Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-04-03


this would be no greater infringement
on the rights of the States and going
no farther toward Capitalization" than
! the two old parties have already gone
on the subject of Lotteries, etc. In
any event. if anything more advanced
! than is here indicated should have to
| be resorted to before the beverage Ii
quor traffic was effectually suppressed.
the National Prohibition party could
still reasonably hope to have the sane
ton of Dr. Blacks church, for the Gen
eral Conference assures us if there is
any more advanced position to be tax
en- to accomplish this object than it has
already taken its members are "ready
to take it." However, for all this there
is no occasion for DR.. Black or any 9th
er Methodist brother TO be conjuring
up imaginary COLLINS or crossing
bridges before they get to them.
The following excerpt from an edito-
rial last summer in the New York
! Voice. the leading Prohibition party
paper of America, is very much to the
point and corroborates what has al
ready been stated:
Our correspondent assumes that the
object of the Prohibition Party is to
pass an amendment to the Federal
Constitution. We do not think the
| Prohibitionists bestow much consider
alton upon such an amen lment. 1t is
not mentioned in our national plat
form. Such an amendment, if it ever
comes, will come as the sixteenth
amendment came, after the fight Is
over, the victory won and the enemy
has laid down his arms and capitulat-
ed. The road to victory does not lie
by way of such amendment, which re-
quires two-thirds vote of Congress
to submit it and the vote of three
fourths of the State Legislatures to
ratify it. The wdy to cictOrV lies
through statutory and constitutional
lars in the States reinforced by con
| greSsiOHdt endctmeHts in reference to
Interstate transportation, importation
and cFpOrtdtiOH, and the territorial
! traffic. The fight in a State is a hope
less one and must prove barren OF any
but temporary results without the ma
tional fight Such thing as State
party has never been known in the
United States except as a sporadic and
temporary affair. State and national
/ politics are, in our political system, in
eXtricably mixed. The election of Con
gressmen, the election of legislators
who elect United States senator, and
the general maintenance of party or
ganization all have a vital bearing on
national issues, and no State campaign
is conducted without reference to such
issues. We may fight for State laws
against the liquor traffic, but so long
as the United States Brewers Associa-
ton and the National Protective Asso
citation WELD power in the Presidential
campaign, and are able to determine
national results by their power in
doubtful States. so long can they com
| pei the managers of State Organlza-
lions to resist our efforts.
Dr. Black asserts that from the birth
of the Republic until now, there have
been two political parties in America
(which have stood in diametrical OPP
position to each other in regard to the
powers of the general government"
etc. While this opposition was we'll
defined in earlier times, it is at pres
ent far more of tradition than a fact,
so far as the two leading political par
ties of the country are concerned. We
know it is the popular idea that the
Democratic party is the jealous guar
dian of the doctrine of States Rights,
and that the Republican party cher
ishes the Hamiltonian doctrine of cen
tralizatiOn, but it is also true that this
has become largely popular delusion.
Why, on this very liquor question, the
Democrats have time and again tram
pied under foot and spat upon the doc
trine of States Rights and local State
Government. In Congress it's repre-
sentatiyes voted against the bill to
prohibit the sale of liquor at army
posts in Prohibition States. When the
original package decision was render
ed, opening up every foot of Prohibi-
ton territory in the several States to
the sale of liquor in spite of their local
laws and the wishes of the people, the
almost solid vote of the Democratic
party in the House of Representatives
was cast against a bill to counteract
the effect of that decision. Even all
of Mississippi's Democratic Congress
men except two, either voted or were
paired against it, yet we have still to
hear of a single States Rights Demo
GRAFT, so-called, with professed Prohibi
ton sentiments, proposing to hold
that against them. On the contrary,
all the offenders who wanted to go
were promptly returned TO Congress
with the plaudit, well done, good and
faithful servants!'
In view Of all this for Dir. Black and
others who avow themselves Prohibi
tionists, to be raising the cry of "Cen-
tralization" and other frivolous and
groundless objections to the Prohibi
ton party, is to remind one of the self
sufficient and hypocritical Pharisees
denounced by the blessed Master be
cause they would not go into the king
dom themselves and did all they could
to keep others from entering.
One concluding remark on DR.. Blacks
charge of Naturalization" No politi
cal party which has existed since the