The Springdale news., 1888-08-10
spectiyely

1aS usiID SSsz
 GENERAL FIsKEs $ LETTER
 STARLIGHT x. J, July 9, 1888. Hon Joht, ?. .st. Jota. Chairman:
 My DEAR SIR-With grateful sense Of the honor conferred upon me by the Prohibition party at its late National convention, and with equal apprecat ion Of the responsibilities in- volVcd therein, l accept the nomination which l d d not seek, ana which I earnestly desired should pass me by, and with Gods help will bear our standard of prohibition as best can through ths presidential campaign. And thus formally responding to the formal notification received at your hands, il is iii and proper that add some fur her words
 Within few years the temperance reform has altogether changed front In the great con fiet which has been and is yet waging. temper ance forces no longer face human appetite and habitalone they oppose Legislation, law, the pUr pose of political parties, the policy of State and Nation. What law creates. law alone can kill. The creature oflaw-thc saloon. the liquor trafilc can dle only it the laws hand or the hand Of laws executed Conceived in avaricious iniquity, born of sinful Legislative wedlock the licensed saloon, the legal zed liquor traffic, bastard child of civilization protesting purity and virtue. must be strangled by the civiliza- ti6n which becot fl, or that civilization must go forever branded With the scarlet letter of it's own shame.
 II is not enough that we refnr m the individu- nj we must reform the State The policy of great eammonwealths, of q whole people, must be remSde and put in harmony with sound, ecouomlc principles, the true cooperation Of industrial effort, the essential condition of Na- tteaal prosperity and genuine brotherhood of man
 So broad demand as this ean be met in but one way. T. has been said: "A political form Can become fact in government only aTA... ernment' reform so vast this advo- cate, involving such radical changes in State and National policy Is utterly dependent, for it's agitation and consummation. upon some party agent CT force. To give t success 10 make I indeed and indisputably fact, that party force or agent must be in full accord with the reform and must have in itself the power Of successful achievement apart from those elements and influences alien Co the reform.
 No party which is made public administrator by the enemies of temperance or which owes the election of its candidate to saloon intiu- cneeS, can ever establish prohibition as bind ing fact n government anywhere The National Democratic party IB its platform utters no word in condemnation of the greatest foe 10 the Republic the liquor trafii. That party having steudfastIY in its utterance at National conventions maintained its allegiance ta the American saloons Ii no dlsap- pontment L. any one That at St Louis III tsss, it is Ai' EHalAHtsI oil AL#s titA great estqueston How bring debated among men.
 It was with great reluctance thai accepted these conclusions and come to admit the i'm pcratirc need CT new party while yet the party of my old choice. the National Republic an party, mdintaiued its organization. I had followed with pride and patriotic love that party's flag white above It hoatcd the starry banner Tor which so many brave patriots fell l had seen that party established in fact, in government. one political reform dear to me from hoyhood boon 10 mill ons in bondage and Sity to Us all A long, long time I waited. against convection and the logic of political events hoping that my old party would take this old reform with changed front and new conditions, and make 1t also the fact so many millions craved and for which they pleaded before men and God It cost me the sacrifice of cherished associations. when four years ago I enrolled myself To the ranks of party Prohihuonssts under the flag ot prohibit ton, hleached snowy white by the tears of smitten women and children through genera tions ot sorrow and want. I have seen no hour 6t regret. Every day since then has shown yet moro clearly the logic of my course and the inevitable truth of my conclusions. In Mich gan, in Texas, in Tennessee and Oregon. so-eallea onparttsan efforts to establish pro hihitiou have failed through partisan necessity born Of liquor clements in old party compost ton, In Iowa, Rhode Island and Name the laws have been shamclcsslY dcfed for like reason The entire thread of things these last four years has proven hopeless; the broader range of prohibition effected through nen-par- ttsun means. and equally futile, as | final con- summation, the narrower methods Of local 0p- ton and high license; white from the Supreme Court itself has come, with startling emphasis, a declaration so nationalzing th $ reform that it can never be made of local or State imita- ton again. No lines Of territorial wish or will can hereafter bar the liquor traffic and its fear f1t urFft t1a bt- F,., is recognized as legitimate, and while under that policy the National Government derives revenue thcrefrom
 "The first concern of good government" said the recent National Republican convention at Chicago, "is the virtue and sohrety Of the pco- pie and Inc purity of the home Revenue then. is not Governments chief concern, whcth- CT coming from internal taxation or from d iarin on importations: and any source of rev i tnue winch discounts the virtue and sabrety oi the people and beGets Impurity in the home i should be the first object aSsalcd by every 1 party prniCsslng to seek good government. ] while the revenue derived from special sources should be the first 10 be feresworn- alter natiyely, for the sake of q protective tar fl, but l positively for the sake Of protection dearer and i more vital than the tariff can ever yield i Had not left the Republican party four yea~s 1 ago I should be compcled to leave II now. when, after reading the words l have quoted, I rom d FtAbtutloH Suppltmtutdl tn nut not lt- oluded i'll It's platform, and find in these words i my own idea of the Governments ''chief con. i corR' sci forth, l search the long platform l through in vain to find condemnation Of the sa- loon, or hint of purpose to assail it, or any sign i of moral consciousness that the saloon IS a l curse and its income too unholy for the Nation to share. If this is its "chicf concern that 1 party does not deserve the support of men who 1 love good government and would see it main l tained.
 The Republican party knows today. and l know at Chicago in June, that tho public sur 1 plus, which, in 1881, 1t declared dangerous, and i then proposed to reduce, comes abou. m nety | per cent. of 1t from a source more dangerous than the surplus-the liquor traffic When the greatest Republican statesman declared, in 1883, that II is better 10 tax whisky than farms and homesteaGs and shops, he knew. as ne and his colleagues now know, that to tax whisky is to tax farms and homesteads and shops-since it is always these which pay the tax-that nine tcnths of the surplus represents want in the home, impurity in the home life crime on the street, paralyS n the shop and an impaired 1cmand for the products Of the farm. These men must know these things, for these things arc plain us the multiplication table. And they must realize that the swift way 10 reduce the surplus is To end the National policy Of rcvenuc from liquor, that the right way is to end t by dcclar ng the manufacture importa. ton, transportation and sale thereof public crimes against good government. and by pro hbitins and pun sa ng them as such.
 The Prohibition party "chief concern is for the purity Of the home and the virtue and brety of lhe people T. asserted this in plain and uum stallalle terms at Indianapolis; and I; furtatr p!liaIy sail that "tac burdens Of l taxat,oa sA III oe removed from food, cloth.