The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-05-09
THE PRESS.

a widespread anu intense interest mas
evidently Teen awakened by the revela-
last three weeks. Additional disclosures,
hardly less startling, will be found this
week. The confidential letters from
liqlor dealers and from the m .nagers of
their campaigns, rs found on other pa, es,
show that the conspiracy against prohi-
bition was by no me ms confinedt to Penn
sylvania. In fact, the same tactics of
bribing politicians and substituting the
press have bsen resorted TO in every
State who're an amendment campaign has
been held in recent years.
In Rhode Island especially the reve-
lations are shameful. We find that the
very man who was first appointed by the
Leg stature Chief Of State Police to en-
force the p%rohibitory amendment was a
hireling of the liquor dealers during the
amendment campaign last year, End is
now offering the liquor dealers of Ne
braska his services for a price during the
pending campaign. Gen. Charles R.
Brayton, Republican boss of Rhode
Island, may have a perfect legal right to
sell himself to the highest bidder; but
what right had the Legislature to place
in the hands of such a man the duty of
seeing that the prohibitory amendment
to the State Constitution should be en-
1hhu sAoA WAhl T1HuU ub6 Lul6
same Legislature, under the hypocritical
plea that the law was a failure and could
not be enforced, to resubmit the Amend
ment? Brayton's character, moreover,
was thoroughly known at the time of his
appointment.
There is also an interesting letter of ad-
vice from Dave" Martin, Collector of
Internal Revenue for the First District of
Pennsylvania. This is the same man to
whom Brewer CrowelI said he. gave $500
to cast his influence against the amend
ment; the same man who was the agent
of the liquor dealers for the distribution
of their funds; the same man whom
President Harrison, a few weeks before
the campaign closed, placed in his pres-
emit responsible and influential position,
in spite of the fact that Martins connec-
tions with the liquor dealers had been
brought to President Harrison attention.
But most interesting of all are the let
ters of the liquor dealers themselves and
their advice to their Nebraska brethren.
Su8sidize the press, buy the politicians,
talk up high license, and keep shy of
public meetings-this seems to be the
counsel unanimously offered. In other
words; a'campaign of bribery and decep-
to advantage. Nothing else BELTS the
cause these men espouse. One alternates
on reading these letters between indigna-
tion at the traffic and its methods and
indignation at the good and gullible citi-
Zens who allow themselves to be duped
SO easily by these methods. Children of
light, indeed, they are.
But the deepest impression of all left
on our minds by these letters is that of
the strength that resides in the cause of
Prohibition. Is there or has there been
/ 80 1~k - l1F~-4 49, IL --.
that could, in the face of such tremen-
as this issue has commanded? Look at
it calmly and impartially. What cause is
there which, with the daily press and the
machines of both old parties against ii
almost unanimously, could nevertheless
poll in Pennsylvania 296,6l7 votes; in
Massachusetts, S6,459 votes; in Texas,
1923, 270 votes; in Tennessee, III, 504 votes;
in Michigan, 17S, 636 votes; in the two
Dakotas, 57,84l votes? Prohibitionists
who read these letters with any feeling
of encouragement over the revelations
made must read them blindly. For our
part there comes to US a feeling of posi-.
tive exultation and %unbounded conf
dence. The cause that can to-day fight
against such odds as these is one
that can not be put down by oil
the hosts of hell. And when we re-
member that all these tactics and all
this money were expended, for the most
part, simply to hold the ground the liq-
u~or-dealers already held, the revelation
becomes an inspiration. We have lost
Rhode Island, we have gained the two
Dakotas; that is the net result of thu
contests of the last few years. AS TO
the rest, license has simply held it,
ground-ground that it already pos
sessed-that is all. If there is any rea
son for discouragement in this wa fail-t
see it.
On with the fight, and if in addition t
the combined forces of ~avarice, appetit
and apathy va have to contend with tn
daily press and the machines of both oil
parties, all right. There is strengt
enough in this cause Of the homes, thi
cause of mothers and children, this caus
of pure politics, this cause of sober in
dustry and true economics. this cause o
the church and the school, this cause Q
true American liberty, this cause of Go
to meet and overcome them all. o
with the fght!-The Voice.