Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-05-01
His Reasons For a Middle.of.the.
Road Policy.

Your increasing company Of readers
may care to know why cannot sup
port Mr.. Seese for Representative and |
why l do not cooperate with the Anti
Saloon League.
l am in no sense marrow parti- |
san" when | say that it is inoOnsis-
tent for the Prohibition party to aid
the League or to support Mr.. Seese; for
l have often said, and say now, that
will willingly join any party
which gives reasonable promise of
outlawing the saloon, be that party
Republican OF Democrat. But here is
why l cannot support either Seese or
the League;
/. 1t is inconsistent to do either.
The League is Republican scheme
to sidetrack Prohibition votes. The
Republican party to which Mr.. Seese
gives his support is saloon perpet-
uating party Does anybody deny
thatD and so much bigger than Mr..
Seese that he and all other temper
ance Republicans for the last 20 years,
have been turned down by that party
in the matter of legislation, while the
they desired.
.. TO vote for Representative Seese
is to strengthen the Republican party
and weaken the Prohibition party.
But the Republican party having been
in power SO years out of the 40 last
past, and having, during all these
years fostered and nourished and cher
ished and abetted, by taxation and
legalization and government sanction,
this traffic, until it has grown to its
present colossal proportions, when our
people are consuming 40 per cent more
pure alcohol than they did 20 years
ago and about 10 per cent more than
in 1861 say such party is not
worthy to receive the vote Of any Pro-
hibitionist who desires to stand by his
own guns. For the Prohibition party
is founded on the belief that the liquor
traffic cannot even be crippled, much
less outlawed, until some party Is
elevated to power that is opposed to
the traffic, but every vote withdrawn
from the Prohibition party and given
to our Republican enemy Il speak Of
the party and not of the better men
in it) delays the election of the needed
party.
3. I cannot support the Anti-Saloon
League, first, because i believe i'll the
Prohibition party, and have found the
League to be the worst enemy our
party has outside of the Liquor League
itself. For time the League fattened
on our party. Once I gave my money
and my encouragement to the League
only to find that while it posed as
omni-partisan, it ignored, and often
openly denounced the Prohibition
party, and, so far as l could learn,
it never recommended it's members
to support our ticket or any part Of
it.
But besides this the Anti-Saloon
League is in favor Of local option.
which means consent that by vote the
saloon may be made lawful where 1t
is now unlawful. And this permissive
liquor legalization is a very questionable
enterprise for any Prohibitionist to
engage in. But even if that We're
right, local option is back number"
and % years behind our times.
There was a time when local option
was of some service but with our
present facilities for travel and ship
ment of liquors, with our interurban
electric cars going everywhere, and
the railroads and the express com
panies delivering their "wet' goods
throughout the dry" territory and di-
rect from the distillery to thousands
of homes throughout said territory, 1t
ought to be plain, even to the man with
but one eye and that half shut, that
local option can cut no important figure
in the fight against the liquor traffic
today, except to be used to deceive
! the people and draw votes and other
support from the ranks of those who
otherwise would help our party into
! power. Do not these facts condemn
local option as obsolete and useless
as a temperance measure, even II 1t
could be secured? But Judging by the
past that law will not be enacted. The
| Clark bill was defeated in the Senate
by barely on vote, but member Of
the Senate was heard to say that
plenty more votes could have been
had against that measure, but it was
the policy to make the vote a close
one so as to hold the temperance vote
to the old party"
Finally, I am charged with the
sacred duty of doing all can to get
my party into power in order that
the saloon shall be outlawed, and
cannot discharge that duty by voting
liquor ticket even though IL be
heralded by the "good man" cry. This
"good" man camps with our enemy
and is restrained and defeated by the
company he keeps and we can never
outlaw the liquor traffic by voting for
a liquor party or any candidate iden-
titled with liquor party any more
| than we could have helped the fight
against slavery by voting the Whig
| ~, naa,onraki. tfaGak hath xrhioI,