Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1890 — ST. JOHN ON HARRISON. [ARTICLE]

ST. JOHN ON HARRISON.

The Noted Prohibitionist Excoriates the Republican Party. At Tooeka, Kansas, on the night of February 27, in Representative Hall, ex-Govprnor John P. St. John spoke to a large audience. He excoriated the national administration and the Republican party. His denunc atio of he Reoublican party and its position on pro*, hibition was especially cutting. President Harrison and Viceo President Morton were touched up in lively style. On the tariff question and its its application to Kansasjfarmers, Mr St. John said: “Never in the history of this nation have farmers’ tariff duties and the mortgage indebtedness been greater than they are to-da^. “Just think it! Corn selling at 13 cents per bushel in Kansas and 53 cents in New York city. Who gets the difference of 40 cents between heie and New York? Hard coal selling ai $1.50 to $2 per ton in Pennsylvania and at sll here. Farmers using corn for fuel in Western Kansas because it is cheaper than soft coal from our own mines. Beef cattle selling at less than actual cost of production. “Oats at 10 cents per bushel and good horses going at from sso to sBo, w hile western potatoes bring only from 8 to 2o cents per bushel where they are produced, but command 8o cents to $1 a bushel in eastern markets. “Can any of you see where the western farmer’s protection comes in? His land is plastered with mortgages. He finds it almost impossiole to pay the interest and utterly impossible to liquidate the principal. T a x e s—municipal, state and national—never so exorbitant as at present; transportation and market for all he nag to sell, as well as for everything he is compelled to buy, are une'er the control of gigantic monopolies and trusts. “But is not his pig pec protected? Yes, if tariff means protectoin, then it mustfhe admitted that the farmer’s pig pen is protected. So are his plows, harrows, picks, shovels, reapers, mowers, wagons, harness, hammers, saws augers, gimlets, food, fuel, clothing—including the buttons on his shirt — all are ‘projected.’ In fact, the farmer is ‘protected’ to death, and hs is just beginning to find it out. Whatever we have- accomplished in the west has been despite this the so-called protection, which is nothing more nor less than legalized robbery of the many to en r : ch the favored tew. “But when we come to the Re publican party w>e are assured that it has given us ‘all the prohibition we ever had,’ and that w*? Prohibitionists are tryiug to turn the Government over into the hands of the ‘whisky Democracy-’ These are Republican claims. N ow, what are the facts? L*.t us see. A dozen states adopted prohibition before the Republican party was born. Within the past year such Republican, states as New Hampshire, M assachueets, Rhode Island, Connecticut —in an open fight between the home and the saloor —st od by the saloon by big majorities. Pennsylvania, which gave Harrison 80,000 plurality, defeated prohibition by 189,000 majority. lowa, which gave Harrison, the anti-Prohibitionist, 3o,r* 000 majority in ’BB, defeated the Republ can candidate forgove nor in ’B9 or a platform pledged to the enforcement of the prohibitory law, and elected an anti-Prohibi-tion Democrat. v “President Harrison was paraded befo e the churcn people in ’BB as ‘a strong temperance man,’ and the ‘family prayers’ racket was used to good advantage politically. The day bes re inauguration was Bunday. Two thousand s loons ran wide o. en in WashL gton City, in direct violation of law, riotous drunkenness was seen on every hand, and yet this ‘Christian President’ Lad not a single word to

utter in his inaugural address against these outrages upon moral and common decency. In his inaugural precession marched 1,000 saloonkeepers How many slave drivers marched in the inaugural p ote sion of Abraham Lincoln? Notone. Why? Simply because thev were not in sympathy with Mr. Lincoln’s party. From the inaugural ceiemony this ‘Christian President’ **en* to a big dance in the Pension Office, where 400 ‘gal lons of Roman punch were consumed.

“It now turns out that he is not even a total abstainer He not only drinks intoxicating liquor, but serves guests with it in the White House. We are told by th e press that at a recent great feast given by the President five wine glasses were at each plate, and that the sparkling beverage flowed freely “Surely history repeats itself.— he Bible tells us that ‘Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand.’ And that ‘they drank wine and praised the god of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. “Now, strike out Belshazzar, the king,’ and put Benjamin the President, m the first verse. We insert in the second ‘monopolies and trusts, pig iron and wool,’ and the parallel, so far as these two verses are coneerned, is complete. No ast, either official, or otherwise, gives us any reason to suspect that Harrison has any desire to verthrow the liquor traffic.— Vice President Morton is of a more practical tfirn of mind. He is only worth 10 million dollars and must in some way provide a living for his family, who have a right to look to him for support. Therefore, he owns a bar of bis own where the e ect are supplied for 20 cents a djink. And yet the liquor from ‘Shoreham bar* will make a man just as drunk as that sold in O’Brien’s saloon on the Bowery. May God hasten the day when this nation may have officials whose example, if followed by our boys, would not lew! them to the use of intoxicating liqnors. “Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless truy that in the states earned by Harrison there are two saloons in proportion to the population to one in the states carried by Cleveland, and the Republicans North consumes 22 barrels of beer to every one consumed in the Democratic South. So you see chere is no reason for alarm about ‘turning the Government over to the whisky Democracy,’ Nor is theie any hope whotever for prohibition from the Republican party. Why, right here in Kansas only a week ago, the Republican League met, and notwithstanding >li the agitation about resubmission it lacked the courage to speak ont against it, but as usual dodged the issue. Republican resubmission clubs are being organized daily. The Democrats ar < for resubmission straight, while the Republicans propose to reach the same end by way of a constitutional convention.”

A Quinine Pointer.— Even the large consumption of quinine occasion d by the grippe only put up he wholesale price of the drug 2to 3 cents an ouoce. The opportunity to “coiner” tbe price on the sufferers wa > lost when the tariff duty was repealed.—Philadelphia Record, j Warmoth was the figure-head of the worst administration that ever cursed a southern state during the period of reconstruction. He now emerges from his obeourit as the leader of the so ces of blgli-taxers in Louisiana. It was such scoundrelism as this that brought defeat to the Republican party. Its revival will prove its ruin. The proposal to aid the farmers of the western states by the imposition of an increased tariff for the protection of their corn and wheat fields will be understood by those

who have been forced to the study of economic problems by a loss of $10,000,000 in a single year on tneir corn orop9.