Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-02-04
THAT SYMPOSIUM"


lican party of Kansas; the fellows who
for years have sucked official pop from
the public crib and their beer and
whisky from private cellars; who have
sworn by all that was good or bad that
prohibition prohibits, (" that the repub-
ican party was pledged forever to the
defense of the law and enforcement of
its provisions, have at last ''about
faced" and now aver that it should no
longer be made party issue. Ingalls
has written letter to the Agora in
which he sets forth the reasons why
the republican party should no longer
champion the prohibition cause, and
almost simultaneously every Pecksnif-
fan republican editor-from the high
est to the lowest-from the capitol be-
decked Hudson of the Capital to the
big mOuthed Caraway of the Register,
publishes the Ingalls, letter as foun-
dation for the argument they will make
as to why the republican party of
Kansas should no longer fight for pro-
hibition.
Ofcourse there will be a slight effort
made by the same press to defend the
acts of their party in the past-that is
part of the play. Caraway even prom
ises his readers this week a letter from
the bombastic Hudson taking the
opposite view OF the question" But
all the same, the policy laid down by
Ingalls, will be the policy pursued by
the republican party-for party's sake.
20, ye generation of vipers." Do
you not know that the people have
found you out, and that this eleventh
hour repentance is too thin?
Yes. Symposium" indeed; "a
drinking together,sa merry feast;" a
grand rounding up of the hypocrits,
the pretenders; jollifcation of the
great leaders of Kansas republicanism
who have for years deluded the people
of Kansas into believing that they were
the only "GOd and morality" party of
the land.
Ingalls, letter makes interesting
reading; for he tells the public what
the fearless, untiring democratic press
has been telling for years, i. e.. that
prohibition does not and will not pro-
hibit; that
''It shows the inefficiency of statu-
tory morality, the superficial quality of
virtue created by act of the legislature,
the futility of attempting to compel
communities to observe laws that
reason rejects or to refrain from inno-
cent indulgence because there are some
who cannot resist the temptation to
excess"
Again. ingalls, ..sr { ,saches1 society
these things:
ITO disregard the sanctions of an
Official oath is not regarded as perjury.
To vielate the obvious injunctions of
obnoxious laws is not considered either
immoral or degrading. THE GOVERN
| OR in his chair, the JUDGE upon the
bench, the juror in his box, the witness
on the stand, the officer with his writ
the citizen in the field and highway
have TACITLY AGREED TO IGNORE what
| they know to exist.
OF the republican party and it:
actions on the prohibition question the
eminent republican authority says:
"It" 1.-THE republican party of Kansas
has refused to call a convention
though imparatively needed subject
| ing million and a half of people to
the embarrassment and inconYen-
fence of living under an instrument
framed one-third of a century ago fol
a population of less than 100, 900. 1t
has enacted laws harsher than the code
of Draco to coerce the refractory and
| to punish the inSubordinate, and after
| a decade of contention the liquor traffic
though OsTENSIBLY prohibited, really
exists under system of high license
and local option: WE HAVE FAILED
as all political organizations must fail
in the enforcement of laws against
Intelligent public opinion"
Then, as his closing wall, his undis-
putable argument, he Gays:
1.-The republican majority in Iowa
once almost as strong as in Kansas, ha!
steadily dwindled and declined under
the same sinister destructive influence
until that state has been transferred tt
the democracy. If we would avoiC
their fate We must profit by their ex
ample"
But you cannot avoid your fate. i
has got you by the tail of yonr 81
quickly turned coat and will drag yol
into oblivion. You hope that the ALI
ance party will take up the prohibition
cause and fight its battles; but the ALI
ance has learned thing or two, ha
profited by YOUR example, and vii
never champion prohibition as part,
issue, though. we believe that man,
members of the Kansas alliance ar,
prohibitionists.
Go on with your ''symposiums," tn
more the better. While you have no
the honesty to admit that what you nov
say in defense of your proposed deser
tion of the prohibition cause is tn
argument made by the democratic pres
for 10, these many years, the publi
will see your thin trickery and punisl
! you for it.
l A Slaughter Of Innoosnts.
Ninety odd rabbits all in one pil!
| uoro hrouoht iuta toUn Friday from