Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1892-12-01
A Defense Of the Prohibition
Party.
To the Editor of the Capital.

10 lnt EultOf OF the Capital.
Having been subscriber and
reader of The Daily Capital from its
first number to the present time. I re-
specially ask space IN your paper to
answer a communication printed in
your issue of November Is, addressed
to PARTY Prohibitionists," over the
signature of George f. Thompson.
This article is so unjust in spirit. so
false in statement, and so erroneous
in conclusion, that in the interest of
truth and fairness it should be an
swered- In the first place your cor
respondent utterly fails to compre-
bend that the prohibition party, like
the republican, democratic and peo-
pies parties is, and for twenty years
has been, great national political
organization (the greatest of all the
parties when measured by the primer
pies it represents having, like other
political parties, its organizations in
the various states without which 1t
could not exist. This party has for
six successive presidential campaigns
met in national conventions. adopted
its platform of principles, the leading
one always being the prohibition of
the liquor traffic. nominated its can
didates and gone before the people
asking their suffrages, never upon the
ground of a political deal, involving
the apportiOnment of the spoils of Of
fee, but always upon Il direct appeal
to the conscience of the voters. These
appeals have not been In vain. Ma
tionally each succeeding election has
shown an encouraging advance, from
5,6O7 in 1872 for Judge Black of
Pennsylvania, to 9,737 in 1876 for
Green Clay Smith of Kentucky; TO-
366 in 1880 for General Neal Dow of
Maine; 150,626 in 1884 for John P.
st. John of Kansas; 249,945 in 1888
for General Clinton B. Fisk of New
York; to 100000 (estimated) IN 1892
for General John Bidwell of Califor-
ma.
1t can hardly be said that the indi-
viduals of this growing political host
are governed in their political actions
by ''sour stomachs or dlsordered liv-
ers." If SO, then the great leaders of
religious and political thought and
conviction in this country. the 100000
members of the Women's Christian
Temperance Union. and thousands of
others who stand in the vanguard of
moral and political reform are sadly
IN need of physician, for in truth
the disease, if not soon checked, Will
become epidemic. With all due re-
spect 1 venture to suggest that your
correspondents articles in the nature
of an eruptation produced by the at
tempt of the republican party IN Kan
sas to swallow and asslmIlate the
''sour mash'' resubmission republi-
cans and ''stalwart" democrats in or
der to assure the election of its can
didates. It is pertinent to enquire
here, whether the prohibltionists of
Kansas had more reason to expect an
honest enforcement of the prohibitory
law from the crazy-quilt composite
called the republican party, made up
of prohibition and resubmission re-
publicans and ''stalwart'' democrats,
or from the Peoples party aggrega-
ton, composed of recent members of
the republican and democratic parties
and the fusion democrats. Both par
ties absolutely ignored the question
of prohibition in the canvass. although
it was notorious that the constitution
and laws on this subject were openly
and defantly violated and trodden
under foot in most of the large and
many of the smaller cities of the
state This, under the circumstan-
ces, was proof positive that both par
ties had by silence, if by no baser
means, bid for, and purchased the
whisky and anti-prohibition vote OF
the state, and they got it all. I think
1t will be found on an analysis of the
vote that Smith got larger proper
ton of it than did Lewelling, the for
mer receiving the heaviest vote from
the cities and towns where the prOpo-
sition for a constitutional convention
was carried by great majorities. while
the latter received his majorities from
the country where the vote on the
proposed convention was generally
adverse. 1t is not true that the ma.
tional republican party is a prohibl.
ton party; on the contrary it is a Ii
cense party. In the nature of things