The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-11-02
The Prohibition Party Meeting.

The meeting on Monday night which
was addressed by Mr.. John N. Parker,
candidate for congress in the Second dis
trict and Frank Tucker, Esq, was very
gratifying episode to the speakers. The
hall was we'll filled. The singing by Prof
Wheatley was rare treat and put the
audience i'll the best of humor at the start.
Mr.. Parker was introduced and spoke for
three quarters of an hour, making very
earnest and effective argument. Mr..
Tucker followed i'll lengthy speech pre-
serting to the audience the unanswered
and unanswerable facts against the liquor
traffic and the arraignnent of the whole
blighting system All of which has been
impressed on the public by the party
leaders for twenty years. There was
never more earnest, unselhsh workers i'll
any cause or for any party than the lead
ers of the prohibition party. They have
appealed to the patriotism the moral
sense, the conscience, the religious pro-
LESSONS, the business side, the profit side
and in fact every side calculated to i'll
fuence the popular vote III favor of the
party, and still have failed to influence
the public to any appreciable extent, if
measured by the time, the money, the
almost superhuman efforts put forth. A
cause or rather party with seemingly so
fair showing, SO sound reasons for its up
building having failed to draw to it in the
long period of twenty years any more than
ali insignificant numerical popular vote,
there must be a philosophical reason for
the failure. And there is philosophical
reason for this failure They are battling
against an effect i'll place of the cause.
The saloon is but a result of causes behind
it. The prohibition party will never effect
anything worthy of its struggle OH the
line it is working, The instinct of the
public seems to have discerned this from
the beginning. The saloon was organized
i'll Europe for purpose, it was imported
to America by the satle power for the
same devilish purpose, it is sustained by
that power for its purpose, and were it
possible to sweep the saloon entirely from
the land tomorrow, and that colossal
power which holds the saloon i'll the hol
low of its hand remained untouched, ii
would re-establish the saloon the next
day The visible saloon, like the throne,
will stand while the power behind it is
untouched.
We know that men of Mr. fuckers
make up, whose judgment is devoured by
their zeal, will not listen, will not think
but blindly dash upon the enemies pixies,
while men of cooler head and clearer
sight look pitying1y on such heroic efforts
and selfsacrihce thrown away. 1t is not
the effort and the sacrifice that win but
the judgment that directs them The
strategic point of this government refor-
nation contest is overlooked by the pro-
hibition party. They believe they are
the alpha and omega of the movement,
when in fact they are only an insignificant
factor. When the cause of the saloon is
overwhelmed, the saloon will fall without
an effort The prohibition party has not
even hurt it in all these years of effort
The saloon to-day has more influence
than ever before in national affairs be-
cause the power behind it has more The
saloon, apparently master of the situa-
ton, is not master, but merely an instru-
ment of the real master of the situation.
The prohibition party are blind leaders of
the blind.