The Newtown bee., 1891-05-01

F profoundly impressed with the immeas- urable supreme and all-absorbing impor- tance of this liquor question, that l would not for a moment obtrude any other question to the hindrance or en- barrassment of the Prohibition cause. I have said formerly that when major ity of the party representatives in con- vention assembled desired the insertion of any debated or disputed plank in our platform, I believed it unwise and un- fair for any objecting iminori5y to there fore relax it's effort for the party in any degree. 1 have thought it the supreme duty of all friends of Prohibition to sup port the Prohibition party in any event, in the confidence that other questions would eventually be settled right. But to-day I am willing to say that if it shall appear that the presence of any other question in our platform is material hindrance to the union of all the forces of Prohibition in one party whose su- preme issue is the overthrow of the rum power, I shall hold it a duty and pleas uTC GO WdlNC dll SuClI OOilCA HuSSe1OhD1 OA even consent that our platform shall be silent upon any other question that seems seriously troublesome or divisive.
 do not fear for the future of the cause of woman suffrage or of tariff re- form, whether they be in the Prohibition platform or in any other platform; but | do fear for the cause against the saloon, if it's friends are not speedily united. | do not see how the cause of woman, or the question of tariff, or labor, or reve- nue, or finance. can be satisfactorily set tied until the all-embracing and all-com- plicating problem of the saloon is solv- ed; but with that settled, l feel sure that the moral character and purpose of the majority against the saloon will be the best possible majority of the Ameri- can people to give fair and judicial con- sideration to other questions pressing :; or if not, hope the battle for re-algn- ment on the next supreme issue will be- gin immediately.
 l believe that the great majority of women to-day would rather see the sa-
 
 enfranchised. That the sympathies and efforts of woman are so largely with the Prohibition party because it has tended so strongly to woman suffrage, do not believe. Woman is with us because she hates the saloon, and that is the real reason why anybody should be with us.
 There is no practical wisdom in that policy which would insert blanks in our platform to secure factional support. Any support not given us for the sake of the main question is likely to prove unreliable, if not dangerous. We can place no dependence upon Helots in this war. Every soldier must be a Spartan.
 If it shall be said in criticism of the Prohibition party, that it drops or re- fuses to take up certain other issues be- cause it is faithless or cowardly, and thus makes itself liable to the same crit icism that we have so often passed upon the Republican and Democratic parties, the sufficient reply is, that the Prohibi- tion partys declination will be, as it must be. honest, open, and straightfor- ward, for the simple and just reason that it is not willing to do anything to handicap the progress of Prohibition while the position of the Republican and Democratic parties has been that of double-dealing and hypocrisy-of pre- tending and promising one thing to the temperance element and another thing to the rum element; and for that dis honesty, and for that alone, has criti- cism of the old parties been just. Had they told us honestly that they could not take up the Prohibition issue, because saloon votes were necessary for their success on other lines that they consider of greater importance, we should have honored their frankness, the temperance men of all parties would have gotten to- gethcr long ago, and we should be much further on the road of progress than we are to-day. Of all things, let the Prohi- btion party avoid double-dealing on any question, and to this end let us assume no obligations that we cannot fulfill. This reasoning will hold as to our atti- tude on any of the other questions.
 1 believe that there is wise and just expediency in this matter of current is- sues. would not necessarily confne our platform to the liquor question and it's ramfications. There will be certain ques- tions of administration that should be treated with intelligence and decision. I have no time in the brief limits of this paper to specify, but in general I would say this: Questions involving radical changes in governmental policy, and about which there is serious and divi- sive difference of opinion in our party, I would avoid as far as possible, not on the ground of fear, but simply on account of political nability-because of the plain political fact, which any man of candor will recognize, that no party can meet and settle two great radical questions at the same time. It is far better to take such @ stand honestly than to suffer the disastrous reaction which will come from promising what we cannot fulfil.
 Iwould therefore have our platform committees and our conventions study to frame such platforms as will embody the largest possible progressive unity of all friends of the cause of Prohibition, with the sole view to advance the cause rap idly as possible, and in the firm and hon est belief, not only all other great ques tions must wait for the breaking of the rum power, but also that the practica , settlement of the saloon question vii clear the political atmosphere so that we shall see things in new light; and ther we may move forward for the settlement of other nressino issuas accordinp to thf