Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-03-20
w. c. T. u. COLUMN.
WHO rs RESPONSIBLE?

|
MAN pledge; twenty years ago it was
thought by many that the "crusade, !"
by having the good women go forth
and pray in the saloons, would end
the traffic. Both these have had the
effect to reclaim some fallen victims
and to close up a few saloons; but
| where one was thus reclaimed ten
have fallen, and where one saloon was
closed many others came in their
place.
The observer has been aroused to
the fact that in the meantime the
great political parties of the nation
and got them committed to the per-
petua ton of the liquor traffic by the
enactment of tax and license laws in
the state and nation. So that now
the liquor traffic has become part of
the government, not by inherentright
but by the votes of the people in their
support of political parties that up
hold this s'sinful covenant with
DEATH"
ers of the nation sign temperance
pledges and work for local option, yet
if these voters continue to support the
old political parties the evil will go
on and involve the people and the
government more and more. Pulpit
and pew have contributed to this sad
condition of things. The result has
been that the liquor traffic has grown
more in the past twenty years than in
any other twenty years in the history
of this great nation. So that now TAX
ing this blood money from the traffic
in the form of revenue, by tax and
license laws, the monster, thus
legalized, has become a giant that
blocks the way for all political re-
form, shows it's hideous head in the
political conventions of the state and
nation, and in all these places it's mot
to is ''rule or ruin.'
None of the dominant political par
ties in the land dare to assail the le-
galization of the traffic; it is only the
few ''fanatics" that dare to say "the
saloon must CO." At every conven-
ton held by the old political parties,
whose hands are thus tied, all the
liquor shops, when such conventions
have been held, have done an extra
large business in the sale of intoxi-
cants, and the most of the caucuses
and party work have been done in
saloons or by the consent of "the
trade" so that not word or resolu-
ton could go forth from these con-
ventions that would in the least look
towards the suppression of this crime
of crimes.
Let every voter consider that in
voting for tax and license parties he
is contributing to the perpetuation of
this evil. 1t is in the power of the
Christian voters to stop this whole
tide of iniquity if they will stand
shoulder to shoulder in voting against
all tax and license parties.
The liquor men see this thing clear
as a sunbeam. The following extract
is from the Cincinnati Southwest, the
great liquor organ of that city; read
it carefully:
"But in fighting Prohibition we do
not recognize the Church as our prin-
cipal opponent, nor have the Prohi-
bition papers any basis whatever
upon which to claim the Church as a
Prohibition institution. The Prohi
bition party does not receive at the
rnlIc tun Of tho unfnc Of
preachers and church members, so
the assumption that the Church is
political Prohibition institution can
regarded only as a harmless jest. 1t
is true the preachers at their jollifica-
tions, that is, conferences, synods,
etc., pass Prohibition resolutions and
all that sort of slushy buncombe, the
same as the politicians promulgate
fowery froth in their platforms-and
for the same purpose-to catch suck
ers. But when it comes to voting and
to influencing their fashionable con-
gregations as to voting, they are al
most unanimously standing with
Quay"
What a burning disgrace to our
Christian civilization that such quo
tations from liquor papers should be
so truthful.
do not plead for any political par
ty, but for principle. If you cannot
find a party to suit you committed
against this evil, then it is your duty
to help form such party, but under
no circumstances are you guiltless in
casting your ballot for any political
party that will uphold tax and license
laws to drunkard factories The M