Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-06-08

they have made general the helief-and
we see that their orators have begun to
take up that line-that the abolition of the
liquor II affic means more work and more
money to the community, and have made
it as clear as the anti-slayery men did
theirs, their advance will be more rapid
than it is.
1t Is not easy to forecast the times and
seasons of HeW party in a republic, es-
peciallY the season of its full fruition, but
; whoever forecasts the future of the Pre-
hibition party should begin by saying that
in the end it will win. How far off the
end is, is another matter. In this cam
paign it will not carry single State,
though We believe it will show an appre-
cable increase OF strength in every State
where it has an electoral ticket. This
increase will be most noticeable in the
Northern States, and in those of the
Southern States where the Democratic
majorities are so great that the Democrat
ic Prohibitionists find that they can vote
for Fisk without endangering their State
electoral vote for Cleveland. At the
South. the Democratic people have too
lately had quarter of century expert
ence Of Republican Federal rule, to risk
aiding repetition of it, by vote cast
rather as an expression of sentiment than
with practical hope of electing candi-
date. 1t is in the Northern States that the
effect of the Prohibition party will be felt.
The Republican defeat this year will be
followed by programme something like
this: In 1892 the Republican party will
take definite position On the Prohibition
question and insert Prohibition plank in
their platform. The Prohjbitionists will
refuse to be hooked that way and the
Republicans will be again defeated.
By 1896 the Prohibition party will
have absorbed the larger part of
the defeated Republicans, and for
that year there will be pretty much such a
vote between the Democrats, Republicans
and Prohibition candidates as there was in
1856 between Buchanan, Fremont and
Fillmore, with Democratic victory. In
1900 the issue will be squarely made be-
tween the Democracy and strict uncom-
promising Prohibition, and Prohibition
will 60 down. In 1904, defeat will have
taught i5 sense, and the Prohibition plat
form of that year will promise that any law
passed by congress abolshing the manu-
factuIe of and traffic IN liquor shall also
provide for payment for the plants thus rem
dered useless. At this, the great Western
manufacturers and the "bg interests in
liquor, finding they are to lose nothing.
will draw out OF the fight, the sense of
wrong in the public mind will be dulled,
and on that platform there will be Pro-
hibltion President elected.
Its future then? After fulfilling its
mission, like all other political parties,
it will become as corrupt as any that have
preceded it; as anxious to continue It's
mission as morbid over ofiee-holding,
and-llke the Republican rarity and its
Union saving appeals-as prolific in ap-
peals that having made sober N alton, it
ought to be permitted to govern it to the
end of time. 1t will, however, meet the
fate of all political organizations that have
filled their mission, and in due time the
people, under the name of the Democratic
party, will take charge of Che government.
II is not given to the leaders of the Pro-
hibition party of this generation to enter
the promised land. The men who will
view it from the mountain top will be
new men. The Fisks, st. Johns, Dows,
Smiths and Blacks Will have disappeared,
even from memory, andl-ttne Jshuas who
Will LEAD in that day are at school and COL
lege and at the apprentice benches now.
Just as when the Republican party got
into power the original A bolitioaists were
left out in the cold; just as when the Ma
hone party got in, the original Republicans
in Virginia were dropped out, 50 when the
Prohibition party enters Washington,
the closest scrutiny Of their ranks, even
Of their baggage train, will hardly discov-
er one original Prohibitionist of the vim
tage Of 1888.