whiskey
int rest. The political professional
class, who live by making politics a
bread and butter business solely. have
ever been in alliance with the whiskey
business. They were thrown together
away back in the early history of our
country. The political meeting places
were at the public houses, whose most
lucrative branch of business was their
sales of liquor. From this association
the two formed an alliance offensive
and defensive, and year bv year, NUT
ual dependence has attached them
more firmly to each other. When the
temperance crusade against rum drink
ing reached the prohibitory point, the
latter interest began to feel we'll
grounded apprehension, and seeing
their greatest hope of safety in their old
friends, the professional politician
greater efforts and greater sacrifices
were required to save the trade from
the fanatics" Of prohibition The
Peoples Protective Union" was formed
composed of distillers, brewers and
wholesale traders in liquors, and a
thorough protective union effected,
with sufficient tax judiciously laid to
have an ample fund in the treasury for
use in holding their ascendency. This
fund has bought every leading polite
ian's interest where it has been possible
or his colleagues; or it has been turned
towards aiding his defeat either at the
nominating conventions or the election
Clerks, pages. clearinghouse keepers,
in short every one that can be bought,
Influenced or cajoled. has been approach
Ell by this whiskey interest, in order to
maintain its ascendency
We can never break up "bossism"
and the jobbery in politics by the pro-
fessionals, while the rum power main
tains its present ascendency in our pol
itics. The only hope of "purifying the
ballot" is to attack and destroy the
source which poisons the political foun-
tains of our government. Rum is more
powerful to-day in our law making
bodies than ever before, because il is
better organized for effective work.
You may pass impossible license laws
laws whose stringent exactions make
it impossible for any trader to comply
with, and the whiskey interest will
gladly accept them in preference to be-
ing outlawed and placed under ban of
law. The former is public acknowl.
edgment of the business as legitimate,
useful vocation, and somehow respec-
table fit can be conducted properly.
The latter condemns it before the world,
sets a price on its head, marks it felon
that is not fit to exist among civilized
people. And this is precisely the broad
difference between license and Prohibition;
and there is no road to reform in our
politics but through the legal death of
the rum traffic.