Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-05-09
SUBSIDIZING THE PRESS.
A widespread and intense interest ha,

OUDClDlLlNN LIE L hLOS.
A widespread and intense interest has
evidently been awakened by the revela-
tions made in our columns during the
last three weeks. Additional disclosures,
hardly less startling, will be found this
week. The confidential letters from
liquor dealers and from the managers of
their campaigns, as found on other pages,
show that the conspiracy against prohi-
bition was by nc means confined to Penn
%sylvania. In fact, the same tactics OF
bribing politicians and substituting the
press have been resorted to in every
State where 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
Legislature Chief of State Police to en-
force the prohibitory amendment was q
hireling of the liquor dealers during the
amendment campaign last year, and 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
Al SAo AoAOo VI 6uCu b 1udu IAo OuSy VI
seeing that the prohibitory amendment
to the State Constitution should be en-
forced? And then what right has this
same Legislature, under the hypocritical
plea that the law was q 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 interestinglet Of ad-
vice from Dave" Martin, Collector of
Internal Revenue for the First District of
Pennsylvania. This is the same man to
whom Brewer Crowell 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 mar 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's attention.
But most interesting of all are the let
tiers of the liquor dealers themselves and
their advice to their Nebraska brethren.
Subsidize the press, buy the politicians,
talk up high license, and Keep shy of
counsel unanimously offered. In other
words, a campaign of bribery and decep-
ton is the only one that can be pursued
to advantage. Nothing else BELTS the
cause these men espouse. One alternates
on reading these letters between indigna-
ton 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
of late years before the nation an issue
that could, in the face of such tremen-
dous odds, command such voting power
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 it
almost unanimously, could nevertheless
poll in Pennsylvania 1866 Gil votes; in
Massachusetts,, 66,459 votes; in Texas,
1920 votes; in Tennessee, III, 504 votes;
in Michigan, 1884, 36 votes; in the two
Dakotas, 1884 votes? Prohibitionists
who read these letters with any feeling
made must read them blindly. For our
part there comes to us a feeling of posi-
tive e1ultation and ~unbounded conf
aence. The cause that can to-day fight
against such odds as these is one
that can not be put down by all
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-
uor-dealers already held, the revelation
becomes IN inspiration. We have lost
Rhode Island, we have gained the two
Dakotas; that is the net result of the
contests of the last few years. AS for
the rest, license has simply held it's
ground-ground that it already pos
sessed-that is all. If there is any rea-
son for encouragement in this we fail to
see it.
On with the fight, and if in addition to
the combined forces of a%varice, appetite
and apathy we have to contend with the
daily press and the machines of both old
parties, all right. There is strength
enough in this cause of the homes, this
cause of mothers and children, this cause
of pure politics, this cause of sober in
dustry and true economies. this cause of
the church and the school, this cause of
true American liberty, this cause of God
tt meet and overcome them all. On
with tho Erhfj-Tbo Doaco