The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1907-03-21

1O OlEN! I've WOrQ or great
Importance for your ear-as you
will in moment better realize,
and circumstances over which l
have really no control, enable me to
address you today. The temperance
reform movement is but century old.
A hundred years of struggle, and like
all world uplifts, had its inception in a
most modest beginning. Sufficient here
to say that the greatest orators of the
century were found on the temperance
platform; N Neal Dow, Father Matthew'S
st. John, Wooley, Swallow, Sir Wilfred
Lawson-the "Gough. of England" and
hundreds of others. The greatest of
whom, in my opinion, was ohm Ballen-
tine Cough. He, and all the others
without hope of fee or reward, seeking
to place into the hands of his brother
light to guide him well and truly thru
the pitfalls and hidden dangers con-
structed by Satan himself and his en-
issaries, in the open sure of today-the
saloon.
"To presume to say one sentence
more striking, literary or eloquent, than
those uttered by this great exponent of
temperance of our times-John Cough
would be to assume an absurdity."
But in my own way 1 will tell a tale
as it appeals to me. Travel worn, a
grey-haired veteran, this gifted orator
stood before his last audience. Paral-
ysis claimed noble victim, and he fell
dying in the midst of loving friends
and admirers. John Cough died twenty
years ago. He had fought great fight,
and was the direct cause of saving
more men from the miseries of drink
than any other man. AS he sank to his
dnal rest, his last words, "Young man,
keep your record clear" became the
watchwOrds of thousands of the active
generation-now growing old. And
friends lot us make these words our
motto.
One man may beat a way thru a
trackless forest, or wilderness, wherein
others follow; but even so great work.
ers as this brave movement claims,
could not at one stroke, save nation
from the ruin that imperils. Not only
had these noble, consecrated men to
combat the individual, with all his
vagaries, but the government itself as
will presently show; and besides, they
had to meet in lnsidious conflict, the
entrenched commercial interests of the
brewer and the distiller. Let our pen
be undaunted, our arm uncovered, our
voice keyed and ever ready to assail
this monster evil.
Half century ago the United States
emerged from one of the greatest wars
of history. A million homes north and
south of the Mason and Dixon line had
contributed it's father or brother or son
to the quota of noble dead. This war
had made freedmen of two and half
millionslave negroes. What an anoma-
ly! by force of arms this host of ne
groes were freed, but stress of circum-
stances opened wide a door whereby
our whole population became slaves to
q monster more dreadful than any La
Gree. Our national treasury was empty.
We were paying twelve per cent on
much of our enormous debt of nearly
three billion dollars, and mans human
ity, his cupidity, sought a cure, scored
victory, and cut great notch on his
''tally stick"
Internal Revenue was made to turn
the trick, and high tax on whisky the
trump. This procedure created monop-
oily ofan adulterated product, and death
to virtue; but it did more; it brought
the blood money of the murderer into
the United States treasury. Itrednced
our rate of interest, and it did more, it
made madmen of our fathers and
brothers, and made the building of asy-
iums for insane and imbeciles a byword.
High license thruout the land was an
easy proposition for, tho at first op-
posed by the saloon men, soon was rec
ognized by him as chief asset, and he
liked it, and today approves reduction
except in very rare cases, where the
child Of nternaIfevenue-h high license,
has grown q bit "heady," demanding
$1,000 to $4,000 for an annual