Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-10-25
lin Congress.tbe only members who

posed Enquiry into the Alcoholic
Liquor Traffic" said Mr.. Mcpherson. in
no case were more than six Democrats
recorded for it, and only four Republi-
cans against it.
! 13-Ny chief concern in this matter
is to help the cause of temperance,
which 1 think can be done more widely
in the Republican party than in the
third party. So faras l can judge, after
long, close, and candid observation,
there is more practical effective work to
promote the cause of temperance,amOn
the ardent temperance men in the Repub-
lican party, than in the third party,
where the preponderating aim of the
leaders seems to be to build up party
autonomy. | think the chances for the
solution of the temperance problem
are fifUy-fold better in the old party Of
great achievements than in the third
party, which, after twenty years of eX-
travagant promises, has no practical
temperance results to show.
IA advise those who have gone out
of the Republican party, because impa-
tient on account of slow progress, to re-
turn and strengthen the cause within
the old lines, now so rapidly advancing.
Third-WOud it not be better to have political
party distinctly committed TO radical temperance
policy and to its enforcement?
BY no means. | have already said
that have not so much confidence in
the efficiency of merely partisan action,
in settling the saloon problem as many
seem to have. This idea is kind of
virus with which many are too easily
inOculated.
1-They do not fully consider that
this problem has many elements enter
ing into it which political action cannot
solve 1t has, indeed, political and
economic bearings, but it more funda-
mentally pertains to social and moral
life, to appetite and drinking customs,
which political party action can only i'll
cidentally touch.
2-If l could have my way, no politi-
cal party would champion specific tenn
perance measures. l would have party
conventions strike the saloons sharply,
and stimulate to action against them as
a means of making strong and inf1u-
ential sentiment, but no party shib
boleth of specific legislative meas
ures should divide the reform forces.
Strong sentiment will inevitably crys-
tallize itself into enactmentS, as fast
as it develops and intensifies; and
laws thus brought about can be and will
be enforced. But to eXtraneOusly force
measures, by political party platforms,
divides and alienateS true friends of re-
form, and postponeS desired results. In
a republic laws which do not grow out
of the common sentiment and life of the
people are worth but little. But Repub-
lican conventions have recommended
legislatures to submit constitutional
prohibition to the people as sure basis
on which to decide the question of stat
utory prohibition.
THUS far in its history the actual
influence of the third party has been to
handicap temperance legislation.
Sin a republic no party can long re-
tain the aScendancy, and when a party
goes down, the interests identified with
it suffers a decline and possibly col
lapse. So must it be with a political
temperance party.
6-Moreover it is a mistake to pre-
sumo that only those questions which
are made issues in party platforms are
settled at the polls. The prohibitory
legislation in Kansas, Iowa, and Maine,
was not enacted by any party organized
on that issue, but through parties or
ganized on other issues, and having in-
them a common Sub-stratum of temper
ance sentiment, diffused like the senti-
ment against larceny. Local option has
been extensively adopted, as favorite
and effective policy in treating the liquor
question, but only in a few instances has
it been a party measure. From the Ia
ture of the case local option must sustain
an bipartisan relation, if it is to succeed.
Besides it is matter OF common
observation that strictly partisan legis-
lation can be enforced only in limited
localities. The best enforced laws are
those freest from party taint, like the
laws against larceny, etc.
8-The idea of a Prohibition party
to enforce a prohibition policy, which
third party leaders reiterate, sounds
well, and is very misleading to those
| NliulidNt llOJ hielOUCl tllIOhSh.
Prof. Bascom, the ablest eXpOunder of
this theory, says: s'The State must be
officered from top to bottom on this ba-
sis, "electing the officers from judge to
justice of the peace, governors, mayors,
aldermen and policemen" and must
''hold the power for a dozen years or
so," then ''it can enforce prohibition"
This is the ideal scheme the third
party is entertaining. And some such
machinery, through all the towns and
cities of State, will indeed be necessa-
ry to justify their theory of a Prohibi-
tion party behind prohibition policy to
enforce it.
But what a vain delusion! Where is
the State, especially if it has any large
cities, which is "officered from top to
bottom" and in all its municipalities,
by the party that holds the State offices?
Not one can be mentioned. The Dem
Ocrats are now in the aScendancy in the
State of New York, but the large areas
of the State are Republican; and when
the Republicans have held the State Of
fees in New York, the Democrats have
held New York city and many other
towns and cities. The same is true of
all otter States.
And vet these ideal party builders
would postpone the great interests of
the temperance reform, would hedge up
and obStruct the efforts of those who,
by bipartisan methods, seek to protect
the home against the saloon, until i'm
possible political conception can be
realized.
On this visionary basis they make ex-
travagant promises and predictions
their principal stock in trade. 1t is an
old trick of bankrupts that they are
lavish with promises to pay; so politi-
cal party that is built upon hallucina-
tion can never be solvent, either in
present or prospective results. 1t costs
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