Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-07-24

open with the assurance that the writer
is ''moved Of the spirit to say few
earnest words to each of the many men
and women whom he addresses as fell
low workers.
Ny present purpose is specific and my
aim single.
First, let me ask you whose eye rests
on these lines to consider them as
communication strictly personal.
And, second, let me come directly at
the pith of the matter in hand by ask
ing if you are doing all you ought to do
in the way of sustaining Prohibition
papers, increasing their circulation and
widening their influence.
If in this direction you are doing all
you ought to do with money and time
and influence, then you may as we'll
read no further, as this exhortation has
nothing for you.
If there is in your mind any doubt OH
the subject, perhaps you had better give
me the benefit of the doubt and read ON.
Do you take Prohibition paper?
If not, why not?
Two cents week will pay for it, and
among men who have sense enough to
vote the Prohibition ticket it would be
difficult to find one who cannot afford
this expenditure.
! Of all your spending and all your CIV
; ing for Prohibition, let your first dollar
go to pay your own subscription to
Prohibition paper.
For each Of the last six years it has
fallen to my lot to raise thousands of
dollars for Prohibition work
We need money all the time. We
need it now. We never needed it more.
If you could give us $40 where you
now give 81, we would use it with econ
omy.
The appeals for help that come to us
are almost enough to break our hearts.
We greatly need five, ten, twenty
times the amount now at our command,
but with all this need give it as my
deliberate opinion that no party COM
mittee can expend your first Prohibition
dollar more judiciously than you can
expend it yourself in paying years
subscription to a Prohibition paper to
come into your own home, to be read
by yourself, your family, and, if posi-
BILE, by your neighbors.
We have several hundred regular and
10000 occasional contributors to the
funds of the national committee.
honor them all and respect them all,
but exhort them all that they do this
one thing even if committees solicit in
vain.
This is an exhortation, not an argu-
ment, and must study brevity.
You ought to take and read Prohi-
bition paper:
First-For your own good and the
good of your family.
You probably subscribe for an anti
Prohibition daily because you must have
the news.
You need an antidote
You ought to have at least one paper
to advocate your own views, give you
information from the field of action and
keep you in touch with your fellow
workers.
He must be a rare man who can stand
against the sophistries Of the average
daily without the bracing influence of
a paper sound ON the great progressive
movements Of the day.
Second-For the sake of the publish
ers. No men are doing SO much work
and rendering so important service for
such meager compensation as are the
publishers and editors Of our Prohibi-
tion papers.
Many of them are compelled to prac-
tice the severest economy and to labor
at great disadvantage because of linn
tied support given them.
Advertisers frequently boycott them.
AS matter Of conscience they refuse
to admit class of Objectionable adver-
tisements commonly seen in other pa
pers.
They toll early and late amid dis
couragements that would dismay less
heroic souls.
They expect the opposition Of their
political enemies. They ought not to be
required to suffer the indifference and
neglect of their friends
To pass them by and subscribe for the
opposition papers is TO paralyze our
most efficient allies and give aid and
comfort to the enemy.
The devoted labors of the men and
women who furnish this branch of serv-
ice merit better recognition than they
receive.
Third-For the sake of the party most
of all.
Weak papers do us'but httleegood.
We can make them,all stroug.
! Every paper that succumbs,works us
injury.
We can save them all if we will.
Without depreciating any other line
of work, it is not too much to say fahat
no other service being rendered the Pro-
hibition party is comparable in valne
with the service rendered by our press
1t ought to receive our loyal and lib
eral support.