The Republican journal., 1916-08-03
Prohibition an Issue.
1.-THE Christian Science Monitor,

Inc CHRISTIAN Science Monitor
| La their national conventions of this
year both the Republicans and the Dam
ocrats ighored the liquor question. This
Was IN accordance with custom. Neither
| party had in the past given recognition
IN Its platform to the prohibition move
ment; therefore, neither would give
recognition to it in the present. 1t NAV
be taken for granted that neither will
give recognition to it In the future. I'M
less forced so to do. For our purposes.
the future means, in this connection.
four years hence. Four years hence. as
We view the situation, neither of the
parties mentioned can afford to omit A
prohibition plank in the construction of
I Its platform. Beth will be forced to take
sides. The Prohibition party will have
pressed the issue upon them. The issue,
In tact, IS already raised. Although the
platforms of the two great parties make
no mention of prohibition, prohibition is
quite as much political issue TODAY as
the tariff or preparedness.
The convention at St. Paul has empha-
sized this fact. That gathering has re-
Elected the best traditions of the Prohibit
ton party. 1t has disappointed it's ad-
versaries. 1t has done nothing discredit-
able or absurd, Its ticket and it's plat
form are creditable to the great cause
tor which they stand. Followers of and
sympathizers with that cause have no
reason to be ashamed of the proceedings
in any respect. They have every reason
to be proud of them. and to be encour-
aged by them There is no change in
the name, no change in the purpose, no
change in the policy of the party that
HOG 1nt twin ,hnl Il
campaigns, that is facing and ready to
triumph over what may be it's eleventh
and perhaps last repulse.
The Prohibition party has brought the
prohibition question to the point of de-
cision. 1t was never intended that it
should do more, it has never been belev-
ed by its friends that it could do more
than this. Four years from now, to
judge from probability. one of the great
parties will take over its principal issue,
the total suppression of the manufac-
ture, sale and use of alcoholic liquors in
the United States. The issue embraces
all the other issues which claim it's sup
port. Its success at the polls will mean
a cleaner and better nation, cleaner
and better people, in all respects. Pro-
hloitlon will mean preparedness, protec-
lection and prosperity In the larger sense
of those terms. 1t will mean nation
freed from the influences that pollute
politics and debase public life 1t will
mean a higher conception of citizen
responsibility. 1t will mean clearer
thought, better morals, and undivided
allegiance to democratic institutions 1t
will comprehend ideals that the country
is vainly striving to attain through other
means and along other paths.
No well-informed person is so short
sighted as to believe that the vote cast
for the Prohibition ticket next November
will represent the prohibition vote of the
country, or that it will come anywhere
near doing so. The great majority of
the electors of the United States today
favor suppression OF the liquor traffic.
Their strength has never been fully man
ifested because the times have not been
ripe for consolidation. In the main these
voters prefer to express themselves on
all great questions through the medium
of their party organizations. Through
one of these organizations, perhaps
through both, they will probably have
an opportunity of expressing themselves
In 1920.
Only the delicacy of the relations ex-
istlng between President Wilson and
William Jennings Bryan prevented the
latter from making fight, and prob
ably winning one, for prohibition
plank in the st. Louis convention. Had
he raised the issue there and then, his
motives might easily have been misln-
terpreted and misrepresented. His critics
and his enemies would probably have
charged him with introducing an issue
calculated to split the Democratic party,
md
election impossible. No such conditions
are likely four years hence. 1t is not
unreasonable to expect, in view of the
advance toward recognition of woman
suffrage in their declarations of this
year, that the Republicans, as we'll as
the Democrats, will find reason in 1920
for the incorporation in their platforms
of prohibition planks. Such a result
would mark the elimination of achieve
ruent for the Prohibition party.
This newspaper las given more care
full attention and more space to the Pro-
hlbltlon convention than any of its Amer
lean contemporaries outside of st. Paul
and Minneapolis, because it has seen in
the gathering not only the approaching
elimination OF one great social and polltl-
Cal movement, but the beginning of an
other. Ii is not to be imagined that the
mental and moral forces that have carried
prohibition through nearly fifty years of
opprobrium and ridicule to the very
threshold of success are going to become
inactive when the battle is won. Rather
is it to be assumed that the final victory
over the liquor evil, victory which now
seems so near realization, will constitute
preliminary sklrm ish in and an incen-
tive to still greater fight for human en-
lightenment, welfare and happ mess.
WONSA EINInI ACT