The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-07-25

- PniGy EuuUv yE6 CHI.
zens of the nation are readyto bnild Il,
!or parties must be built. There ire
thousands of mon all over tka nation n,
this moment who, If they see the above
statements, will give them their unre.
served assent, and say, When shall we
laws such . party2-would that it were
Ssfe how! They sit waiting to see such
e party spring forth as Minerva sprong
rom the head Of Jove, full panoplied
not be seon. A true party must be- bu;it-
1t does not consist simply in q platform
and q ticket; any crowd can get together
and furnish these on short notice. What
IS needed to make a party is a leader hin
that knows and trusts its following. and
q following that knows and trusts Its
leadership, and these can be gained only
after years of growth. A party has to
have: (O Its organization by States,
counties, anc towns; az leaders in the
towns, IN the counties, in the States. in
the nation, who have not only the conf
dence of the party, but the confidence of
each other on all essential points. This
requires a sitting process that is sure 10
sake years. No one who has never tried
Can have an adequate conception OF
the constant vigilance and incessant toll
necessary to hold together q feeble
minority in the face Of powerful as
saults, ridicule, utilization, and misrep-
resentation, and to make of-that feeble
minority IN aggressive, cohesive, active
growing political party.
The charge has frequently been made
That so think more of our Prohibition
party h we do of prohibition. For
our part We are ready to admit the
charge fully and unequivocally. We do
th1nk more of a new party than of any
one issue that is before the people, be-
cause we believe the need for a new
party is greater than the need for any
thing else. We do not believe that the
Prohibition party ia what the party of
the future must be, but we are confident
that it will grow growing-into such
a party, and we arc equally confident that
there is no other organization within
sight that can grow into such a party. We
care more for the Prohibition party than
We care for prohibition itself because
the greater includes the less. Yet if that
party were to prove false to the policy Of
prohibition we would desert it to-mor-
row, for we believe that the party of the
future must achieve that policy before it
can achieve any other of imr ortance to
the nation. Only through a new party
can prohibit on, actual and potent, be
accomplished, but it is by no me ms the
only important result that will be at
tanned.
The hope that either old party can be
made over Alright is an iridescent aud de-
4usiye dream. The plan so periodically
urged that the GOOD men throng to the
primaries md cain control of the con-
ventions is a hopeless plan. One reason
Is that the good men will not do it, and
another reason is that if they do they
simply plunge tie party deeper into the
miro. BY the law of politics, when a
man attends q primary or a convention
he is pledged to sustain the measures and
candidates adopted by the majority. The
good man who goes 10 q primary, there
fore, ties himself to the party policy
worse than before and renders himself
less of q remedial factor than before.
If he does not recognize this fact, but
kicks over the traces because of some
Infamous nomination, be will not be
given the light to enter the next pri-
mary. 1t is IN utterly hopeless task,
when the base clements have once OBJ
tanned control of a p ,rty, trying to purify
md ennoble it. When Senator Ingalls,
SAID that "the publication of politics is
M iridescent DREAM" he would have
been absolutely correct had he added
through either Of the two dominant
parties"
The Prohibition party has a far higher
Il broader mission than is implied in its
name. 1t holds within itself the power
tion, and as soon as it is thoroughly i'm.
buei with this thought, and thoroughly
aware that the party itself is something
far more important to the nation than
0ny one of its issues, then, and perhaps
not till then, will it GO on to the ~victori-
ouS goal we firmly believe is within its
reach.