The Newtown bee., 1891-05-01
NEWToWN, MAY 1, 1891.
Shall We Broaden The Platform?
 If So, How?
Published By request of o. c. Beard
 ot Huntingdon.

Published By request of o. G. Beard
 of Huntington.
 l take this to be fundamental propo- sition, upon which we shall all agree That only as it. shows comprehensive grasp of the political situation, and of the problems of government, will any new party move forward to power.
 therefore assume that the Prohibition party must broaden its platform accord ing to it's increasing responsibilities and that the practical question before us is, "How shall we broaden our platform?" It is not too much to say that in the wise and just answering of this question lies the key to our success.
 lam more and more impressed with the supreme importance of the liquor question and with the fact that upon it's righteous settlement hangs not only the satisfact- ory settlement of all other current politi- cal issues, but the very life of the repub- lie itself. It is true, that state and nation are to-day dominated by the rum power and that this power is subserving all else tO us OW SClnSu uCNIllSl CluSs Op- ular statesmen and dominant parties may igore it as they will, the fact remains that the public menace of this curse is tenfOld greater to the republic to-day than it was in 1870, when Orville H. Platt declared that "rum-selling and drum-drinking'' "working our national ruin.'' His pro- phetic words are coming to fearful real izatiOn. The peril of the saloon has be- come greater than that of the slave curse. It is poisoning and corrupting our whole social life. It is silencing our churches. ''POlitical conventions, ,our national, state and local elections" are controlled by it. There is not state and scarcely a town where 'organized rumsellers" do not "set law at defiance" The rnm power stops at "nothing." ''It regards neither public good nor private welfare" ''It aims at nothing less than absolute power." It has become thoroughly organized from Washington to the humblest hamlet in the nation, ''the most perfectly organized force and power in the country to-day" ''It has practically subverted civil law in this country" and ''only lacks the occa- sion to oppose itself to the military pow CT of the government" ''It is sapping and mining the foundations of free gov ernment." "Such state of things can The twenty years of unchecked drinking habits" have to-day brought us to the ac- tual imminence of "'national poverty, dis aster and disgrace" The crisis is act ually at hand when "the republic must triumph over rum, or rum will triumph over the republic"
 It is already fact of history that the Prohibition party stands alone in the po- litical field as against these dangers. This fact must bring us to a full realization of our responsibility. It is our supreme duty to so shape and direct this party that it shall be able to unite the moral and econ- omic forces of the country for the over- throw of the rum power, and thus to place the full force and influence of government in harmony with social and scientific eff forts for the saving of the nation from the evils of alcohol. And it becomes of vital importance, therefore, that the PrOhibi- tion platform, as embodying our political purposes, shall be framed most wisely and effectively for this supreme end.
 We are travelling in new fields, ,and yet the path of truth and principle is ever the same, and we may learn wisdom by the study of experience.
 History shows that the periods of polit- ical progress and achievement are the periods of the dominant issue, and that the periods of political decline, breakup, or transition, are the periods of many and various issues. It is also true that when settled policy of government is prevail ing, and great issues of principle are not at stake,a large variety of administrative questions will appear in the party plat forms. But as new issues of fundamental import arise, the existing political parties begin to shape themselves with reference to that which is to become the dominant issue. The conservative party will hedge and evade and finally go to pieces. The opposition party will fatten itself and rise to power upon n the dominant evil, ,and yield to it's control. The new party will tion of and unswerving devotion to the issue of the hour; and as it approaches power, the capacity of the new party, and it's growth in the confidence of the people, are not measured by the variety, but by the comprehensiveness of it's views, and hu fife m of Inualnninnr hn of the supreme issue, and of the relations of that issue to all the problems of govern ment and administration.
 These facts may be clearly discerned by the study of American political platforms and declarations. In our earliest history, the political platform as such was not known, but special declarations were framed to answer the emergency. The Declaration of Independence dealt, not with variety of issues, but with the vari- ous phases of the all-absorbing issue.
 Later, as the republic was established and political parties begun to develop, ,re- sort was still had for many years to emergent and special declarations. The great constitutional struggles, during the first generation after the founding of the national government, as between the "loose and strict constructionists, ,'' brought forth many of these emergent declarations, and they are remarkable for their force and directness upon the ques- tion in hand. It was only with the rise and development of the anti-slavery issue that the full-fledged political platform ap. peared; and then appeared also the spectacle, which is SO strikingly paral. leled to-day of the platforms of the dom. inant parties concerning themselves with everything else save the impending