St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-11
IGNORANCE AND PREJUDICE.
Ex-Gov. st. John, OF Kansas, Talks
on Prohibition.

on Prohibition.
EX-Gov. John p. st. Johns lecture on
prohibition drew big crowd to Armory
hall last night. In few well-chosen
remarks Bishop Fitzgerald introduced
the speaker of the evening. In the
course of his remarks the lecturer said:
al have hearty sympathy with
a people who are oppressed by
ignorance and prejudice. 1t was
ignorance and prejudice that burned
the martyrs at the stake, that crucified
Christ, that opposed the abolition of
slavery, that opposes prohibition now.
Less than thirty years ago it was lawful
in this great country to take the wife
from her husband and sell her to go to
the cotton fields OF Mississippi and to
sell the husband to go to the rice swamps
of Georgia. 1t was the custom; it
was the law. The newspapers had
taught the people that it was right,
both political parties sanctioned it, even
the churches were either silent upon the
question or boldly proclaimed that slav-
cry was right. The abolitionists were
denounced and prosecuted. They were
even hung and burned in gy. Ig-
norance and prejudice had taught the
people that it was right to sell Gods
creatures upon the auction block
as chattels. For this reason | say
that the hardest thing to overcome
is the ignorance and prejudice of the
people. But slavery was not enear so
great an evil as the liquor traffic. That
furnished him home and the necessa-
ries of life. To-day the government is
deriving a revenue from that which de-
stroyS men mentally, morally, physic-
ally, financially-yes, even their very
souls. We have to meet to-day the tx.
norance and prejudice that made
slavery possible thirty years ago
in our fight for prohibition
The press is against us. If you are
good Democrats you read the st. Paul
GLOBE and the Chicago Herald. These
papers teach you that prohibition takes
away mans liberty. If You are Re-
apoliS Tribune or the Pioneer-what is
that? These papers, if you read them,
will tell you that the Prohibition
party is made up of cranks
composed of Sunday school teachers
and old maids, and that the Republican
party is the only one to which you can
safely depend upon for anything. These
are some of the prejudices we will have
to overcome. 1t was said that slavery
would be compromised in some way,
but the Lord would not allow it to be
settled by any compromise, but
insisted on it's abolition. Here in
mise the liquor traffic with high license,
and l want to go upon record as brand
ing it as positive sin, and every man
who votes for it is sinner. High Ii
cense is nothing more nor less than
trap set by the saloon men to catch III
nOcent and half-informed temperance
| men. The SalOOnkeeper is just as good
and pure and noble as the sa-
loon he keeps, and the saloon
is as pure as the political party who
passed the law licensing it, and the law
is not any better than the man who
voted for it. The constitution of the
United States has for a fundamental
principle the welfare of the people. II
we destroy that we are rebel. This
| the liquor traffic does, and therefore it
| is rebel against the government and
| should be suppressed. This traffic an
nnally demands the death of $4,000 peo-
| pie in this country. 1t cannot live eX-
| cept off the bone and muscle of the peo-
| pie"
/ The speaker Ioundly roasted Presi-
dent Harrison for allowing wine on the
table in the White house, and r0undly
scored Vice President Morton for max
| ing the saloon so eminently respectable
by going into the business himself. He
declared that prohibition was success
in Indian territory, in Kansas, Iowa,
and in the two DakotaS. There was now
strip of country 1900 miles long and
400 wide in which the sale of liquor was
prohibited by law. He quoted from the
report of the collector of internal reve-
hue to show that in the district of Kan
sas, which includes the Indian territory,
only LOGO government licenses had
been issued for the sale of liquor, which
is allowed by law for medical and
mechanical purpose, while in the Min
nesota district. which has population
OF nearly 100000 less than Kansas,
| the nigh license law was responsible
for, 3,O22. He switched off onto the
tariff question and denounced the
| present system wrong in prin-
ciple. He declared that the present
surplus of 500, 100000 should be out
among the people. AT present the sys-