The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-13
K1cKERs AND KICKING.

KICKERS AND KICKING.
The Journal sends greetings and con-
CALCULATIONS to Colonel Murdoch on his
election as national delegate. It was
high compliment to an able Republ-
can, one who has worked long and well
for the party, and who, when he sees
anything that ought to be kicked. has
the courage to kick it.-Lawrence Jour
nal.
And yet the kick is often Intellectual
because the motive is misunderstood.
Take the problem of prohibition and
there are thousands of intelligent PEG
pie in Kansas who have been led by
demagogues into sincerely believing
that the Eagles fight On prohibition is
a fight for whisky and for the saloon.
! when in truth it has been only an eff
! fort to save from permanent defeat the
party which we have served in our
humble way for forty years, the party
which made Kansas all that it is as a
state.
A minister of this city, a shsrt time
since, in his pulpit, soIemnly declared
that the Eagle was opposed to tenn
! perance. If some well meaning but
extreme faction Of that preachers own
congregation should advocate "holi-
ness" or "sanctifcation" or any ad-
vanced ism the advocacy of which
reatened to destroy his church and
his congregation, and TO prevent which
disaster he should take steps to either
quell or eject such faction how would
he feel to be charged with fighting re-
ligion?
The cases are exactly parallel.
Whether prohibition is a good temper
ance measure or not the fact is patent
to every observing man that it is dis
migrating and destroying the Repub-
lican party Of Kansas COnceding all
that is claimed for it, and the fact re-
mains that it foisted upon the party
a third term candidate for governor
who in going down took the party
down with him and placed a Bourbon
Of BOurbOns in the chair of the chief
executive. Admitting that prohibi-
ton as moral ethic stands pre-emi-
nent, as a political affirmation UNIQUE
and matchleSs, yet Lewelling, as a Pop
ulist, marched away with our boosted
eighty thousand Republican majority
and run the state for two additional
years.
With thoSa u-bo S;,oo,oI,- l,o1;o,-- -, d.
the principle Of prohibition is of great
er moment than all other political prin-
ciples possible of incorporating in a
platform, or who are really convinced
that prohibition is anywhere near
successful temperance measure, we
nave no quarrel But the Republican
party is not the political home of such.
Still the discouraging verify remains
that the Republican party of Kansas is
slowly but surely going to the wall
over this question. BY an almost SUI
perhuman effort we elected Governor
Morrill,, not upon any promise that he
would take care of prohibition, but that
he would conserve the material inter
eSts Of the state; and yet who is it that /
does not know that all of the troubles |
which have come TO his administration |
are directly traceable to this vexed |
problem of prohibition?
A man writing steadily for thirty-five |
years in the interest of a given set of |
may become cranky, and I'M |
reasonable in his devotion to and love |
for his party, and that indeed may be |
our case, still we are not so far lost to
reason as not to understand that pro-
hibition is no part of the principles of
the Republican party, but only too
1eenly realize that unless abandoned
and repudiated as a political genesis
hat it is only a question of a short
lime when the Republican party shall
tease to be the dominant party of this
state.