Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-07-11

what have you, gentlemen, that is more
eftectualS (Applause.)
But you say tho Republican party is
doomed. also. The grand old party must
go. It has done glorious things; it's re
cord Is without faint of treason; it saved
the country. 1t broke forever the bonds
of the slave; 1t restored the union; It
brought back peace and prosperity to our
distracted nation; it was the party of
Lincoln and Sumner ard Grant ana Gar.
field. (Applause) Do you think that il
wickedness could not kill the democratic
party. virtue will make the republican
party an easy prey9 (Applause.)
RESISTANCE OF THE OLD PARTIES.
You expect to succeed by detachiup the
better element from these old parties and
attaching it to your own. You must
wreck and rob these old parties, so to
speak, in order to equip your own. You
20 to the democratic party in the south
and say: Your ship is rascally old hulk;
ours is a new, albeit very tiny craft.
60 to; we will batter your man. of war to
pieces and make our own vessel strong
and enduring. You assume that it will
never occur to the veterans who man the
old ship to protect themselves from the
attacks of your little canoe. It does not
seem to occur to you that the republican
party In the north may b. wise enough
and strong enough to Grcumvent Your
plans and resist your attacks. It does
not seem to occur to you that both of
these old parties must be credited at least
with the instinct of self preservation.
And IS 1t not perfectly plain that, posses.
sing this instinct, which belongs to every
thing that has life, both the old parties
will know how to protect themselves
when the danger becomes manifest?
Let me illustrate. We will take the
state of New York: Here the two old
parties are nearly evenly DIVIDED, and it
requires no very large change of votes to
give victory to either party. In the Re.
publican party there is very large tenn
perance element. which is growing more
and more pronounced every year, and
more strenuous IN its demands for proper
temperance legislation. Let us suppose
that the Republican party chooses to ig-
more or resist these demands. Your
party would probably grow, gentlemen;
and the growth of your party would be
at the expense of the Republican party,
and that party would find. by and by,
that its campaigns were we'll nigh hope
less. and it would see that it was the tenn
perance detection that was crlppling it.
The liquor interests beng safely housed
in the democratic party, it would under
stand that its return to power could only
be effected by taking strong temperance
ground. When it did that, as it surely
would, where would your party be?
Gone-like Whit of smoke in clear
November air: (Agplause.) So 1t will
be in other states. The pressure of the
temperance element from within the re.
publican party in the north and from
within the democratic party in the south,
is resistless pressure, and instead of
coming to you. as you imagine, this ele-
ment will secure what 1t wants where it
is. How can you reasonably expect that
it will be otherwise? The temperance
movement was not born with your or.
ganization. There was prohibition in
force before you named your first presi
dental candidate; and all the recent mag
nidcent advance IN temperance legisla-
ton was not only not due to your tenn.
perance influence; 1t was, in some cases,
prospect have you that you will come
into political power by fighting and des-
troying the old parties? Not the slightest
(Applause.)
But you say you have strong hope
grounded in the history of political anti
slavery; and that as slavery was abolished
by special party. growing out of the little
liberty party of 1910 to the mighty repub-
lican party of 1850, so prohibition will
triumph by your party. But unfortu
nately for you the analogy breaks down
at the critical points. Neither of the
two political parties of those days was
willing to do anything to oppose or re-
strict slavery. In no state did either the
whig or the democratic party make any
attempt to abolish slavery, The relation
of the old parties to prohibition is as
different as possible. There is hardly
state. north or south, in which the Que or
the other of the old parties has not adopt
ed restrictive or prohibitory legislation
They are giving us such legislation con-
stantly. What the old anti.slavcry he,
roes wanted was restriction or abolition,
not party triumph; you are not satisfied
to get prohibition; you want your par
tlsan organization and the triumph of
your party.
DIVIDING THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE.
In the second place you make your
own success impossible by dividing and
antagonizing the friends Of temperance.
1t is just as bad generalship in politics
as in war to divide and distract your own
forces. Your movement creates three
distinct camps, while there is only one of
the enemy. There are republican prohi.
bitfonists, democratic prohibitiouists, and
prohibition prohibitionists. And, gentle.
men, of these three divisions of prohibi.
tionists, yours is the smallest, most de-
cidedly. This is easily demonstrated.
In Massachusetts the total vote IN cities
and towns against license was, in 1885,
about 1O2, 900. The third party vote for
governor the same year was only 8,251.
The vote for prohibition in Michigan last
year was lie, 600, The vote for the third
party candidate for the supreme court
was only $3.50. In Texas the vote for
the prohibition amendment last year was
1928, 1878. The year before the third party
vote for governor was 49, 1856, In Georgia
112 of the 1877 counties have adopted
prohibition. In the same state the third
party presidential candidate got 1853 votes
Il little more than one for each county.
The election returns abound in illustra
tiOns like these .s.. .,s