St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-25
HARRISON ON PROHIBITION.
An Answer to Gen. NettletOn's Let
ter Favoring High Tariff.

There was large attendance at the
prohibition meeting at Plummer PoSt
hall last evening, when Hugh Harrison
read a paper answering Gen. Nettle-
toms letter advocating high license,
printed in the various papers some days
ago. The meeting opened with singing
by two campaign clubs. Mr.. Harrison
was introduced by the chairman, Mr..
Williams. Mr.. Harrison said:
1t seems like presumption for me to
try to answer Gen. Nettleton in his plea
for high license. In this discussion |
propose to address those who be-
fieVe that the saloons are the can
cerous centers of the earth and
are annually destroying many souls. L
believe that the saloons should be abol-
ished, and that at once. The licensing
of men to destroy us is all
wrong and should be done
away with. No reform was ever
accomplished without great struggle,
which this prohibition struggle must
be. In voting for high license you sim
ply vote with the men who believe IN
sin. The young man will ask. where is
the big majority which is going to in
augurate this reform. He cannot vote
with either the Democratic or the Re-
publican parties, for they have both de-
clared themselves in favor of the liquor
traffic. The figures which show
how much liquor is drunk in this coun-
try are simply appalling, but not so
much so as the ruin, mental, moral and
physical, the drinking itself causes.
What farce it is to allow drinking and
license saloons in one state and have no
saloons in another and forbid all drink
ing.
THE ANTI-sALOON REPUBLICANS
are Just as bad as the straight Republi-
cans and Democrats. as they advocate
the taxing of saloons highly in order to
support the courts. High license is
one of the grandeSt laws ever invented
for the saloon men. They are pleased
with it, as it creates monopoly in
their favor. These anti-salOon Repub-
lican schemers are frauds and
political delusions, for they allow a
man to practice his nefarious trade of
liquor-selling upon the payment of a
high license. This is not an idle
charge, but one which can be sub
stantiated. When we consider that our
newspapers and our ministers dare not
cry out against the great saloon evil,
what tribulatiOns must we pass
through before we can win the day.
The devil may come to us with high
license, patrol limits and the like, but
we are not to be hoodwinked by any
thing like that. We are here to win on
strictly prohibition basis. We know
Satan's treachery, and are on our guard
against it, The call for the anti-saloon
Republican meeting shows how
those men are scheming to
save the ''grand old party by
trying to gain the confidence of the tenn
perance people by pretending that tenn
perance and finally prohibition was
what was wanted. The Republican
party is hOpelessly divided on the
former strength. | am forced out of the
Republican party because | do not be-
lieVe in halfway temperance.
The speaker here read extracts from
various Republican papers touching
upon high license, and showed cOnclu-
Sively just where the weak points in
that plan lay, much to the delight of the
audience].
Continuing. he said that the Repub-
lican party is neither in favor of high
license nor prohibition, and that those
who say that it is are simply
working for the good of their party.
The whole rum power is directed against
prohibition, and even some papers have
declared that certain laws recently
passed have rendered the liquor bust
ness so legitimate that it can never be
eradicated. Letters from leading brew
ers and liquor men show that high
license has helped their business
in many ways, and that they are all in
favor of high license. Reports from
Chicago and other cities show that the
evil places are just as numerous and
bad since high license went into effect
as they were when there was low Ii
cense. l admit that prohibition is a
partial failure in Iowa and elsewhere,
but blame the party in power for it.
The only proper way to have prohibit
ton enforced is to have it enforced
BY THE PROHIBITION PARTY,
as neither Republicans nor Democrats
will do it. In view of all this testi-
mony, showing how the saloon men are
fighting prohibition, can any one really
believe that high license is the proper
way to suppress the evil.
1t seems strange to me that
any man can advocate the
licensing of the social evil. Yet few
evenings ago | heard Appointment phys
ician openly advocate the system in
warm terms, he holding that it would
avert many of the evils incident to i'm
purity. gu CAN license houses
of prostitution just as we'll as
you can saloons. The licensing
of the social evil does more to
make society rotten, religion byword
and virtue thing to be scofed at, and
in every country where such system
is carried on this is plainly demon
strated. The loss of life annually
through strong drink is $4,000 more
than die by wars, plaques and the like
If it be right to license an evil, is il
not right to provide for and protect the
offspring of the dens of vice? AS it is
now man escapes punishment
because he WIS drunk when the
deed was committed. If prohibition
were in force the man who sold the