The Press., 1893-04-27
Published by Request.) THE MURPHY MOVEMENT.

Hiapteriy ueDate With Duftleld during the Michigan arnendment campain in 1887:
 The issue Involved is the life or death of she drunkard- d-making traffic. The busi- ness of Iiauor-selling and making drunk ards is on trial, not the men who are in the business. The issues raised are not personal issues. If there is any liquor seller in Detroit who labors under the de- fusion that he is of importance enough to have this temperance movement aimed at hin, he has very much better opinion of hlmself than we have If you could catch every liquor seller in the state oi MSehigan tonight, tie him hand and foot, aIH drown him in the Detroit river, un- less you could root up the accursed law which propagates liquor sellers as hot bed propagates vegetation, you would have another crop in three months just as mean as the old one. But if you root up the law that mak es legal a business in which ma II cNl make more money with less capital and less brains and less character than any other business on earth, the good men if there are any such in the business, will go into other trades und professions, and tho mean men will fetch up in st ite pris- ofs, where they should have been long ago.
 The Murphy movement raises distinctly the personal issue," and confines itself to that Ignoring the legal issue; but here is a parallel as true as Finch's statement.
 MT. Murphy should convert every drunkard, yea, every drinking man, in the state of Connecticut by this present move ment, and yet did not uproot the law by which 3, 300 saloons spread their nets un. der public sanction and by public author. ity, ir . few months after his departure tAere would be demand for his return, because the new crop of drunkards would soon begin to be as alarming, disastrous and burdensome as the old one.
 This view of the case is amply sustained by experience. Has the Murphy move ment reached anything like the propor- lions of tae Washingtonian movement Does he strike any stronger blows at the drink habH than John B. Cough did But even JohnB. Cough illustrated the situ. atfon by Story which MT. Murphy, if he is correctly reported, does not admit te his repertory. It was of the great band of rescuers who were heroically struggling to pull drowning men from stream, but the number floating down the stream seemed ever increasing, when finally some one called out "Where do all the people come from ?" and the result of the inquiry was to send rescuers to the head of the stream, where men were found casting ir the victims whose numbers had so over taxed the rescuers down stream. The diff ficnlty was then quickly solved.
 The Murphy movement 4concentrates too much att ention upon the stream an6 too little upon the source. It deals only with victims and ignores the legalizatior of the ,rumseller. It has too tender con sideratfon for the drunkard-ma busi ness, and protesting christians who vott for the political conditions which sustain that business.
 The Murphy movement is the cart be fore the horse. The struggle to rescue drunkards is hopeless one as long as tht saloon is backed by law and intrenched il politics. That the educational effect O movements like that of the Murphys re suits in the overthrow of the saloon i. contradicted by experience, not only O the past but of the present movement He is said to have had wonderful success il New Haven and Meriden-thousands have signed the pledge! But who has heard O any saloons closing? Who has heard any body, even MT. Murphy himself, say any thing about overthrowing the license sys tenn and shutting up the saloons? On thu contrary, the overwhelming majority o saloon-keepers in the state will join witt enthusiasm in favor of the Murphy move ment.
 The rumsellers we'll know the physica conditions of rum drinking. They knov that large per cent. of the drunkard reformed" are simply thereby re- equipped with flesh vigor and cash capital to inves in the saloon when the Murphy influenc, has gone!
 We say this, not forgetting the hun dreds who are really reformed by tn, Murphy infiuence-not forgetting tha mothers darling boy, that fathers prom ising son, that husband and father re claimed to life of sobriety by the loving influences that have been cast around him nor forgetting that, all the friends of those who are thus saved revere the name O Murphy, and may feel that The Home ii cruelty unappreciative of the facts. Yet in spite of all this, we say that the volun tary Murphy movement does not and can not cope with the legalized saloon, an. more than any group of citizens can hop, to overcome g power that possesses al the machinery of government.
 The rumseller, intrenched in govern ment, is more than match for all thu social forces that assail him. The onl, way he can be overthrown and his influ ence permanently crippled and finally over come is to turn the power of governmen to be in accord with the Murphy move ment instead of remaining against 1t.
 We welcome every bit of rescue worl that Mir. Murphy and his co-laborers do We rejoice over every one that is saved But in the joy over the. rescue of ou friends, let us not lose sight of the sys tenn that ruins more souls than are saved The boys of others are as dear to God and as valuable to society as our boys For the welfare of mankind, the issue i not personal, but as Finch says, is on tn question of drunkard- making. Thus ia in the history of the temperance reform the legalized saloon has ever been able t, outrun every reform agency that has un dei taken to combat it without aiming di rectly at it. Not until the batteries of tn temperance army are turned directly upol the institutions that make drunkards vii the personal work make headway. Un