The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-08-02
Whlskey as an Issue in the Cam
paign.
From the New York Herald.

palgn.
From the New York Herald.
The history of the republican party
furnishes one of the most striking and
mournful contrasts of modern politics.
The champion of the higher law in 1861,
it has become the advocate of free and
unlimited corn juice in 1888.
The gentleman who in prehistoric times
fell for twelve consecutive hours-that is,
''from morn to noon, from noon to dewy
eve, summers day"-affords the only
parallel of rapid descent that we can, at
the moment, recall. The republican party
and the gentleman whose example it has
followed, had an equally clear and clean
record up to given point. The punish
ment of the latter came swiftly on the
heels of his guilt, but it remains to be
seen whether, in this respect, human and
divine Justice bear any close resemblance
to each other.
The republican party in its youth was
vigorous, virile, with the courage of its
convictions, somewhat reckless of con-
sequences, but open hearted and large
hearted. Slavery is hell incarnate, was
the war Cry that rang through the land
like the notes of trumpet. Political or
CARNATIONS were split asunder by. its
beetle and wedge, and when General An
derson evacuated Fort Sumter to the
music of his band, and with salute to the
flag of 100 guns the north peeled off it's
| political prejudices; democratic generals
| led republican regiments end republican
generals led democratic regiments to the
cemeteries where hundreds of thousands
of brave men lie honored and remembered
In the throes of civil CONFUSION that
shook every throne on the planet the
question of slavery was settled forever
Those were heroic days.
Now, however, after progressive deca-
dence of a quarter of a century, the re-
publican party is willing to regain power
at any cost. Principle gives way to
strategy and conscience to ambition
Thrust into the outer darkness of retire
ment, where there is wailing and gnashing
of teeth, but neither perquisite nor
patronage, it scans the horizon for an
! issue, and at last finds one. That issue is
symbolized by the two cam paign cries
which at present fill and vex the air-the
| flag of the union and cheap corn Juice;
and the red, white and blue and univer-
sal drunk.
| The people of this country, therefore,
have come to the cross roads in politics
and must choose which path they will
take. The one leads to distillery and a
station house; the other to wooden mill
and steady work.
Cheap clothing is worth to the poor
man almost as much as religion. 1t is
not a luxury, but prime necessity.
]
to purchase good flannel shirt.
The health, and consequently the pros
perity, contentment and happiness,
of his humble home depend on the price
of wool. With warm underclothing, men,
women and children can resist the dread
enemy of this climate, pneumonia. A
glance at the statistics of mortality will
prove that proper clothing placed within
reach of the miner, the mason, the farmer,
is next in Importance to the New Testa-
ment and the Declaration of Independ-
ence.
When the working classes turn to the
two political parties to discover which is
more thoughtful of their interest, they
make this discovery
That the democrats would lower taxes,
cheaper the price of the necessaries of
life, start up the mill wheels that have
been rotting with disuse, extend the
American market, make the demand for
labor greater and increase the purchasing
power of the workman's wages;
That the republicans would make taxes
still higher in order to protect and per-
petuate wealthy class, and then throw a
sop to the laborers of the country in the
shape of free corn juice.
That is the true and the only issue in
this campaign.
Parsons brigade meets on the 9Th of