Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-07-25

Not one alone, but all of the great polit-
zeal parties. with but one exception are
hiddir.g for the alcoholic vote today
There may be silver planks. antitrust
nlanks. anti-imperialistic pIanks. woman
suffragist planks. high tariff blanks
and low tariff planks found in the diff
ferent convention platforms unon
which the various candidates for the
presidency stand, but with the excep-
ton of the Prohibition party not 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
keenpr. to the brewer and to the wine
merchant: Get out of this convention
hall! Be off, We defy you and your
Satanic hirelings. You are DESTROYING
our youth and our strong manhood
with your liquid poison Out. agents
of darkness. Out! Outr' No. that is
not the way the different conventions
spoke. In their suggestive silence they
say: .'Bramble alcohol, we may vet
elect you king-but not now However.
If YOU promise to help us now we will
pronise not to hurt your trade here
after" Am | wrong in stating that
bramble alcohol is one of the threaten
ing dangers confronting the future
sovereignty of this land?
Evils of Licentiousness.
would like, if there had been time
enough, to have spoken of another
form of evil threatening this land and
bidding for kingship. l allude to the
bramble of RIGHTEOUSNESS or of immor-
atty. l know that most people will
lift their hands in horror as | speak
and say, "Why, there is no danger like
that threatening uSv' Yes, there is. nv
friends When an honest man is elect
ed to the highest executive 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 Every
where our cities are honeycombed with
vice, merely because the voters at the
polls back up dishonest officials in their
willingness to allow these evil resorts
to exist. 1 have spoken only the sober
truth when l have. warned you that
bramble atheism, bramble gold, bram-
BILE alcoholism and bramble licentious-
ness, 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, chow, then,
are we to keep the bramble-the hate
full, worthless bramble-from becom-
ing ruler in American politics 2" All,
my friends, the direct teaching of this
Jotham's fable tells the whole story.
When did those delegates of trees
down in the valley of Shechem do?
They first offered the rulership 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 be-
came king in Jotham's fable was be-
cause the olive, the fig and the vine
refused the rulership for which they
We're so eminently fitted And today
the reason the bad element predomi-
mates in so many of our city and coun-
ty and state elections is because so
many Of the better element refuse to
go to the primaries, refuse to be can
didates for the humber offices, refuse
to see that public moneys are admins
tered as honestly as private funds. It
is said that when Michael Angelo was
painting his most famous picture In
the SiStine chapel of the Vatican there
was member of the pope's household
who himself would do nothing to right
the wrongs of the Vatican. All that
this member of the household would
do was to stand around and find fault.
Thus when Michael Angelo painted
the archfend in his great canvas of
1.-The Last Judgment he painted the
face of this fault finder, this critic
who was also do nothing. So today,
if we would draw a verbal picture Of
one of the greatest evils of American
politics, we would not describe the dis
honest official who for years is a chron-
ic candidate and holder of public of
fee; we would describe the so called
Christian man who is the "stay at
home;;" we would picture the Chris
tian olive tree, and the Christian !
fig tree, and the Christian vine, who,
like those in Gotham's fable, refused
the scepter and lazily and indifferently
allowed the destructive bramble to be
elected king.
Thus Jotham's fable or parable
teaches us that a man has a response
biIity to his government as well as to
his home; responsibility to those who
shall rule over him as we'll as to those
under him. By this statement am 1
here to tell you for whom to vote? Oh,
no! l would speak to you just as that
great and good man Andrew Jackson
said to that great future statesman,
Richard Thompson of Indiana, when a
young boy he went with his father to
call upon the president. After short
conversation Richard Thompson's ia
ther turned and said: "Mr. President,