Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1888 — BREAK UP THE PARTY. [ARTICLE]

BREAK UP THE PARTY.

Effect of the Temperance Plank in the Republican Platform as Viewed by Germans. [Chicago special. The German Republicans are very much torn up over the last act of the Republican ■convention before adjournment. There is much feeling exhibited among GermanAmericans upon the subject. They, as a general thing, regard the resolution offered by Mr. Boutelle, of Maine, as a sop thrown out to catch the Prohibition vote. That resolution, which was finally adopted unanimously, is as follow: "The first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home. The Republican party cordially sympathizes with all wise and well-directed efforts for jthe promotion of temperance and morality." Herman Raster, the chief editor of the Illinois Staats Zeitung, the leading German paper in the West, and a well-known German Republican, said: “I believe that the adoption by the convention of that resolution means the defeat of the Republican party. The people of this country are not yet prepared for prohibition, and the action of the convention is nothing more or less than a bid for the Prohibition vote. The Germans are a liberty-loving people. They are not in favor of placing any restrictions upon individual action or personal liberty so long as it is confined to lawful acts and the path of uprightness and decency. Ido not, of course, claim to speak for the whole German-American people, but among my friends and acquaintances, who are members of the Republican party, and they are not a few, the general feeling is one of disgust at the attitude assumed on this important qudfetion. I believe that the Republican party has outlived its usefulness, and that after the election next fall it will go to pieces like its ancestor, the Whig party. It will split up into fragments, and like the Whigs of old, some of them will merge into an American party, some into a Prohibition party, and so forth.” Mr. Raster had the following editorial •comment upon Mr. Boutelle’s plank in the ijtaats Zeitung: “Whilo the Republican National Convention refrained from having any plank in reference to temperance at first, just before adjournment, on motion of a member from Maine, it unanimously adopted a plank by which the Republican party, as such, pledges itself out and out to further temperance. What such a declaration coming from the TJtopia of prohibition, Maine, signifies, is apparent to every child. The Republican party as such stands committed as the temperance party without the courage of committing itself directly to tho full extent of prohibition. Through this abominable play the Republican party may gain to its ranks a few renegade Prohibitionists, but how many .German Republicans can now remain true t'6 the Republican party?” Inquiry among German Republicans developed great opposition to the party on account of Mr. Boutelle’s plank. The result, so it is predicted, will be disastrous in Illinois, and may decrease the Republican vote of lowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Indiana. There are over forty thousand German voters in Chicago, and if the great majority of them vote the Democratic ticket Illinois will certainly elect Palmer and the State ticket and the Cleveland and Thurman electors. The plank will also have a profound effect upon the vote of the State cf Ohio, where there is an immense Ger-man-American population.