The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-02-14

and put the fine into the educational
fund A bill proposing this measure
came recently within six votes of pass
ing the Massachusetts, Senate. Similar
legislation has been favOrably discussed
in the Legislatures of Maryland and
New York. Compulsory voting was
the rule in certain important cases IN |
ancient Athens. 1t is now the law in
some of the cantons of Switzerland.
Absenteesm at the polls is an enorm-
Gus peril in both national and local elec
tions in the United States. When
these two safeguards Of the reading test
and compulsory voting have been Sc
cured then it will be safe to say No Sea
in suffrage am authorized by several
leading advocates of equal suffrage
to say that they are in favor of
these preliminary safeguards. What
lightning is to the oak, woman's ballot
would be to the liquor traffic and its
allied vices, and for one, say. God send
lis that lightning.
VIII.
Neal Dow has had among his con
! tempOrarieS all the presidents OF the
| United States except ashington;
nearly all the Judges of the Supreme
Court, and every ruler of Europe since
William Ill and the Bourbons. His
life has been parallel with those of
Bismarck and Victor Hugo, John Bright
and Gladstone, Lincoln, Phillips and
Garrison, Sumner, Seward, Grant, Sher-
man, Father Mathew, Cough, Beecher,
Frances Willard, Lady Somerset and
General Booth.
Who among them all has maintained
greater consistency in the advocacy OF
humanitarian reform than he? Who
has exhibited greater courage or un-
to champion more commanding in i'm
portance at the present hour, or more
vital in it's relations to the future of
humanity? There is more need OF
mans emancipation from intemperance
, than there ever was Of the emancipa-
, tion of certain states from political
bondage, or of certain classes of the
population from slavery.
, MIR. Gladstone maintains that the
+ liuuor traffic, because of the continuity
, of its ravages, has done more mischief
in the Anglo-Saxon world than war
pestilence and famine taken together
q The liquor traffic no doubt adds more
q to the wastes and burdens of English
;. speaking lands than slavery ever did
q 1t has more money behind it than slave
t ry ever had this Republic. Slavery
h never caused national loss of thou
J. sand millions annually, nor occaslOnet
the death of a hundred thousand citi
a zens in any one year before the Civl
e War
9 The majesty of the reform Whlcl
G Neal Dow has led is to be measured b.
! the magnitude of the mischiefs he ha
n attacked in their stronghold. 1t is t.
J. be estimated also by the relation o
= these evils to great variety OF othe
& injurious growths of corruption i'll pol
n tics, industry, the home, and even tn
le church.
N We may we'll salute our hero as tn
,e circumnavigator of the whole globe
reform. for his principles, if carried ou
e. touch all ATTITUDES and longitudes
IS. the foremost human interests. Tot
IN, abstinence is a closed question in tt
he high places of science. Athletics an
a. life assurance teach total abstinenc
ut Scientific Temperance Instruction
al the schools of thirty-nine states,
at keyed up to the level of total abstinen
all principles. All this forbids compro1
or ise temperance program in the schoo
be And this forbids compromise progra
25. in the churches. And the attitude
on the schools and the churches will ul
nd mately forbid compromise temperan
do program in politics.
)rv For one 1 am profoundly convinc
aw that only the Neal Dow program
tly temperance is fit to be the Watchwc
has of the Twentieth Century. Only n
Use Dow's program will prevent the divisi
1ch and misdirection of the tempera1
i'm, forces. United in support of N