The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-11-07
BROTHER LANDRITH'S
TEMPERANCE SPEECH

NLACA vi 1uuI oIthY ON0HluS dul
ing the meeting of State Synod:
Mr.. Landrith introduced his ad-
dress by reference to the fact that
twelve years ago he began his pub
lie church life in Union City. At
that time the General Assembly
of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church met here, and Mr.. Landrith,
then a theological student at Leb-
anon, Tenn, was employed by the
Publishing House at Nashville to
conduct during the meeting daily
paper, The Daily Cumberland Pres
byterian. About the only rest he
had, he explained, was as he lay on
the imposing stones in Tatom &
Griffin's Office in the early hours of
the morning after the daily had
gone to press.
Addressing himself to the subject
of temperance, Mr.. Landrith made
an appeal to his clerical brethren
to follow wrong thing till it is
corrected and good thing till it is
triumphant, even though that good
or bad thing gets into politics. I'm
preacher" he remarked, "and I've
no apology for fact of which 1 am
not ashamed. AS preacher I shall
be expected to preach in pleasing
plat1tudes, to aim at nothing and
hit 1t. In the opinion of certain
professional politicians preachers
are political fools, who have no
right to an opinion in civic affairs.
Now, some of us have concluded
that a preacher is no better than
other people ought to be, and that
preacher ought to have about as
much sense as anybody else, pol
iticians not excepted.
But we are told by political ma
chinists and saloon keepers, and
ward politicians of the merchant
able class that all preachers and
most Christians ought to keep out
of politics. fling back that taunt
by saying to saloon keepers and
everybody else who does not regard
the ballot box as inviolable, YOU
have no right in politics Politics
is statecraft; statecraft is patriot
ism, and patriotism is upright and
no man who is not upright has any
business in politics, and no upright
man has the right to stay out of
politics when moral issues are in
volved.
"Decency can rule in this country;
hence decency ought to rule. If,
therefore, preacher is a man, a
manly, self-respecting man among
men-and he ought to be-if he is
not willing to accept the classified
ton of the human race into men,
women and preachers, then the
preacher has as many rights and as
many duties as has any other man.
He is not indebted to the saloon in
any way ought not to be afraid of
the saloon or its friends ; he is no
trimmer, no mere hired man. but
Gods man, and he is the natural
leader of temperance reform"
Mr.. Landrith hoped that temper
ance reform might be accomplished
by non-partisan effort, but it must
be accomplished eff Democracy
is not decent, it ought to die. If
Republication is not respectable, it
ought to be ruined. If Populism
or Prohibition is not pure, 1t ought
to be put out of action. Be true
enough to your party as long as it
is true to principle then leave it
and go ahead till it overtakes you"
After answering a number of
of the saloon for its con-
tinued existence-and the speaker
insisted that the way to regulate
he saloon is to destroy it, root and
branch, by the processes OF law and
he omnipotence of public opinion
lie said:
"The saloon is the greatest ma /
ional evil. Our political leaders
would eclipse that fact with other {
ssues, but we will not long be s
luped. The debasing of the cur ,
ency is not as serious a matter as E
he debas1ng of manhood, though Z
'olitical parties seem not to have a
iscovered it. Our foreign policy r
) not unimportant, but the protec- c
ion of our homes is all-important. +
ME protection of our infant indus r
ries is Insignificant in comparison a
18th the protection of our sons and a