The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-31

not, do without me. I am King Alcohol There Is not a political convention in all this land except one that has dared hurl a defiance at my scepter. My den may seem to be the saloon but my throne will yet be built under the great dome in the rotunda of our national capitol. shall yet be publicly recognized as king In American politics as I am everywhere in secret recognized as King Alcohol now"
 Is not the defiant assertion true? What political convention, with the exception of the prohibition convention, dared double up Its fist and smite this bram- ble alcohol staggering blow? Some years ago the head of the infamous Mormon church spalke thus for the encouragement of its followers: q do not anticipate that there will come day In the near future when we shall elect follower of Brig ham Young to the presidency of the unted States but I 10 look forward to the in the near future when our church will grow so large that as a political in- stitution one of the great political parties will be compelled to bid for our vote. Then we can have in American politics what we would" Thank God. the dream of the Mormon hierarchy is shattered even as an iconoclastic bludgeon could break a heather idol Into bits.
 But though the dream of a Mormon
  be King Alcohol is a sad, realistic fact. Not one alone, but all of the great polt- ical parties, with but one exception, are bidding for the alcoholic vote today. There may be silver blanks. antitrust blanks, anti-imperiallstic blanks, woman suffragist blanks, high tariff blanks found in the different convention plat forms upon which the various candidates for the presidency stand. but with the of fha .,0k one assembly of delegates to national convention called to nominate a candi- date for the presidency of the United States has dared say to the saloon keep CT, to the brewer and to the wine mer- chant: "Get out of this convention halll Be off We defy you ana your Satanic hirelings. You are destroying our youth and our strong manhood with your liquid poison. Out. agents of darkness! Out! Out!'' No, that Is not the way the different conventions spoke In their sug- gestive silence they say: "Bramble al- cohol, we may yet elect you king-but not now. However, if you promise to help us now we will promise not to hurt your trade hereafter." Am I wrong in stating that bramble alcohol is one of the threatening dangers confronting the future sovereignty of this land?
 Evils of Licentiousness.
 l would like. if there had been time enough, to have spoken of another form of evil threatening this land and bidding for kingship. I allude to the bramble of licentiousness or of immortality. I know that most people will lift their hands in horror as I speak and say, Why. there is no danger like that threatening usw Yes, there Is. my friends. When an hon. est man Is elected to the highest execu- tive office of a city he finds out, much to his surprise, he cannot shut up the brothels as he would He cannot stop the immoral evils of the low dance halls. Everywhere our cities are honeycombed with vice. merely because the voters at the polls back up dishonest officials in their willingness to allow these evil re- sorts to exist 1 have spoken only the sober truth when I nave warned you that bramble atheism. bramble gold, bramble alcoholism and bramble lcen- tiousness. the four great evil forms. of the would be bramble king. are trying to take possession of our American liber- ties and throttle out their life.
 Well" says some one how then. are we to keep the bramble--the hateful. worthless bramble-from becoming ruler in American politics? An, my friends, the direct teaching Of this Jotham's fable tells the whole story. What did those delegates or trees down III the valley or Shechem do? They first offered the ruier- ship to the olive tree then to the fig tree. then to the vine. But these three practically said Nay, we would not leave our responsibility and comfort to go and mingle in dirty politics. We would stay off here alone in dignity and quiet and ease" That is the whole story. The reason the bramble became king in Jotham's fable was because the olive. the fig and the vine refused the rulership for which they were so eminently fitted. And today the reason the bad element predominates in so many of our city and county and state elections is because so many of the better element refuse to go to the primaries refuse to be candidates for the number offices, refuse to see that public moneys are administered as hon estly as private funds. It is said that when Michael Angelo was painting ms most famous picture in the Sistine chapel of the vatican there was a mem ber of the pope's household who himself would do nothing to right the wrongs of the vatican. All that this member of