The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1909-04-08
VIVA. would il mean 70 the allIed

per year 1t would mean to the coopf
er of the loss of 66 2-3 per cent of
his business. The newspaper would
suffer in it's advertising patronage,
the job printer would lose, the wagon
maker would lose, theH carpenter
would lose, in short every trade. ev-
cry business, every manufacturing
industry that now finds pretentious
WEEKLY THREE
fraction of its market in the demand
of the brewer the maltster, the dis
tiller, and the trades so closely allied
to them, would suffer damage well
nigh destructive of their existence.
What would it mean to state and
to city?
1t would mean the loss of munich
pal license fees and the loss of taxes
upon property destroyed amounting
to $84, 500, 900 per year 1t would mean
an increase of taxes upon the re-
naming real and personal property,
or the imposition or increase of Ii
cense fees upon businesses, occupa-
tions and professions to make good
the sacrifice of public improvements.
and inferior administration of munich
pal government essential to the COM
fort, happiness and safety of man.
What would it mean to our liberty?
Who dares to trifle with the liber-
ties of the freeman is a traitor to our
institutions.
Pharaoh, with hardened heart, de-
MED liberty to the children of Israel
and the Lord scourged him with
plaques. He "smote all the first born
in the land of Egypt, from the first
born of Pharaoh, that sat on his
throne, unto the first born of the cap
tive that was in his dungeon" and
the final punishment of Pharaoh was
death in the waters of the Red sea,
For ages before and after the break
ing of the Christian era men resisted
prosecutions for their faith and went
to the stake for the rights of con-
science. The catacombs of Rome
were made bed chambers by the hunt,
ed Christians; they burrowed in the
earth, in the. depths of forests, like
animals, and hid in caves in the un-
broken solitude of mountains like
outlaws, and by their fortitude and
zeal they brought out to the present
day that same Christian religion
which is the light of our political life
and the staff of our social existence.
Our declaration Of rights and privi-
leges was written by the hand of in
spiration, divinely directed; our great
Magma ChaTta was the final express
sion of hope, long deferred, crystal
lized into a sublime reality; our con-
stitution was the triumph of human
rights after the struggle of centur-
les, and cursed be the hand that
would steal the smallest fragment
from the fullness of its riches.
Faith hope and charity are the
three Christian virtues, and life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness are
the cardinal principles of free gov
ernment. Destroy one of these vir-
tues and Christianity becomes
mockery unto itself; strike down one
of these principles and free govern
ment will shame it's own name.
My worship of God shall be the
fruit of my own conscience; my child
rem | may train in the pathway of
my faith; my raiment l may choose,
so long as it covers my nakedness;
my diet ] may regulate as it may
seem to me good, though dyspepsia
dig my grave; but my drink shall be
OF hyr hn
And if they may say what | shall
drink, how soon will they insist up
on saying what l may eat, and then
what may wear, and then-but by
that time the blessings of free gov
ernment will have become only mem.
ories of the past and shall be made
to bow to their imperious will in the
tolls of the bondage that tyrants de.
| light in.
Burke said: "Ths true danger is,
when liberty is nibbied away, for ex,
pedients, and by parts"
Tolstoi, the great Russian patriot
and philosopher, pronounced a truism
which / would nail over the door OF
every American home; | would ask
every American mother to teach ii
to her child when she teaches that
! child it's prayer, and it is this:
Government can not improve the
moral nature of man. and brute force
always defeats it's object. There can
] be no coercion of the soul Every
law must have the sanction of the
free will. Where America suFpasses
Europe is in its personal liberty
which is the heritage of a race OF
heroes But this is doomed to be
extinguished by the legislatures of a
time serving generation"
Yes, l would write it upon the tab
lets of every American heart, that
its baleful prediction may be defeat.
ed.
And | would ask every prohibition
list in this broad land of ours to paste
in his hat those eloquent words OF
the eloquent Webster:
IF the true spark of religious and
civil liberty be kindled, it will burn
Human agency cannot extinguish it
Like the earth's central fire, it may
be smothered for a time; the ocean
may oyerwhelm it; mountains may
press it down; but it's inherent anC
unconquerable force will heave botI
the ocean and the land, and at some
time or another, in some place or an
other, the volcano will break out and