Blue-grass blade., 1891-11-28
CALL TO YOUNG VOTERS,
THE YOUNG MEN OF MASSACHUSETTS
ISSUE A STRONG ADDRESS.


A Young Mems Party Needsd-Ths
Prohibition Party Calls.
The following call has been issued
by the Massachusetts, Young Mems
Prohibition club:
We wish to speak to our generation,
to the young men Of Massachusetts,
who were born since Lincoln was
elected president and to whom the
civil war is only an important matter
Of history. The questions which di-
vided our fathers are no longer
vital in American politics. A
new era is opening up for new men.
We wish to speak concerning the
work Of to-day, Of a duty as great and
az specific as was that Of the men who |
maintained the union and brought
Nberty to the slave. We believe the |
generation Of young men now enter
ing into the active control of affairs,
u ordained to a work as vast, as i'm
portant and as patriotic as was the
work Of our fathers.
That work is the suppression Of the
saloon. No other political question
approaches this in importance.
1t is no news to state that drunken
ness Ia increasing at an alarming rate
in our State. In 1890 the arrests for
drunkenness we're 52,814, an increase
in five years of over forty-eight per
cent. And yet, this is not the great
est evil which arises from the pres
ence of the saloon in our midst. Sure
ly 1t is enough, If these more than
fifty thousand arrests Of the past year
were the fruits Of any other institu-
ton upon earth, sacred or secular,
that institution would be reprobated
by every decent citizen Why then is
not the saloon suppressed? Are fig
ures wanting to complete the evil
dence Of its foul work? Assuredly
not. Statistics were never more
overwhelming; arithmetic never gave
q more convincing verdict. The
tariff, the currency question, the con-
troll Of federal elections, any other
question before the people has two
sides and both sides have defenders;
but as to the evil results Of the saloon
and the increasing evil, there is but
one side. If upon any other ques-
ton, figures could be marshailed for
or against that would compare in con-
olusiveness with liquor statistics, that
question would be settled at the first
election.
Why, then, is not the saloon sup
pressed? Because Of the greater evil
to which we referred. Because the
saloon dominates in politics. The
oo1oop 1ro xuo i<o broafh fhro,,oh tho
law, and the law comes through poll
tics. To control politics, therefore is
Q necessary part Of the saloon keep
er's business; political influence is a
more essential part of his stock In trade
than his barrels or his bar. For this pur-
pose the liquor traffic has schooled a
class Of politicians whose presence in
our public affairs Is the most alarm
ing evil Of the times. These men man.
ipulate our politics and yet are in
spired by no patriotism; they direct
legislation. and their cry is "after US
the deluge:" they elect our rulers and
yet their only business with mankind
il to debauch it. They are banded
together to prostitute public Office,
debase our elections, and stifie the
public conscience.
Politics are worked by parties; par
ties are worked by the saloon. We
know this is radical sentiment, but
We know 1t to be true. False to their
country, the saloon politicians are not
oven loyal to a party. 1t is folly to
style them as Republicans or Demo-
Gratis. They have no party but for
the day. Well knowing that a cordial
welcome awaits them in either Of the
old parties, they weigh the induce
msnts held out at each election and
decide for that party whose bid 1s the
higher. A bargain and a sale precede
every election, the evidence Of which
Is as conclusive as though the trans
action were recorded in the registry
Of deeds. Upon no other hypothesis
can the fuctuating fortunes Of the
two old parties in Boston be account
ed for, nor can we in any other way
account for the fact that while both
parties throughout the State have
met disasters mt various times, the sa-
looms have had uninterrupted and in
creasing prosperity.
OF that prosperity, we confess We
are Jealous, for prosperity in the sa-
loon means adversely in the home,
ruin in the store and disaster to the
State. We long to see blow struck.
But the old parties will not-cannot-
do it. Instead, they enact high IL
cense, local option. and limit the sa-
looms; and upon these laws the liquor
traffic grows fat. The recent history
Of our State has been: A government
of the people, by the Republican
Party, for the saloons. Last fall q
Democratic triumph in the guberna-
torial contest made things neither
better nor worse. The saloon still
governs.
Is not, then, the suppression of the
saloon the great issue for which good
men should unite? The liquor traffic
Is an organized power in politics.
There should be a power for right
eousness in politics co-extensive with
this evil. Such is the Prohibition
party. We invite you, young men,
to Join it. Join now while, like your
selves, the movement Is in its youth
ful vigor and growing. Join while
the list Of pioneers is being made up
and before the party becomes so popu-
lar that it will require no heroism to
declare for it. Join while the effort
requires little pluck and so lifts you
above mediocrity. Enlist in the cause
voluntarily, before you are drafted
into it by public opinion.
'.But the party is small and power
less" Then add power to it by join
Ing.
"But the party is committed to but
one issue" Then, join while it is in
a plastic state upon other issues than
prohibition, that you may have a
hand in moulding 1t.
"But I am not total abstainer. T"
The party does not require you to
sign a pledge; We question no mans
personal habits.
Do you want live issue? II so,
come out of the old parties with their
petty chickering's over postoffice and
custom house. Come out of a party
which points to the eulogies upon the
gravestones of its departed leaders
as the chief excuse for its present ex-
istence, or from that other party which
dare not erect monuments to many
Of its dead. leave the commonplace
and come up. igher; from readers OF
history to makers Of it; from reminis-
cences Of past achievements to party
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