Backbone. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. ;) 1897-1906, 1902-11-01
BACKBONE.

N0OkNGs
thing on the saloon issue, vote for
continued life to the thousands and
thousands of hell-holes through the
protection of law, and that at very
low price. A ballot for the Peoples
party or for either of the Socialist
parties means. so far as it means any,
thing on the saloon issue, that Uncle
Sam shall himself stand behind the
bar and deal out the damnable stuff to
his subjects. A ballot for the Prohibit
ton party is an expression Of opinion
that the saloon ought to die. It is
more than this; it is demand by a
illionth-of the gov
eminent that the work of the saloon
shall cease and cease at once. Wheth-
er one or a hundred Prohibition votes
are cast in a given precinct, no one
who reads the report of them, though
he lives thousand miles away, has a
particle of doubt as to what those
who cast them think about the sa-
loon, or would like to have done with
it or what, as a component and re-
sponsible part of the government,
they demand shall be done with it.
Nor are there many who believe in
the practicability Of prohibition at all
who have the temerity to doubt that
were the Prohibition party in power,
it would hurl the liquor traffic into the
sea. To have expressed our cOnvic-
tons in such manner that no one
can doubt our intention and in such a
manner that if other haters of the sa-
loon had voted likewise the govern
ment would be compelled to abolish
the saloon, this is to have won.
Second, because the convictions
which we expressed at the ballot box
concern an issue of the greatest mag
nitude. Business men, educators, pa
rents, philanthropists, Christian pas
tors and workers agree that the sa-
loon is the gigantic evil of our time
and that it's overthrow is our para
mount duty. It is the only politico-
moral issue upon which the church
has spoken since it demanded the
overthrow of African slavery and
backed up it's demand with bullets and
bayonets.
Third, because the Prohibition par
ty has again given to practically every
voter in the land another opportunity
to dissolve his political partnership
with the legal American saloon. They
have been given chance to do this
in the very way in which American
citizens have, from the beginning OF
our country's history, dethroned legal
and political wrong, viz, by electing
to power party which genuinely
hates the saloon, is unequivocally
committed to it's determination and
increasingly pleads that power may be
placed in it's hands SO that it may exc
cute the death penalty. True, only a
small portion even of the natural enc
mics of the saloon embraced the op-
portunity to register their convictions.
But to have given them the opportun-
ity, to have pointed the way out of
our great national sin and crime and
to have led in what ought to have
been a great, terrible and victorious
struggle with the saloon, this is to
have won.
Yes, we won. We did not lose a
vote We did not throw away vote.
Every one of our votes counted except
those which were counted out. We
used them in the way in which votes
were intended to be used. We salts
fed our consciences. We maintained
our self-respect. We spoke to the gov
eminent and it heard us. We spoke
to the world and it heard us. Our
vote was small, yes, painfully, awful
ly small, considering the magnitude Of
the ISSUE Yet it was forerunner Of
an avalanche of ballots which will to-
morrow engulf the entire liquor traffic.
--
PRACTICAL PROHIBITION WORK.
Do you know of any enemies OF the