Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-22
Prohibition in the Campaign.

The prOhibitioniSts are often ACCUSED OF
playing poor politics. AS rule. they
oppose fusion. In national and in state
campaigns they make their own nomina-
tons, although in the face of certain
defeat And after every defeat they can
vass the latest figures in comparison with
previous ones, issue statement to the
faithful and set to work preparing for the
next battle.
When they reply to criticism they usu-
ally point to the course of the enemies
of slavery. who kept up their organiza-
ton for years against many discourage
ments, until at last, having made their
issue truly national, they triumphed.
Mr.. Lincoln. as they appraise him, was
the outcome of years of effort which at
the time was regarded by practical poll
ticians as wasted. 1t Powered, as they
believed. in the emancipation prOclama-
ton.
And SO the prohibitionists so on conf
dent that in the end the will succeed IN
making their issue truly national, and
then win. Their latest effort, taken by
and large. shows little change from the
one Immediately preceding it. Their can
didate for President received but small
vote, while in their state campaigns they
made anything but an encouraging dem
onstration. But We shall see them pick
their nints and try again, and be as ear
nest in 1912 as they have just been. They
may not repeat the history of the aboll-
tionists, but they are guiding by it.
AS a case in point supporting the criti-
cisIn Of the way the prohibitionists play
the game. the figures of the Indiana state
campaign are Interesting. The contest
was between the vets and the drys for
control Of the governOrship and the legis-
lature, the democrats taking the wet, and
the republicans the dry, end of the propo-
sition. All the saloons in the state exerted
themselves in the fight, both by subscrib-
ing money and by electioneering with
their patrons. Never was the temperance
line more strictly drawn short of prohi-
hilton.
The state had not given the democrats
a majority for years, and at the outset Of
the campaign the republicans presumed a
little upon their long line of victories.
Pretty soon, however, they discovered that
they had an old-fashioned contest on their
hands. with the tide rising against them
They stood to their guns, and appealed to
voters to defeat the arrogance of the
saloon element.
The appeal. however. so far as the pro-
hibitionists we're concerned, fell upon deaf
ears. They had a state ticket in the
field, and continued to support it. polling
for 1t within a fraction Of sixteen thou
sand votes. The democrats, aided by the
saloons. won, their candidate for gov
ernor receiving about fourteen thousand
more votes than his republican competitor
So that had the prOhibitionists, when tho
issue took the saloon shape, gone to the
aid Of the republican candidate, who was
being pounded in their cause or at least
in the cause of temperance, he would
have had the best Of the poll by some two
thousand votes, and been elected. 1t
might have been possible. too. to use that
many votes in the legislative contests SO
as to defeat the saloons there also.
But this Is one of the numerous might
haye-beens. which are as sad in the world
of politics as the poet makes them in the
world Of sentiment.