The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-08-20
Unequal Legs.

To the Editor of the Indianapolis journal.
Solomon said, THE legs of the lame are not
equal" meaning. among other things. that if he
does not equally use all the legs he has. he will
60 lame. The same idea was q proverb among
the Romans, hence they insisted on going ''psri
passu.' with equal step, one leg keeping up
with the other. Now, are we, az Republicans,
doing thatl One of our legs, the tariff question.
seems to be doing ell the walking. Our speeches
and our literature are all in that line, while
the other leg. our local questions, is left to hob
bic along as best it may. We are moving heaven
and earth, SO to speak, TO capture the working
men," as they are called. forgetting that
there are five times as many voters who
can be influenced by the treatment OF our
insane and by the temperance question. II they
are properly presented. OF course nobody is at
tempting to justify the management Of the hos
pital, but nobody is attacking il. except by o
random shot, occasionally. when we have one TO
spare from the tariff question; and yet, properly
worked, there is more in 1t 10 turn the better
class Of Democrats from their old party than IN
all the national questions combined. Let it be
shown, as it easily can be. that the present hor-
ribie condition of that great State benevolence,
in which any family may have a personal inter
est within a month, is not only the
outgrowth OF Democratic misrule, but
that il is approved and defended by the
party and made q party's pet, and we
appeal not only to the humanity, but to the
self-interest of every honest man. And there is
the temperance question. In the language of
General Harrison at Danville, 1--WE have
sounded a trumpet that will never call retreat"
We could not retreat IL we wanted TO. But
what are We doingl Not a candidate. or speaker.
or editor has given the question more than q
passing notice. But Ii is unlike the question OF
the hospital and the like. If we let this alone
nobody will disturb it, and we lose nothing,
though we gain nothing; but there never was
equal activity displayed on any other question
In Indiana than there is now on the temperance
question. And it is all against the Republican,
party. Every township in the State is organ
lied and there are workers every where. They
all sing the same song and aim at the same end.
the defeat of the Republican party. We may
despise them as being few and as. being simply
women and preachers, but they are getting in
their work with a class of voters who are not
influenced by parades and who care not half so
much for the protection of their sheep as they
do for the protection of their children. In addi-
ton to this personal work they are lavish with
their literature. They support ten local papers
IN Indiana, besides the Voice. which is sent
gratutously 10 every preacher in the State. and
has more than 5. 600 subscribers besides, and only
q few days ago their State central
committee appropriated $40, 900 for a further
dissemination OF their literature, principally the
Voice: yet our speakers treat the question as IL
we have done our full duty by putting q very
tame resolution in our platform. On no other
issue could we win as many voters from the
Democratic party as on this. There are thou
sands of Democrats who are heartily sick Of the
attitude of the Democratic party on this ques-
ton, but we make no attempt to win them.
We seem to aim only to keep our people from
going into the third party. and even that in a
hating manner. Make our legs equal.
A TEMPERANCE REPUBLICAN.