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Third Party Temperance

Third Party Temperance image
Parent Issue
Day
23
Month
June
Year
1886
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

One of the ablest pnpers in the country is The Independent, and although its course during the last campaign was erratic no doubt but that It was honest. VVhen the republicana put ap Blaine it could not support him, so upon Cleveland's nomination it endorsed him editorially until it was satisfied as to the trutli of the charges against his personal eharacter. Then It came out against .him, and as nofhing else was left to it, the tliird party was taken up, not because its principáis were loved more, but because it despised St. John a little less than Blaine or Cleveland. Two weeks ago it gave a calm, critical review of the third party which we commetul to our temperance frlends in quoting: Temperauce should be in politics, but it muy be in politics without being partisan. The saloon is not partisan. It is democratie with tlie demócrata and republican with the republicana, and It eannot be denied that its tactics have been successful. It inight liave chosen to be either democratie or re publican, or it mlght have formed a tliird party. In botli the old parties more or less mischief has been done to its cause, by one in the South, by the other in the North ; and on this ground it mlght have deemed tlie time opportune to lörm a saloon party, which would ahvays and everywhere be truc to rum business. Wliat would have been the result? Would not the saloon have gone down in its fight ajrainst the old parties? It would have made a den'nite issue of the rum question, and the moment that is done temperance will win. The saloon is In politics much more effectively by reason of itsunpnrtisanship. It holds its interests above party politics. There are many carnest temperance men who believe that temperance can only be in politics In the form of a third party. They have lost hope of accomplishing anything either in the republican or the democratie party. They are tlred of votiug representatives of the saloon into oflice, and they have decidnd to put their trust nnly in candidates diseonnected with the old parties, and standing on a platform whose chief plank is prohibitlon. The idea is, at bottom, sound and good. The saloons know how to use it. We eannot and will not advise any conscientious citizen to vote for men who are pledged to the saloon. If the old parties iusist, after all that is possible lias been done to prevent it, on nominating, e?pecially, for legislative positions, caudidates who will favor the saloon, it is the duty of self-respccting members of these parties to refuse their support to either candidato, and to put in nomination men committcd against the saloon. We believe most heartily in third tickets In such circumstances. We do not believe in a third party. There never has been, there never will be, three parties in the field. The voting masses will always be divided between two parties. The only hope for a thiril party is in its becoming tbc first or sccond part}'. To do thls it must destroy or supersede one of the old parties. This, if the course of liistory lias uny sinilicancc, can be no easy task. The democratie party, aecording to lova), decent sentiment ought to have dled and been buried in the year of our country's woe; but it did'nt die and it wasn't buried. It s still a vigorous organization. So is the republican. It has been under a cloud, to be sure ; but it has no thought of deatli or burial. There is too much lií'e in it to make the the tliird party project of clubbing it to death either easy or safe for the clubbers. It undoubtedly deserves to be drubbed repeatedly, but not by its sworn eiiemies. It went astray two years ago and its friends gave t the severest chastisement it ever received. It haa been liunibled; but it may need another lesson of the same kind. It is worth reforming. Confessedly there is abundance of good material in it. That is why the third party wants to prey on it. Now, is it not easier and wiser to try to capture this party with its larfje moral element than simply to irrítate it and stir lts antagonism? Isn't it a big enough task to grapple the enormous power of the saloon, without attemptlng also the destruction of a great party 'i Is there any need of dividing the torces of temperance and setting one part to fight the other? Is it anything but folly for a small party to set itself up to fijfht against the saloon, plus an impossibility ? We have sometinies fettred that not a few of the leaders of the third party are actuated largely by 'political aniuition ; that their aim and end are !not the triumph of temperance slmply, but personal and politieiü prefenneiit. Tnelr course has been in entire harmony with this assumption. ín district after district where one or the other of the old parties has nominated unquesüoned temperance candidatos the third party has thrust its own man in the lield, and ïrequently elected there by the saloon caudidate. They have derided and discourared attempts to put either of the old partles on the temperance question. They seem to fjlory in the dtfeat of democratie, republican or non-partisan temperance measures. The Voice, if we understand its course toward the eflbrt to pass the the prohibitory amendment resolution through the Nercr York Legislatnre and the local option bill through the New Jersey Legislature, ;has not only not assisted in eitner case, it has discouraged the friends of both. lf we have mistaken its attitude, we shall be to glad to inake corrcctioii. It certainly belittles and discourages the movement in New Jersey to commit the republican party against the saloon. It is tiue this movement in New Jersey ma}1 not be successful. But its intent is food. lts spirit is hostile to the saloon. It is u temperance movement; and what is it but party prejudice that arrays the influence of Tliu Voicc against it? What is It but blind devotion to party that prevenís our neighbor from helping euch movementi anywhere and everywlïeref Wliat can tliis conference (the Xew Jersey) do? t asks: "It is a mere meeting of some temperance republinwis, wlio want to see the saloon (lowncil. bat want still more to see the democratie party downed. No resolutions thcy adopt will hurt the liquor tralBc one iota. It is time we learned that icorclx can't overthrow King Alcohol, That is all, we unücrstand, that tliis conference inteuds to give us - worda." Wtiy dosen't The Voice wait i few to sec what it will do? It miy bo a failure, with the help of The Voice. It may be a arreat success desplte The Voice. At all events it Is a movement ajftiinst the saloon. Of course the conference wlll adopt resoution, and these resohulons may not hurt the liquor trafile. It may also lr that "worde can't overthrow King Alcohol." We do not, however, despise, tliein. But if words are nothing, pray what 11 the use of The Voice? Neither'its wordt nor the votes of its party have ever, bo far as we know, elected a congressman or a single member of a state lejtislature. We have no deslre to fight the Ihird party. We respect the great body of earnest men who compose it. We npplaud their hostility to the saloon; bot we believe that under unwise leadership they are attemptinj; the impossible, and inaking the posslble more difficult for others.

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News