Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-23
A PROHIBITION DAY
At the Farmers Encampment, With
C0ld.Water Addresses.
JUDGE BRIGGS A COOL SPEAKER,
.whs Says Word for Himself and scorss
the BAKER Ballot Law.
ALL THE OLD PARTIES DENOUNCED
rrRoN A STAFF CORRESPONDENT

MOUNT GRETNA, aug. ZA-Inls was
Prohibition day at the farmers encamp-
ment, and the cold water advocates were
out in force The gathering was by far the
largest and most enthusiastic to date. State
Chairman Patton, ex-Judge Briggs, OF
Philadelphia, candidate for the Supreme
Court, John Lloyd Thomas of New York,
and Rev. j. b. Hector, the colored divine
of York county, were the principal orators
of the occasion. 1t was the formal opening
of the campaign in Pennsylvania
Practical politics was combined with the
fireworks to an extent by having the nomi-
nation papers, made necessary by the Baker
ballot law, ready for the signatures of the
sympathizing crowd. This portion of the
new voting system was vigorously de-
nounced from the platform as both unjust
and Unconstitutional
Another marked feature of the address
was the evident desire to prevent the inde-
pendent and reform vote being diverted to
the Peoples party. The Prohibition plat
form was declared to contain all the vital
demands OF the younger organization, in
addition to its cardinal plank OF enforced
teetotalism.
Chairman Patton opened with brief ad
dress urging the members of the party to
renewed efforts, and assuring them that the
victory would ultimately be theirs. He
devoted some time to the need of a more
perfect organization, and then introduced
John LLOYD Thomas, of New York. Mr..
Thomas is forcible, though rather rambling
speaker, and secured frequent and emphatic
condemnation from his audience. During
the course of his remarks he said:
''It has come to the point that the banded
liquor interests openly and admittedly
name our chief officers. In the Empire
State in 1888, in the slum wards of New
York City, Presidency was traded for a
Governorship and the saloons delivered the
goods. 1t was bargain between Hill and
Quay. / make this statement on the au-
thority of Whitelaw Reid, now the Repub-
lican candidate for Vice President. In
each of these slum wards Hill ran ahead of
the Democratic ticket and Harrison ahead
of the Republican ticket Our politics and
elections have been just like see-saw, with
the organized liquor power throwing its
weight to the side which promised best
and determining each contest
Change of Power as . Sse-Saw.
"When the Democrats were in power the
Republicans said to the liquor interests:
bv our arrangement of the license laws and
our Vice President will himself open bar
at the Shoreham in Washington This
was the highest bid, and notwithstanding
the frantic protests of the Democrats, who
offered everything in their power, the
weight on the see-saw changed, and the Re-
publicans went into Office again.
'The liquor dealers care nothing about
the Grand Old Party the pointing with
pride and all that sort of gush When they
go into a campaign they do so for actual
value received or in sight. The Democratic
party makes little or no attempt to disguise
the TACT that it favors the open saloon. But
the representatives, notwithstanding their
occasional temperance talks, are not whit
better. Ex-Governor Beaver has one
favorite quotation in his speeches he makes
to You farmers In this section. He never
used it in Philadelphia or Pittsburg but he
tells you that rain makes corn, corn makes
whisky and whisky makes Democrats
Well, if the Republicans believe this why
don't they put q stop to it? They can't
stop the rain or the corn, but they can put
amend to the whisky and thus, according to
Mr.. Beaver, demolish the Democratic party.
Why don't they do it?"
Whisky Dropped for Calamity Cries.
Mr. Thomas then abandoned whisky for
time and devoted his attention to the
economic issues, raising calamity cry very
similar to that of the most approved Peo-
pies party orators He denounced the dis
tribution of the wealth of the country, and
asserted that this condition was affected by
neither high nor low tariffs He said that
Mckinley spoke of the hard times of the
ffties, caused by the revenue tariff of 1886
while Blaine and Allison called that the
most prosperous period in the country's
IA Al
ment that it was not the hard times of the
ffties but the hard times of the nineties
which demanded action at the present time
He then referred to the Peoples party as
moving in the line of reform, but claimed
that the Prohibitionists were better organ
ized and had more definite purposes in view.
Upon this topic Mr.. Thomas said:
''The Prohibition party was the first one,
twenty years sago, to demand.the Govern
ment control of railroads Its platform was
the first to contain plank proposing to
limit the ownership of land and was the
pioneer to denounce the national bank sys-
tenn and demand q sufficient currency to
conduct the business of the country on a
cash basis. But We 90 further than this,
and want to reform humanity as well as the
Government, and prohibition is the first
essential
Prohibition as 1t Is In Kansas
II met Senator PETER at Cincinnati not |
long ago, and in the course of a conyersa-
tion I asked him: Senator, if there mad |
been 5000 saloons instead of prohibition in
Kansas how many Congressman, Senators |
and Legislators would have been elected |
by the agricultural reform movement |
Not one,' replied the Senator 1 put
the same question to Ralph Beau |
mont of the Knights of Labor, |
for stv he
during the memorable campaign of 1890, |
and bis answer was identical. He said that |
in the prohibition State he could always |
secure an audience and an attentive hear |
ing. When he crossed the line and entered |
Missouri the saloon at once interfered. If |
there had been s, 900 saloons in Kansas each |
one would have been political club house
devoted to the interests of the old parties, /
and neither Senator PETER nor any other /
farmers reform candidate would have been |
chosen to office. For the same reason the |
Prohibition party takes precedence of the |
Peoples party, and is the one that must |
carry out all permanent reforms"
Judge Briggs the Last Speaker.
Ex-Judge Briggs, of Philadelphia, the
cold water nominee for the State Supreme |
Court, was the next speaker. In opening
he said: "We are told that prohibition +
doesn't prohibit. but it does 1t prohibits
in Pennsylvania as far as it goes. At pres
ent there is an average of one license to
every 800 inhabitants The other 499 of us |
are prohibited from entering the business.
and we obey the law. Is there any one to |
say that the FIVE hundredth man will not /
have to obey the law if the prohibition is
extended to him, and the special monopoly /
he now enjoys abolished? High license en-
courages the LIQUOR habit and enprafts ii /