The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-02-27
RESUBMUSSION.

We can generally endorse. Bro. Knowles
OF the Deadwood Independent, but we
are forced to take exceptions to his arti-
Gle on resubmission which appeared IN d
recent issue. He says:
The farmers are beginning to see that intern
perance IL the result Of our. vicious. laws which
toll while the idle few live In w~antonness upon
the others labor. These conditions beget
habits Of intemperance in both classes. To
draw attention from the real cause Of drunken.
ness, plutocracy seeks to enact other laws still
more vicious to restrain the liberty of the indi-
vidual. This serves the double purpose of hid
ing the real issues from the people and getting
them accustomed to governmental al Il terferences
with their personal rights against the time wheIl
plutocracy proposes to deprive them of all
rights.
We should call this getting the cart be-
fore the horse. Poverty may in some
cases beget drunkenness, but we know
that in nearly every case, drunkenness
begets poverty. It is not new for the
Independent to charge to plutocracy all
the evils Of the day, but that paper is
certainly entitled to the credit Of being
the first to heap upon the overloaded
shoulders OF this class the giant evil Of
intemperance. Even this is not 80 un-
reasonable as the charge that prohibit
tory laws have been enacted through the
power OF the money class.
Once in politics no one can deny that
all parties are inclined to use or abuse
the questionas seems to their best
interest, but surely the greatest
lover Of the traffic will not deny
but that the crusade was begun and
prosecuted to the enactment OF law, by
earnest and honest Christian workers.
The Independent says farther:
The independent party is composed Of men
who have studied economic questions. and they
are fully convinced hat no law restricting the
liberties of the individual can counteract the
which deprive men of the Just fruits of these ex-
ertions. Hence their efforts in the legislature
to undo the work Of the republican plutocrats,
who knew that If they could keep the people
fighting over prohibition, they could continue
to rob and plumber them.
We believe in being just, even to our
enemies. The leaders in the Independ-
ent movement, Loucks, Wardall, Har-
den. Crosse, Leavett and Cummings are
all prohibitionists, nor do we believe
they have changed their minds on the
subject. 1t vas the Alliance that forced
the republican party to adopt the pro-
hibition question and we believe the Al
lance az q whole, are today j n favor OF
the utter abolition OF the traffic. Cen
erallv Bro. Knowles is very quick to de-
tect fraud. Why has he not shown up
the corrupt methods in use at the state
capital to effect resubmission, and held
up to just ridicule the feeble efforts OF
prohibitionists to beat back this devil
ish combine. It is not denied that on
assembling, could a vote have been
taken on this measure, it would have
been defeated by a large majority. But
moneyshas flowed in like water and
lobbyists OF the Jack Simmons stripe
like horde OF vultures have lowered
around the legislature and today, the re
suit liz doubtful. Here we believe it
might be justly charged that the object
Of the republican party in voting for re-
submission is to, with this question,
cornplicate matters il '92. The demo-
,ratic party also believes this question
;ansbe used to advantage liz the next
campaign, but both will find themselves
ably left, forlf the question is resub-
nitted, the reform party will not dodge