The Press., 1888-10-25

8 hopeless and losing task, he imputes to the writer motive which he has never entertained and never expressed.
 The editor either lacks the judgment necessary to read and understand. or else he wiffully misconstrues the article upon I "The Drink Problem" The entire spirit of that article was the advocacy of meth ods to remove the c0use of the liquor evil. The writer is in full sympathy with dyly method which will remedy the drink evil, but has little faith in political prohibition as such a method. The editor of the Home is evidently inclined to give no credit to those who entertain strong convictions up- on the right side of this great question un- less they believe utterly in his political prohibitory method of treatment
 The Home denies further that legal pro- hibition necessitates an unnatural sense of emergency in the community. To insist upon that, the editor says, ''presupposes the saloon curse to be alwaysin possession of the field" This is remarkable an- swer What does the editor mean I Why does he attempt to meet an objection to his favorite doctrine with such an ab- surd reply? Is not the saloon 'sosO in possession of the field? Is not the duty of all friends of temperance toward the liquor evil dnty for today Does the obiec- tion to legal prohibition that it necessi- tates Ca sense of emergency in the con- munity apply or not apply to the present situation ?" That is the point. Let the editor answer that.
 1 The spirit which animates the editor of the Home and his party is shown in sin. gle sentence: "Once let all opponents of the saloon come together on 6 common ground and establish their policy" Es- l tabllsh 8 "policy" for what intent? To the intent that the aggregate of those who call themselves prohibitionists may be guided by common plan or method in seeking their ends. These ends, as the prohibitionists loudly vaunt, are ''moral" ends, and their cause is the cause of Gre form. It is at just this point that the prehibitionist, if he be honest, deceives himself.
 Reform pertains to the individual-not to the mass. Moral reforms cannot secure proper recognition through the medium of party action. Political parties, like civil laws, are of consequence only so far as they set forth the sentiments and will of the people. Parties and political poli- cies are the methods by which the mass unites in common action. Reform must have it's foundation in the conscience and heart of the individual. Reform move- ] ments must conquer individual by indi- vidua1. When this has been done party organization may be called to the service of. reform. To do so sooner is to grasp at the shadow of reform and miss the sub stance. ....
 ;. The editor of the Home points to the l policies of Maine, Iowa and Kansas as l 'unanswerable testimony" of the effective ness of prohibitory law, It is true that legal prohibition has been in a measure successful in those states but the condi- tions. which insure success there do not obtain in all communities As has been already pointed out in the article upon ''The Drink Problem, the success of Ie- gal prohibition in thinly peopled con- munities is no criter;on of it's success in densely populated communities, in the great cities, where the liquor evil exists in it's most aggravated form. The conditions of different communities are unlike, and the argument from the example of Maine, Kansas and Nebraska does not advance the position of the editor of the Home one whit. In those states, too, how much of the credit for securing prohibitory laws is due to the prohibition party? Was not the chief influence for legal prohibition in Maine and the other states exerted by a party which. the editor of the Home has repeatedly denounced as traitor to the cause of temperance? It does not appear quite consistent for the Home to violently charge a great party with insincerity in regard to temperance reform, and still point to the work that party has done as "unanswerable testimony" in favor of the necessity and methods of rival party.
 The cause of temperance, like all causes for the right, will secure to itself greater portion of respect, confidence and success if all of it's advocates and defenders resort only to arguments that are fair toward others and reasonable in themselves.