The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-02-23


it will never occur TO the veterans wht
man the old ship to protect themselves
from the attacks of your little canoe
1t does not seem to occur to you tina
the Republican party in the North may
be wise enough and strong enough tt
Clrcnmvent your plans and resist youl
attacks. 1t does not seem to occur t.
you that both of these old parties mus
be credited at least with the instinct Of
self preservation. And is it not perfect
ly plain that. possessing this instinct
which belongs to everything that ha,
life, both the old parties will know how
to protect themselves when the danger
becomes manifest?
Let me illustrate. We will take the
State of New York. Here the two old
parties are nearly evenly divided, and il
requires no very large change of votes
to give the victory to either party, In
the Republican party there is a very
large Temperance element, which is
growing more and more pronounced
every year. and more strenuous in its
demands for proper temperance legisla-
tion. Let us suppose that the Repuhli-
can party chooses to ignore or resist
these demands. Your party would prob
ably grow, gentlemen and the growth
of your party would be at the expense
of the Republican party, and that party
would find, by and by. that its cam.
palgns were well nigh hopeless. and l.
would see that it was the temperance
detection that was Gripping il, The
liquor interests being safely housed in
the Democratic party it would under
stand that its return topOwer could only
be effected by taking strong temperance
ground. When it did that, as it surely
would, where would your party bel
Gone-like a Whit of smoke in clear
November air. Applause. So it will
be in other states. The pressure of the
temperance element from within the
Republican party in the North and from
within the Democratic party in the
South, is a resistless pressure and in
stead of coming to you, as you imagine,
this element will secure what it wants
where it is, How can you reasonably
eXpec; that it will be otherwisey The
temperance movement was not born
with your organization. There was
Prohibition in force before you named
your first Presidential candidate; and
all the recent magnificent advance in
temperance legislation was not only not
due to your influence,it it was, in some cas-
es despite your influence. What reason
able prospect have you that you will
come into political power by fighting
and destroying the old parties? Not the
slightest. Applause.
But you say you have a strong hope
grounded in the history of political anti
slavery; and that as slavery was abol-
ished by a special party growing out of
the little Liberty of 1910 to the mighty
Republican party of 1860, so prohi-
bltion will triumph by your party. But,
unfortunately for you, the analogy
breaks down at the critical points.
Neither of the two political parties of
those days was willing to do anything
to oppose or restrict slavery. In no state
did either the Wing or the Democratic
party make any attempt to abolish slav.
cry, The relation of the old parties to
Prohibition is as different as possible
There is hardly state, North or South,
in which the one or the other of the old
parties has not adopted restrictive or
prohibitory legislation. They are Civ
llS US SUM w nav
the old anti-slavery heroes wanted was
restriction or abolition, not party tri-
umph. You are not satisfied to get Pro
hlbition; you want your partisan organi
zation and the triumph of your party.
DIVIDING THE FORCES OF TEMPERANCE.
In the second place. you make your
own success impossible by dividing and
antagonizing the friends of temperance.
1t is just as bad generalship in politics
as in war to divide and dis
tract your own forces. Your movement
creates three distinct camTs while there
is only one of the enemy. There are
Republican Prohibitionists, Democratic
PrOhibitionists and Prohibition Prohlbi-
tionists, And, gentlemen,of these three
divisions of Prohibitionists yours is the
smallest, most decidedly. This is easily
demonstrated. In Massachusetts the
total vote in cities and towns against
license was, in 1886, about 100000 The
Third Party vote for governor the same
year was only S25l, The vote for Pro-
hibition in Michigan last year was 49,
900. The vote for the Third Party can
didate for the Supreme Court was only
1880. In Texas the vote for the Prohi.
rition Amendment last year was 100,
273 The year before the Third Party
vote for governor was 10 1856. In Georgia
1l2 of the 1877 counties have adopted
Prohibition. In the same state the
Third Party Presidential candidate got
1853 votes, little more than one for
each county. The election returns
abound in illustrations like these.
Your Prohibition party does not dra W
the Prohibition voters, either IN the
North or the South. And the reason is
in the plain sight of everybody. 1t is
because your policy antagonizes them.
You run your candidates against their
candidates; you do what you can to de
feat their candidates and elect the can
didates-often rum candidates-of the
other party; YOU harrass, worry and an
noy them, and tell them. as you did In
New Jersey, that they are accessory to
the liquor crime and equally guilty with
the man who carries on the traffic"
You do all this and rouse their political
passion, and then expect them to break
their party ties and kneel as penltent
converts at your political shrine. And
you are so earnest IN this warfare against
the Republican party in particular that
you seem to forget that your sole aim is
not to wreck parties, but to establish
Prohibition. In 1886 you waged hot
campaign in New Jersey, In Morris
county the Republicans nominated for
the Senate a man who had made a re.
cord asa ProhibItionist in the. Assembly.
The Democrats nominated a man who
was known to be for rum, and you nom
mated man. Early in the campaign a
a letter was sent to every saloon keeper
in Morris County by Gottlieb Kruger,
the Newark brewer, telling them that
the Republican candidate was a danger.
GUS man, an avowed Prohibitionist, and
urging them to do all in their power to
defeat him. Did the Third party say,
here is the man for us, the man whom
the saloons fear and propose to cut
DOWN. Did they say that? Nothing Of
the sort, They kept their own man in
the field. Nor was this all. In the
town of Randolph there were more than
a score of Third Party tickets voted
with the name of the Third Party can
didate erased and that of the Demodrat.
ic candidate inserted. | Immediately
the correctness of this state
ment, but got no denial. On the con.
trary, was assured that the same thing
was done in other parts of the State. Is
il any wonder that such incidents as
this should drive some men TO the con-
clusion that the Third Party is not first,
last and all the time for Prohibition
THE THIRD PARTY PLATFORM TOO NARROW
In the third place, your temperance
platform is too narrow for National
party, or even sectional party, [Ap.
r.ln.,nn I Nn,,. III l. Il. IL.