The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1904-08-26
w. G. T. T.U.COLUMN.
BY MRS. NJ. L. HOBBS.
PARTISAN OR NON.PASTISAN?
Votes And Their Best Use in Our War
fare Against The Saloon.

WtelfOh thah FbA hAs
drink dragon is the ballots of free
nen. There are two methods pro
posed as to how temperance ballots
shall be used, a non-partisan and {
partisan method. Which method
is the quickest, surest and most eli
iective?
The non partisan method has beer
tried sufficiently to prove its defects
1t is too local, too optional, too scat
tered aud piecemeal. Itis too mild.
too meek. 1t lacks spine and nerve.
1t is too much plea and lacks the
cement of command. 1t chcapens
the cause in the eyes of government
and those in the seats Of power and
authority. II iacks the political ele-
inent 1t cheaper : tie issue and
lcreates the su~l icon that ~ -ubOr-
dinste and Of too lit,le mpoitance o
be accouLttd d Of by the powers that
be-. Non parisanlsm necessarily *
aiis some issue or issues above Pro-
hibition Norpartisaniem does
ether one Of two things: either it
exalts sone economic issue above
the moral issue of prohibition, or
else it exalts mere party spirit, par
tisanism, above Prohibition.
partisan votes don't count
much with the parties. The politi-
clans pay no particular attention to
them. Look at the multitudes of
non-partisan votes that have been
cast for prohibition. Not less than
five million of them. Yet the poll
ticians, the parties, the platforms,
the press are silent on the issue.
Suppose that five million votes
had been cast for the Prohibition
party. There would have been
death and destruction cast around.
One or two dead old party hulks
would be strewn like wrecked ship
on the shores of time. The dragon
of drink would have been slain.
The carcass of the rum power would
be now preserved in some museum
of history for the curious of coming
ages to gaze upon with wonder.
But in the face OF those five mil
lion bipartisan votes the rum
power has grown more mighty,
more arrogant, more tyrannous and
more destructive as the days have
been going by. Why so? Because
those votes were non-polItical and
failed to touch the springs OF action
where men and measures are made
made and unmade.
One million of these votes cast for
a party with Prohibition az its slo.
gan would have played hars-karil
with the plans of the politicians,
upset the equilibrium OF the par
ties, and compelled a realignment
of politics with Prohibition holding
the boards. Not bit of doubt
about it,
One Prohibition party vote is
worth five Of the non partisan ar d
non political kind. The weakest
thing in the present temperance pro-
gram is non partisanism. A mil
lion Prohibition party votes would
slay that tool And that million
would have been cast long ago had
it not been for the non partisan doc
trinarian preaching the nonsense Of
non partisan.
The best friend the saloon has to-
day il non partisanism. o, | know
they don't mean it and think they
are doing God service. SO did
Saul think he was doing God ser.
vice when he prosecuted and slew
the Christians. And incid entally
he was doing God service, for his
prosecutions made the fires burn
more brightly in the followers of the
Nazarene.
SO the Comparisons are doing
God ser, ice by demonstrating the
weakness of the non partisan meth :,
cd and the wisdom of making the .
question OF Prohibition a POLITICAL
question partisan matter, where y
the political strength and power of :
the saloon over old party politics !,
may be attacked and disintegrated q
and undermined and DESTROYED. O
Paul saw new light and became
the mightiest Christian the world !.
has seen. SO the non partisans u
will see a new light and become par. u
tisans, n great host Of them, and >
will make party committed to =
Prohibition the mightiest party this :
nation has seen. y
For one partisan Prohibition vote :
i worth five Prohibition non partisan |, |,
votes, because in the parlance OF the n
politicians it is partisan votes that D
count. For, Prohibition aside, with y
Ill the mighty blessings that would u
ollow in its train, realignment of flli