The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-21
UNIQUE POLITICAL PARTY.
A Distinction That Attaches to the
Prohibition Organization.

To The Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
The most unique political party on earth
Is that known as the Prohibition party.
IL Is unique in its personnel being COM
posed only of very good people, and they
make no concessions to induce common
people to come and go with them, and
none or them are officeholders, or ever hope
TO be. AT times they have taken on al
most every political crotchet that was
ahoat, but finding that none of them
boosted the party to the front worth a.
cent, they have abandoned everything,
even woman suffrage, and now they en-
terrain no entangling alliances with side
issues. taking prohibition straight as their
only slogan, much to the relief of the is
sues 1t had loaded on to its political wagon
Tor the aid the issue might possibly be
to 1t, for 1t was no help to them, and. as
he result showed, the issues were no help
to 1t. 1t was a sad day to the growing
sentiment of woman suffrage when the
Prohibition party became its godfather,
but it is no longer. much to the relief of
the movement itself
Inc unlqueness was never more strik-
ing than when, soon after the late election,
II held conferences in several States to
thank God and take courage, while the
democratic party badly defeated, just
quietly surveyed the wreck, sighed bitterly
and then resolved to wait until Mr. Nc
kinley did something they could kick
about. This was a bit of worldly wisdom
the Prohibition party scorned. 1t gathered
the fragments together and waited for
nothing, but put on its fighting clothes
just as II Ii had for once reversed the trend
of it's political life
Ii is unique In another particular With
a mathematical certainty that it represents
only one in thirty-fourth of the prohibition
lists of the Nation, 1t persists in maintains
ing an organization that the other thirty
three have repudiated from the beginning.
In the early eighties plebiscite was held
in fourteen States on the abstract question
or prohibition, which resulted in showing
that only "a per cent. of the voters in the
fourteen States believed in It, Hoping to
muster these under the banner of the po-
litical party, few of them in 1886 pushed
the claims OF the party already organized,
and 1t at once greatly increased its
strength. and it received %, SS3 votes but
that was only 30 per cent. of the aggre-
gate vote of that year, as nearly one in the
thirty-four OF the avowed prohibitionists
or the country as figures can express Ii
in round numbers. But the party never
afterward polled such a vote, nor any
thing near IL, considering the increase in
the voting population, but it has steadily
declined, so that in 1900 Ii received only
l.42 per cent of the vote. Assuming that
the Prohibition sentiment of the Nation
is relatively the same Ii was fourteen years
ago, 1t is plain that not half as many
Prohibitionists voted the Prohibitionist
ticket in 1900 as in 1886, but this handful of
good men persist in standing up to be
counted as the measure of the Prohibition
sentiment of the land.
Now, all this may seem TO the actors as
a bit of harmless child's play, but it is not.
Nothing has so hindered the application
of the Prohibition sentiment of the coun-
try TO the suppression of the saloon as
this playing at party and claiming that
there are no Prohibitionists outside the
party. Politicians assume that the Pro-
hibition sentiment Is so Insignificant that
ii may be easily defied. 1t was that
which led to the mysterious miscarriage
of the anti-canteen law" Those in au-
thority imagine that less than per cent
of the voters of the land were Prohibition
lists. but they found on counting that they
were mistaken. and they FASTENED to make
amends by intensifying the Jaw and in
passing ii by unprecedented majorities in
both branches of Congress.
But there crop out occasional bits OF
grim humor in this affair There is hardly
in all history more striking specimen
of cruel hooking than that Elijah the
Prophet INDUCED in when he insisted
| else he would answer by fire, and, there
| fore, his priests should call louder. unless
| il be taunt of the Washington Sentinel the
| liquor League official paper, when, soor
i
! the Prohibitionist party had received. II
| said that unless liquordom bestirred itselt
| the Prohibition party would elect the nexi
! President. All this would be funny if il
! were not mischievous. Nobody cares how
much the Debbsites and the like play al
| party 1t amuses them. but IL does nc
| harm 10 anybody. but not so when a hand
| full of really good men seize upon the mos
| important issue before the American peo
| pie and over the opposition of almost the
| entire body of it's friends toy with il thus
| There is no sufficient evidence that / know
| of that the Democratic national commit
| tee paid the expense of the junket of the
| Prohibition candidate for President las
/ SUMMER, but | do know that the Indiana
state committee paid every dollar of tn,
/ expenses of the so-called temperance cam
paign in 1872. which resulted in the defea
| of General Brown and the election of Mr.
! Hendricks Governor. while the balance o.
| the Republican ticket was elected. 1t would
| have been just like Boss Croker TO hav,
| done that thing. But the party is a uniqu,
| party. With less than half the relativ,
| strength IL had fourteen years ago, wheI
| II had only 345 per cent of the popular
| vote. it thanks God and takes courage
| They beat the fellow who said he hat
/ often tried and never denied. and was will
| ing to be tried again. They have Otter
| tried but never got there, yet they ar
| planning to try again. A UNIQUE party
| sure. Y. J.. SEE.
Indianapolis, Jan. 10.