A Little Temperance Reasoning

In our wholesale denupciation of the Republican party of Michigan because it failed to subuiit the questiou of proliibitiou to a vote of tbe people, after declaring in its platform in favor of so doinjj, we Prohibitionists are iucliued to overlook, or makc light of, soinc very important facts connected with the matter. Our charge of " bad faith " on tbeir part loses much of its foree wlien the actiou of sereral thousand of our own peoplf: Is taken into considcration. Had Prohibitioniats accepted in good faith the declaration of the platform adopted at Kalainnzoo and done their utmost to insure the success of the party which thus declared in thelr bebalt, their present position would be much more consistent, in case the party had failed to fnlflll its promise. But those who, the next day after the Republican convention, assisted in nomInating a f uil prohibition ticket, and then did thelr utmost to defeat the Republioan nominees, have no ricrfit tQ sav "hail you see, friends, that the cause of prohibition has been, and is bein? injured by rash or designing men whom it is not safe to follow? They have repeatedly told us that Gov. Jerome said he ' could not and would not support that plank of the plutiorm,'' and now, when Mr. Jerome comes forward and emphaticallj" denies the cliarge, they hayen't a word of proof to ofïer in substantiation. The fact appears as a matter of record, that when the whisky men of Detroit sent to Gov. Jerome to ascertain his position upon that question he assured them unequivocally that he etood upon tlie Republican platform; ulule the same inquiry from the same sources elicited on open response from Mr. Begole, tbongh at tliat time a raember of the teraperimce alliance, atn} he has since confessed tliat his " Ups were then sealed." Au interesting state of tilines that, to those prohibition Republicans who rejeoted Jerome and supported Begole, because the tonner was in syinpathy with tlie whisky men while the latter was a prouounced Froliibitionist, isn't it? That Kalmuazoo platform sliouM have settled the matter for Prohibitionists and brought every oneof Ilepublicau proellvities to the support of the party. It was all we had asked and all we had a right to expect. We had iio right to demand that all the party nominees shoukl be in üympathy with that plank. We do not kuow that uil of them coukl have united, so far as their gyinpathiei ace concerned, Upon any plank in that platform. It was enough to beiievu them honorable and loyal men. When it canie to the election of represontatives from the different dis- tricts of the state it was a (bregóos conclusión tliat 8ome of the Kepublicau nominees would be more loyal to whisky than to the honor of' their party, but Prohibitionists should not have allbrded (hem ui excuso or argument for sucli disloyalty by themselves bolüng the ticket that had undertaken to cliampion their cause. They should ruther have strippcd o ft' their coats, rol led up their sleeves and gone to muke the Republican mnjority in the lexlslature large enough to inaure the passage of the "subniission" act. It was the best chance Michigan Prohibitionists have ever had, and was absolutely tlirown away by them. Their action in nominating a separate ticket iilienatod and disgusted many who had been their.frlends and strengthened the opponents of prohlbltlon. We thoroughly bellere thut this action of the party Proliibitionists was what defeated "gubinlgion" in the last legislatuie, aud believing tliat we cannot be so btazen-faced and unftllr as to charge the responsibllity wholly upon the Repoblloan party and aecuse it of " bad faith."