The national prohibitionist. [volume], March 12, 1908, Page 8, Image 8

About The national prohibitionist. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1907-1911

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The National Prohibitionist
Published leery Thurtdsy st
87 Washington Straet, Chicago
The Heme Defender Publishing Co., Publishers
Subscription Price One Dollar Per Year
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Subscriptions should
be paid for by Express or Postofflce Money Or
der, draft or check. All remittances for this
paper should be made payable to The National
Prohibitionist. This Is for business convenience.
All letters of business character, pertaining to
subscriptions, advertisements or other matters,
should be addressed The National Prohibition
ist, 87 Washington street, Chicago. All matter
Intended for publication or relating to the edi
torial department should be addressed “Editor of
The National Prohibitionist, 87 Washington
street, Chicago.” No business communications
should he mixed with matters intended for pub
lication. This inevitably produces delay. When
ever possible, business matters and matters in
tended for the eye of the editor should he en
closed In separate envelopes, and, in any event,
should be written npon separate sheets.
Entered ss aecend-clsM sutler, Nev. II, 1MT, st the
postoCce st CUcsge, I1L, under Act ef Csmgress sf
March 8, 1878.
Chicago, March 12, 1908
WHAT CAN WE DO?
A correspondent writes:
“The National Prohibitionist is constantly ex
horting Prohibitionists to do something for the
cause. We need something more than the ex
hortation. Many of us, like myself, lone farmers
almost the sole representative of the party in the
community, find ourselves unable to do anything
worthy of consideration. Cannot The National
Prohibitionist give us suggestions and working
outlines ?”
Hie request is reasonable and we attempt
to comply.
Let us assume a lone Prohibitionist, living
in a small village or a country community,
with no Prohibitionists as neighbors, with
modest means and without an abundance of
leisure time. What can he do ?
In the first place, it seems to us a prime
essential that this Prohibitionist should
get and keep in touch with the Prohibi
tion movement by reading the national Pro
hibition paper. We need not emphasize
this. The importance of it will appeal to
everyone. Next, it seems to us essential that
the state Prohibition paper, if there is one,
should be taken and carefully read. It may
not be all that could be desired as a Prohi
bition organ. It is probably made by some
enthusiast, at great sacrifice, and shows the
marks thereof. But it is the best means
available of keeping in touch with the work
in the state; and if our friend is going to try
to do his duty as a Prohibitionist, he must
he in touch with the state work.
Next, the Prohibitionist who is seeking for
;i chance to do something, ouglit to con
sider the question of contributions to na
tional and state work. We have assumed
that he is of modest means, and large con
tributions are not to be expected, but the
modest contribution which he can give is
essential, both for the aid that it will give
the work and for the reflex influence (hat
it will have upon him. Even wdien it seems
“ridiculously small,” it ought to be given.
If the national committee could have today
all of the “ridiculously small” contributions
which are withheld because they do look so
small, it would settle the financial question
for the committee for months to come.
A contribution, then, even if ib be small
and given at the cost of sacrifice, should be
made to the national committee and the
state committee should not be forgotten. The
needs of our state committees are frequently
as pressing as the needs of the national com
mittee.
Attention may now be turned to the local
organization. We might have suggested that
it begin there, but for the fact that be
ginning there would sometimes mean chill
and discouragement.
The county chairman should be looked
up and got in touch with. Here, again,
there may be need for a contribution to help
pay a harassing old debt or to begin
needed work. The chances are too, that the
county chairman is in need of a local repre
sentative, a town or precinct committeeman
in your locality and you ought not to shirk
trom undertaking the duties of that work.
This being done, you can begin to look
about you for opportunities for what you
may call personal service. In all probability,
some of your neighbors are, at least, friendly
toward the Prohibition movement. Per
haps not a few of them are merely waiting
the suggestion to aline themselves with the
Prohibition party. If you will get the of
ficial election returns you may find that some
of your neighbors are voting the Prohibition
ticket. Perhaps your next-door neighbor has
been voting the ticket for years and you
have never known it. Talk with your neigh
bors, find out their standing on the subject,
make thoughtful suggestions to them and get
them to thinking.
