The freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1886-18??, 1888-08-22


quoted, from resolution supplemental
to but not included in its platform, and
finding in these words my own idea of
governments chief concern" set forth,
Isearch the long platform through in vain
TO- find condemnation of the saloon, or
hint Of purpose to assaiit, or any sign of
moral consciousness that the saloon is a
curse, and it's income too unho1y for the
nation to share
If the "chief concern" has no place in
party's platform and party has no policy
as to that "chief concern" that party
does not deserve the support Of men who
love good. government and would see it
maintained
- The.Republican party knows today, and
knew at Chicago in June, that the public
surplus, which in 1884 it declared dan
gerous and then proposed. to reduce,
cemes-about 80 per cent. of it-from
SOURCE more dangerous than the surplus
the liquor traffic.
When the greatest Republican states
man declared in 1888 that cit is better to
tax whisky than farms and homesteads
and shops" he knew, as he and his col
leagues know now, that to tax whisky is
to tax farms and homesteads and shops,
since it is always these which pay the tax;
that, nine-tenths of the surplus represents
want in the home, impurity in the home
life, crime on the street, paralysis in the
shop and an impaired demand for the pro-
ducts of the farm. These men must know
these things, for these things are plain as
the multiplication table. And they must
realize that the swift way to reduce the
surplus is to end the national policy of
revenue from liquor; that the right way
is to end it by declaring tho manufacture,
Importation, transportation and sale
thereof public crimes against good gov
eminent, and by prohibiting and punish
ing them as such.
The Prohibition party's "chief concern"
is for the purity of the home and the vir-
tue and sobriety of the people. It as
serted this, in plain and unmistakable
terms, at Indianapolis; and it further
plainly said that 1.-The burdens of taxation
should be removed from food, clothing
and other necessaries of life" 1t is today
the only avowed and consistent party ally
which the home and labor have, for it
would make the blessings of home cheap,
and remove altogether its curses; it would
bring labor to sobriety and insu. EN-
ployment; it would keep the factories
busy to clothe labor, the farms active to
feed it, and would give to our whole in
dustrial system the impetus of prosper
ity never yet known, and never possible
till the saloons are put away.
That party is not labor's truest friend
which would bar the importation of pau
pers from abroad or close the tariff door
of competition to pauperize foreign in
dustry, and then by a liquor system per
petuate the manufacture of paupers and
criminals in our own midst, with whom
honest labor must compete, and whom
largely honest labor must support.
| shall bear with glad and reverent
hands the only party standard on which
is inscribed, For God, ard Home and Ma
tive Land" the only standard of the only
party which recognizes God as the source
of government, and would defend his holy
day from dissertation; which is the guar
dian of homes best interests and de-
fender of the nation through these and
which, burying the dead past of sec
tional strife and bitterness, would build a
living future on the sure basis of sober
manhood, and pure womanhood and I'M
tainted youth, for all our united country
1t was my privilege to aid in the good
work of restoring peace and goodly fellow
ship and in assisting to establish indus
trial relations under the new order of
things at the south, after war had swept
bare so large an area of our national heri-
tage; and | hold no other service of my
life of such account as that which brought
order, and the return of property, and the
rights of protected labor, to large region
Frustrated by the arbitrament of arms
And now, when more than twenty years
have passed, and the last sword of rebel
lion has been beaten into the plowshare of
loyal peace, and new south knowing no
other than the Union flag reioices in the
nations new birth Of freedom" | count
it the truest glory of patriotism to lead
where men of the south and men of the
north alike may follow, black as well as
white, with equal faith in the national re-
form to be achieved, with equal fidelity
TO the Union we would protect from
its only remaining foes. And | rejoice
that, standing on the platform so well
framed at Indianapolis, which so admirably
recognizes other great principles than this
of notwithstanding as we do de-
clare, that citizenship ''rests on no mere
circumstance of race, color. sex or nation
atty, and affirming, as we always shall
affirm the full rights of citizenship for
all, standing ever, as we must, for the de-
, Tense of the weak and the oppressed; we
! can and do assert that Prohibition is ''the
dominant issue in national politics., - and
we can and do Invite to full party fell
lowship all who on this one dominant issue
are with us agreed, believing that as we
settle this broad question for the right so