St. Paul daily globe., 1895-08-12
BETTER POLITICS.
REV. DIR. BEACH MAKES A VERY
STRONG PLEA FOR MUNICI-
PAL PURITY.
GOOD GOVERNMENT MEET.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES WILL.
HAVE TO TAKE UP THE
WORK IN EARNEST.
ABOUT THAT SALVAGE CORP.
"allagher Says at Least $4,000
Should Be Collected This
Year.

One Of the strongest pleas in fa-
vor of good government that has
ever been heard in this city was de-
Hvered yesterday by Rev. David N.
Beach, of Cambridge, Mass. And
it was an accordingly strong attack
on the liquor traffic, as good gov
ernment, in the opinion of Rev. Mr..
Beach, is almost unanymous with
the elimination of the saloon. Lis
tening to his eloquent words. and,
still more, taking into account the
figures given from the city of Cam
bridge, it was almost impossible to
disbelieve him.
The address of Rev. Mr.. Beach
was delivered in the afternoon at
the Plymouth Congregat tional church
i under the auspices of the Six
O'clock club. In spite of the mag
nificent weather which almost ire
sistibly tempted every man to put the
city, with its heat and dust, behind
him, about 250 persons had gathered
to listen to the speaker. The strong
er sex was by far the most numerous
ly represented; yet the somberness
OF the assembly was enlivened by a.
fair sprinkling of ladies in light
! dresses. Most of the gentlemen pres
ent were prominent business men
and professionals. The legislative
and executive branches of the city
| government were represented by
! Aid. Loye and School Commissioner
Rolf. Among other well-known peo-
pie who were there may be men
toned D. c. Bell, J. S. McLain, A. l..
Crocker, Walter Badger C. w. Pur-
pie, George A. Wheaton, George e.
Hannum, w. F. Decker, r. N. Stacy,
l.. P. Jones, H. W. Gleason, J. r.
Kingman, e. w. Hawley, DR.. Bailey
| and w. F. Black. The gathering, al
though not great, was very repre-
sentative one.
Rev. Mr.. Beach is already well
known through the descriptions Civ
en- of him in this paper at the time
Of his appearance before the Six
O'clock club. When he steps on the
platform and prepares himself to
speak, there is something about him
that at once leads the thought back
to old Daniel Webster He is no
great orator in the common sense
of the word. His phrases are
abrupt, his way of speaking jerky
and uneven. Yet it is impossible not
to become interested in what he
says. And when he has spoken for
short time he has his audience as
fI111 h
can wish to have. The attention and
the interest is captured by his ap-
parent sincerity, by the uprightness
Of his manner, and by the vivacity
of his portrayal of facts and Incl
dents.
No one introduced the speaker.
The acting organist Of the church
played a soft prelude on the organ,
| whereafter Rev. Mr.. Beach stepped
on the platform and commenced
speaking at once. He would have
hesitated to ask some one to come
to hear him on such a day and in
such beautiful summer weather, but
others had pressed him, and he was
only too glad to get a chance to
speak on subject that was so close
to his heart. That was all&Rev.
Mr.. Beach said for introduction.
The address is here given in full
But it may be proper to state in adj
vance that the predominating
thoughts of his argument were these:
No city can have good government
until it has suppressed and, if pos
Sible, eliminated the liquor traffic;
there is no money in the liquor traffic
for any city in the world; the bat
tie against the saloons can only
be successful when it is taken up in
| full earnest by the churches of the
city, and when those churches for
| get all UNCONVENTIONAL fights in or
der to fight the common enemy
| Very characteristic was what Mr.
Beach said about the religious and
non-religious side Of the campaigns
carried on in Cambridge. I'VE
! prayed necessarily and continuously
to God for victory and help; but at
the same time we worked and la
bored as if prayer and God did not
exist"
DR.. Beach said in part: 'It would
not have been my desire in so full a
| day as these Sundays are to earnest
/ people to have asked them to come here
| this afternoon to hear about these mat
ters of which 1 am going to speak, but
it was the desire of not a few who ere
deeply interested in this subject that
such should be the case. Personally,
I am glad of the opportunity.
| e1,0 Io IL 30 H. -
dozen people upon this subject, and I
am delighted to speak to so many as
are here, because there is so much to
be said on this subjective, three,
| four times as much as could be said
in the time allotted.
II noticed in some accounts of what
had been saying of the general spirit
of the work as l had been presenting
it an intimation in one of the papers
very likely from my not being suffici-
emily guarded in some statement-that
this work has not peen religious
work in its character. Nothing could
have been further from the truth 1t
has had a section which has been
known as the non-religious, not the ir-
religious section, in order to make a
way for all kinds of people-people who
do not believe in the church, Protes-
tantS, Catholics and agnoSticS-to take
part in this work. But there has
been another section and a wonderfully
constant and powerful one, that has
been profoundly religious.
''As I may say, on the night of the
90th day Of April, 1887, nine years ago.
Saturday night, 122 saloons in the city
of Cambridge, a city of about 10000
people, very largely operatives-the
census of 1890 shows 1900 operatives
in our Cambridge factories-I say in
this city, with this large element OF
operatives and a great foreign element
with a large district of slums, and an
i other large aristocratic quarter, easy
going, ease-loving, ana still another
section which was the seat of the old
est and most conservative university
! in America-that city had in 1t these II:
saloons that sold just as late as the