Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-02-17
Prohibition Lecture.

On last Friday night, Hon. Samuel Dickie,
Chairman of the National Prohibition Com
mittee, delivered an able, instructive and con-
vincing lecture to a large and intelligent audi
ence in the Opera House of this City.
| The meeting was opened with an earnest
and feeling prayer by Rev. W. J. E. Cox.
Mr.. Dickie was introduced by Mr.. w. w.
Gibbs in happy manner. For over an hour
Mr. Dickie kept the close attention of his
hearers, covering wide range of thought on
the Prohibition subject. Mr. Dickie is a clear,
forcible and logical reasoner, as well as an
orator of unusual ability and brilliancy
Among other things he said: The Prohibi-
ton party has run up the Prohibition flag
and intends to win in the end not only the
balance of power, but the power itself. What
is needed is not better men in office but off
GERS elected by purer party-a party with
higher and purer notions of government
than have the political parties of to-day-the
party behind the officer makes the officer
either faithful or unfaithful to his sworn
duty. We are not fighting the good men in
either party, but opposing ourselves to the
bad policies of those old parties.
This is Prohibition pure and simple. l say
to the Democrat, you are the right man but
in the wrong place. To the Republican, you
are good man, but where no good man
ought to be. All over the land wherever a
good man is elected to office and honestly
does his duty, he is forsaken by his party and
defeated at the next election. The Prohibi-
tionists have undertaken the task of building
up pure party-emphasis on the pure-and
not only expect, but intend to gain the VIC
tory. The great questions in politics are
morals and money. AS moral issue the
Prohibition party stands head and shoulders
above any other question of any other party.
As a question of finance, here are some indis-
putable figures: The money annually ex-
pended in the liquor traffic would build two
lines of railroad from Boston to San Francis
co; the money which annually goes for drink
would purchase all the rolling stock and
equipments for those two roads. The money
spent in the saloons of the country
would in fourteen months wipe out the prin-
cipal and interest of our National debt.
Destroy all the educational institutions of
America by the incendiary's torch and the
confagration would not be so costly after all
for with the money annually squandered in
the saloon they could all be rebuilt in fifty
two weeks! Practical men cannot concern
themselves about a greater issue than the
destruction of the drink-traffic. Where the
tariff touches ten men, the drink traffic touch
es one hundred. Where the tariff produces
one dollar for the people, the drink traffic i'm
poverishes them from ten to twenty dollars.
Not decent business but that is injured by
the saloon. What would be the result if the
millions of dollars annually paid into the
saloon were diverted into all the legitimate
channels of trade? If Prohibition prevailed,
abundant prosperity would follow in its
wake. 1t is not overproduction that causes
financial distress. Simply compare our linn
tied power to create with the boundless power
swered. Three million men. women and
children of this country, half-clad, half-shel-
tered, and constantly hungry, with no hope
for tomorrow meal, because of the saloon!
We are suffering sadly from the under-con-
sumption of the legitimate productions be-
cause of the over-consumption of the products
of the breweries. If one-half the money an
nually spent in the saloons was invested in
legitimate industries it would give honest en-
ployment, comforts and Injuries to every
human being on this continent! In view of
these facts, does Prohibition need champion?
1t is because the whole government is behind
the liquor traffic that Prohibition is in poll
tics. l am prohibitionist from necessity,
because neither of the old parties intends to
do anything for the moral good of the coun-
try / would as soon undertake to make cot
ton cloth with a California harvester as to
expect any pressure upon either the Demo
cratic or Republican machines to produce
measure upon this question, for
those machines are not made that way, not
built on that principle, nor geared to run in
that line. The Prohibition party will finally
win by the good men in both parties coming
into the Prohibition party. The Democratic
party is on one end of the plank and the Re
publican party on the other end, see-sawing
across the log of policy, with big, fat brew
er in the middle, who throws his ponderous
weight on whichever end he pleases. No
class Of men in the country is SO potent in
-
naming candidates as is the liquor party. l
would not like to stand shoulder to shoulder
with party whose vilest elements were the
most potent in naming candidates whom the
good men in the party abhorred. 1t is no
torious fact that for the past fifteen years the
liquor power has been the most potential in
the running of our government. 1t was Or
ganized lquordom that made Benz. Harrison
President and David B. Hill Governor In
concluding, Mr. Dickie said: "This righteous
cause of Prohibition will never die, but
marching on under the same fiag-the flag of
principle gaining strength day by day, it will
finally and gloriously triumph
Mr.. Dickie's remarks were frequently inter
rupted with applause. Those on the stage
with Mr.. Dickie were Maj. J. W. Newton,
Rev. w. J. E. Cox, Preston A. Ross and W..
W. Gibbs.