The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1888-09-05
plain Facts For ProhIbs.

Chnrch. addresses the following open let
Ter 10 the Prohibition candidate for Vice
President:
De MoNEs, July 81, 1855.
DIR. Jo4iN A. Brooks:
Dear Sir:-Tbere appears in some OF
your reported speeches some things that
appear to me 70 be unfair to those Prohi-
bitiouists who do not look at this ques-
ton as YOU do. Yon have much TO say
Of conscience votes and men OF con
science and such phrases in which you
assert that the prOhibitionists who do
not agree with your wild goose third par
~ movement are not acting according TO
these conscientious convictions. AZ you
and I are co-wcrken il the same church,
and acting together relieioasiy. i is a
query TO ne when YOU became the keep
sr of the eonsaisnce Of yous brthren.
You do yourself 4 gross iniustice as we'd
as others when you assume any snch po-
sition. for certainly, where there are Eve
Prohibitionists who viii not vote your
ticket for every one that viii, il comes
with poor grace for n 10 chsrge i've
with acting hypocritically in their decis-
ion. Now, l have, as you well know
been a Prohihitionist all my life, and It
il not saying anything in an egotistc
sense when ] say / have done as much
fer the cause Of Prohibition as you have.
Hou have been in Missouri for many
vears where the Democratic party has
been in a large majority, and you have
been a member Of that party, and what
have you done in that party or with your
third party to get prohibition Abso-
luteiy nothing ! have been in iowa
and 2 member Of the Republican party
and worked in that line, and with what
result? We have OF the best probib-
itory laws in Iowa that has ever been
made. and il is as well enforced as as any
other law. | have followed no egais fayrs
Of third party impracticability. You
have. NOW, what is the result My
State il prohibitory yours is not, and
vet forsooth, because ! cannot oonscien-
tiously follow your method that has prov
ed a failure, and abandon my 1wn that
has proved a success, ] am 10 - account
ed as lacking in conscience. Did you ey-
or siink, my brother, that il IS possible
YOU are mistaken, and that the beam
might be in thine own eye?
Again, we have 10000 Prohibitionists
in Iowa. OF that number $4,000 viii
vote the Republican ticket and 1000 for
your party ticket. Allow me to suggest
that it is possible that the l49 may be as
wise and honest as the one. It is true
that one may be wiser than l49, but it is
not very good taste nor very good morals
for the n to say that be is the only
honest one.
And what is true Of the State Of Iowa
is true Of the country over. As l said be
fore, you cannot possibly hope to poll
more than one-ffth Of the actual prohi-
bition vote for your ticket, and is it not
possible that the four who refuse TO vote
81 may be as wise and conscientious as
the one who does? When YOU say they
are not, you are violating one Of the car
dinal principles Of the religion we both
profess TO fudge not thy brother"
While ! am at this matter there are a
Few other things to which | wish TO cali
your attention. The only States in which
prohibition is maintained to-day are Re-
publican States, and yet you make your
fight against the Republican party, and
your leaders say they have no hope Of
e~lecting your ticket, but you wish to de-
feat the Republican party, so that the
Prohibition party may take its place in
1898. Very well, look at the result. You
brake down Prohibition when it is al
ready established, for you concede that
the Democratic party is opposed to the
principle, you make enemies Of all men
in the Republican party by your fighting
them, and what is the result? You keep
a free whisky Democratic party in power
a generation at least.
But you begin TO compare yourself TO
the alb llition party, but you have stud
led history to little advantage if you can
see anything in that. If the abolition
party had continued on ITS radical ground
what would have been the result9 Slav-
cry would have been national to-day, for
If Abraham Lincoln bad taken his stand
on a platform of absolute abolition he
would have been defeaiel and slavery
]
would have been more firmly entrenched
thar ever. So, the good sens of the peo-
pile said, We will prohibit slavery in the
territories where we have jurisdiction
and leave the matter 10 the States, and
on this principle they won So, if Mr..
Harrison had stepped on a radical prohi-
bition piatfotm ut Chicago he would have
been defeated and whisky ~entrenched
for a generation. But as he is on the
common ground in favor OF local govern
ment on the matter by the States. while
adopting the general principle Of temper
ance in all ways, or rather on anti-saloon
ground, he will be elected and the great
Temperance reform will move on. Why
can not YOU be as wise as the old aboli-
tionists who supported lincoln and Ere
mont on a less radical platform than they
deemed exactly right? You may talk Of
conscience and all that, but conscience
without common sense is only fanaticism
in a republic like ours. 1t troubles my
conscience 10 think that the only obsta-
Gle in the way Of ultimate prohibition is
the utter impracticality of those who
blindly nut out a hopeless third party
ticket to stop the progress Of events to
that end. Besides, your party is not act
ing on a high moral plan. You confess
that the Democratic party is opposed to
prohibition, and that yeu intend to op-
pose il after you have beaten the Repub-
lican party. When, my good brother,
did you adopt the principle, VT will do
evil That good may come? You will put
the devil in power that yon may fight
him. Verify II that is conscience, | am
thankful l have none Of that kind.
Twill not burden you with the many
inconsistencies Of your opposition to the
Republican party. Because the Republi-
can party say that rsther than brake
down the protective tariff system they
would in a contingency repeal the tax on
liquors, you abuse them, or rather your
Spokesman do, and call them the "free
-