It will be in order, then, for you to try
to get some of your neighbors to reading
about the Prohibition question. In very
plain, matter-of-fact way, put the question
before them. Bemind them of the impor
tance of the Prohibition issue; remind them
that unless they read a Prohibition paper
they get nothing reliable about it. Offer to
act as their agent in forwarding their sub
scription.
This work, tactfully done, will give you a
group of neighbors who are reading about
the Prohibition question, within a few weeks,
and, when they begin to read, you will be
surprised to see how quickly they will come
to you with suggestions and comments upon
the question.
Then you can work up some meetings. In
the church or the Grange hall or the school
house, or, perhaps, in somebody’s home you
can have a Prohibition meeting. It may be
that some of the pastors will be very glad
to address such a meeting for you, if you
give them the invitation. Your county
chairman may be a speaker and willing to
come and deliver an address. If a speaker
is not obtainable a program may be made up,
some songs and recitations by the young
people. Some of the best and most effective
meetings held are arranged in this way.
All this is very commonplace, very feas
ble, within the reach of anyone, but this is
an outline of method by which we can have
effective Prohibition work done in every
country community and every hamlet of the
nation.
IS THERE DANGER.?
“Is there,” writes a correspondent, “any
danger that the present Prohibition wave
may recede without the accomplishment of
substantial and lasting Prohibition reform ?”
We answer, without hesitation: There is,
and the danger lies in a quarter largely un
suspected.
The Prohibition movement of today can
not be beaten by the frauds and misrepre
sentations of the liquor traffic, tremendous
as the traffic system of fraud and misrepre
sentation is. Judged from the number of
periodicals open to the presentation of the
argument from the two sides, judged from
the means at hand to buy and bribe news
papers and magazines, the liquor traffic has
an almost limitless advantage, but the
American people at heart are fair, at heart
are honest seekers after truth and ultimately
will have the truth in this, as in other mat
ters. Misrepresentation and fraud will not
kill the Prohibition movement.
The Prohibition movement cannot be
killed by violent opposition. It has as little
today to fear from the campaign of “meat
axes and pitchforks” as it had in the old
time when Senator Foraker first enunciated
that policy. The most extreme violence of *
opposition is rather to be welcomed than tb
be feared. In discussion and agitation, our
cause is strong.
The cause is in danger only along the line
of concessions. Just as it was in the eigh
ties, when the Prohibition movement grew
strong, so we find it again today. The
liquor traffic is willing to grant almost any
thing. The saloon-fed politician is in haste
to find what the Prohibitionist wants and
give him pretty nearly what he wants. Just
as in the eighties we had increase of license
fees, additional stringency of regulation,
wider extension of local option privileges
and the submission of Prohibition amend
ments in state after state, so we have it
again today. If the Prohibitionist can be
made to forget the main point at issue, if lie
can be made to content himself, even for a
season, with local option victories, with
ostensible improvements of the saloon and
with a chance to fight a heads-I-win-tails
you-lose battle in this or that state, over the
submission of Prohibition to a popular vote
—if this can be brought to pass, then the
Prohibition movement can be checked.
Upon the other hand, if the Prohibition
ist will stand fast by his contention, will
perpetually insist upon, reiterate and force
to the front the idea of absolute, national
Prohibition, if he will resolutely turn away
from every sidetrack and ignore every sub
sidiary issue, there is no possibility of stop
ping the Prohibition movement and no
danger regarding the success of the Pro
hibition reform. ''w
ANARCHY AND ANARCHY
History tells ns that in old Rome, when
the vices of the emperors and the patricians
began to attract too much attention, from
the people and to create a feeling of unrest.