The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-12-14
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
THE RUM POWER.
Those Who Are Opposed To Interference
with the Drink Traffic.

with the Drink Traffic.
Notwithstanding the marked growth |
in temperance sentiment in the United |
States within the past half century, |
there is still Il very large majority of
the sixty-shree million people of this |
country who have not as yet had the |
case against the rum power so convinc-
ingly presented to their minds as to
make them its active, relentless and
untiring foes 1t would be unjust to
say that ell these are upholders and
supporters of the saloon and its sequel1
of poverty vice and crime; but of them
there are two classes, in the aggregate
rather numerous, which most certainly
are 50.
The first of these is composed of the
tens of thousands who are interested,
directly or indirectly, in the rum traf-
tic; those who fatten upon the spoils it
wrests from the drinking element of
the population, and those who earn
their daily bread in some occupation
connected with the manufacture and
sale of some form of alcoholic intoxi-
cant These are all. of course, bitter
ly opposed to any interference with the
unholy traffic. The second class is
made up of the hundreds of thousands
of weak and selfish ones around whom
the drink thirst has woven a spell as
potent as that of Gree, whose magic
changed her admirers into granting
swine, wallowing in their own filth
ness These two classes are, of course,
the foes of those who are working to
destroy the rum traffic, Danish the sa-
loon and relieve the land from the
curse.
10 these are opposed those who have
been brought to consider carefully the
great drink problem in all its aspects
and who have reached the conclusion
that there S one way in which it can be
solvpd--and that the destruction of the
traffic through the prohibition of the
manufacture and sale of all forms of
rum They see that there has grown up
n formidable army of men working for
the perpetuatlon of the curse, who are
held together by the strongest of human
-self-interest-to not only OPP
pose any restriction upon the traffic, lest
it should minish their unholy gains,
but who are actually working from the
same motive of profit to extend the
traffic that their gains may be greater.
This phalanx of manufacturers and
est and gain, forms what is collective
ly designated as 1.-The rum power"
Between these two great divisions
along the temperance line the friends
OF prohibition on the one hand and the
rum power and its supporters on the
other-there stands perhaps a majority
of the American people, occupying
what may be called neutral ground.
They are not active supporters OF the
traffic, nor are they inclined to be.
They are not supporters of prohibition,
because they have never made the sub
ject a matter of thought and investiga-
ton. Some OF them have given no at
tention to the matter at all, and are
hence not qualified to give an intelli-
gent opinion upon it. Others, as the
result of superficial examination,
look upon the matter as personal one
entirely, and that so long as they live
temporarily they think they have done
their duty. Their attitude resembles
that of Cain when he asked: Am my
brothers keeper?' -.
Then there arc others who look in a
misty way upon the manufacture and
sale of liquor as business" and that
business must necessarily be u benefit
to the community, and who are rather
adverse to prohibition on the assumed
ground that it Injuries business" They
do not stop to consider that it is not u
legitimate business. because it does not
supply any need of the person or of the
community, but merely panders to a
debased OF diseased appetite of the inv
dividual, and that the traffic is itself a
drawback to legitimate trade in that
the money spent over saloon counters
would be, under prohibition, largely
added to the amounts received by
tradesmen in Legitimate occupations.
This vast intermediate, unconvinced
class Of the people is the missionary
ground for real prohibitory effort. They
must be individually convinced that the
liquor traffic has nothing whatever to
commend it, but has everything
against it. 1t is difficult sometimes to
comprehend the terrible inertia of the
general public, 1t is extremely difficult
to arouse large masses of people tC
consider carefully subject which they
do not see to be of direct personal OF
pecuniary interest. Those of us who
have debated the matter and arrived al
the conclusion that the rum power
must be destroyed ana that prohibition
is the only method of doing this, some
times grow impatient over the SLOW
progress the movement makes, Bu
time is an essential factor in mora
reforms, and the work of education
must be kept up steadily year by year
The watchword of all friends of tenn
perance must be: Educate, educate
EDUCATE" if we are to hope for sue
cess IN the effort to pulverize the run
power Toledo Blade.