Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-05-05

people OF tins country the licensed
, salOon-the most damnablc curse that
! ever afflicted the human race-if you
will just give us in return a few fed
eral and State officers, and a local op-
ton law by which we may have a
chance to free ourselves from the
curse we elect yOu to lcgiSlate upon
Others. lt elects men tn Congress and
to the Legislature with promise to
protect home, but leaves them free to
take bribe, and for it to vote misery.
hell and destruction through the Ii
censed saloon on every other commu
nifty i'll the State or nation. And with
a cold indifference beyond all com
prehension, and n false philosophy
that could have originated nowhere
outside of perdition, it says to its own
sons, we will labor to keep the H.
censed saloon out of your reach while
you are small. and while we could
easily keep you out of tie saloon if it
were here, but our devotion to our
old liquor licensing party is so much
greater than it is Ia You that we in
tend to stand by and vote with il in
its inhuman efforts to fix licensed IL
quOr traps all over this country in
which to ensnare and ruin YOU. when,
III the innOcemcy of unsuspecting
youth or carly manhood. You leave
home and go forth into the world all
alone to battle for success or failure in
life !
MY FRIENDS. SUCH INHUMANITY TO MAN,
TO WOMEN, TO CHILDREN, YEA, TO
| o<F'S ovyN orrCpprNc
| Simply for party's sake, shows de-
| gree of blind political idolatry that
must damn any nation of people that
| persist in it. May we not with pro-
! priety cXclaim. o. foolish Athenians.
who idolatrously worship false gods.
and finding no relief, turn now and
then to the local option altar inscrib-
ed to your unknown god of Prohibi-
! ton, and then, "like the SOW that was
washed. return again to your wallow-
ing in the mire Of liquor-cursed politi-
cal partisanism You who have ewes
to see, but have not opened them to
| discoverable facts ears to hear. but
have stopped them to the cries of woe
| and misery and hearts to understand,
but have hardened them so as not to
realize the truth of the common broth
erhood of man, because prejudice has
| closed the door 10 your reason, and
| the pride of former beliefs has stood
as bar to your conversion wake
up and hear the message of Paul
The times of this ignorance God
winkcd at, but now cOmmandeth all
men everywhere to repent"
To get out of old ruts requires sac
rifice and effort, and the love of ease
and comfort has antagonized Your
| disposition to make it. A desire to
avoid opposition has made of you a
multitude of towards, and the mania
for personal popularity has well nigh
| eliminated the heroic example of the
earlier Christians from modern relig
ion. The spirit of universal love that
brought the Savior from the throne to
the cross has not had proper culture,
and hence much of sOrdd sclfshness
occupies the place in the heart, where
universal love for mankind should sit
enthroned. The force of the COM
mandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and thy
neighbor as thyself," has been lost in
the chasm between religious and po-
litical creeds as opposite in their ma
ture as light and darkness. Creeds
that recognize a double conscience,
which allows men to engage in divine
worship on Sunday and vote with
parties responsible for the licensed
saloon on Monday: to say "Amen'
when the preacher abuses the saloon
keeper on Sunday, and vote with the
party that creates the authority and
business of the saloon keeper on Mon
day: to vote in church conferences
cOndemning the liscensing of the Ii
quor traffic as sin, and then vote at
the ballot box, the only place that
counts, to perpetuate the parties in
power that license it /; to profess sym
pathy with the cause of Prohibition
and then pay from three to six dollars
a year for newspapers that abuse and
/ misrepresent it, and refuse to pay a
dollar year for one that fairly pre-
sents it and faithfully labors for it
to expect and demand of all true Pro-
| hibitiOnist that they abandon their
well AatureG plans and help them in
any little neighbOrhood spasmodic eff
fort for ''me, my wife, my son John,
his wife. us four and no more," and
then go to the polls and vote to per-
petuate parties in power that they
know are sold out body and soul to
the liquor oligarchy and then after
doing all these things, stand up and
say, II am as good ProhibitioHist as
anybody
IF THOSE WHO DO THESE THINGS
Would even organize inside their own
parties. and vote at every election
for men only who openly oppose sa-
loon license and vote in Congress and
State legislatures for the repeal of all
such laws, future generations might
palate or excuse their conduct but,
instead of this, as a rule, they de-
mand of their candidates allegiance to
a liquor licensing party and loyalty
to its caucuses, as demonstrated by
the present Kentucky legislature.
Then the only sensible thing for Pro-
hibitionists to do is to stand together
politically, and fight the political bat
ties of God and humanity at the bal
lot box. Up to this time about four
million voters i'm the United States
have in some way expressdd their op-
position to the licensed liquor traffic
Banded together in a compact pOliti-
cal organization, with their hearts