Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1883 — Republicanism and Temperance. [ARTICLE]

Republicanism and Temperance.

The receipts undor the Scott law in Cleveland, Ohio, are said to bo so large that the genoral tax levy will be probably reduced; and the revenues of the State of Missouri have been increased to tho amount of $1,000,000 by the high license act. These are significant facts, and they will piobably lead to a general adoption of the system. Tho tax upon the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is based upon economical and not up m moral considerations. The moral consideration, however, is doubtless very potent in securing the passago of such laws. Tho fact that the traffic produces drunkenness, and that an immense proportion of crime springs from druukennt ss, and entails great expense upon the community, naturally suggests the taxation of the traffic as the most unobjectionable of taxes. It is ft tax which does not touch anything necessary to subsistence. It affects nothing but a dangerous and unnecessary form of solf-indulgeuco, and in the highest sense, therefore, it is a tax upon superfluity and luxury. Even those who* in the desire to propitiate tho liquor interest, oppose a high license, do not dare to propose free drinking. They insist tipon a low license as more equitable. Hut it is not more equitable, since a high license produces a larger revenue, and consequently lightens the burden Upon actual necessaries. * * * It is in accord with the traditions of the Republican party tb&t it should be identified in Ohio with the -high license law. Thcie are always two te Hencies in society, one to good order, sobriety, industry,- intelligence, todrality and progress. - The other is against therm Government and politics

«re but indirectly concerned with them, because the object of government is to secure individual liberty, which may be trusted to promote virtue and social progress. Bnt parties nevertheless will naturally be fonnd, upon the whole, to favor or not to favor specific moral objects. This is especially true of the Republican party in this country, which took its origin and derived its force from a moral impulse. Its natural tendency is even to strain the powers of government to aid general enlightenment and progress. It is the Republican party which favors a generous educational polioy, and which naturally attracts the especial friends of temperance. Every reform instinctively expects help from that patty. The strength of the Republican feeling for a protective tariff lies in the conviction that protection is, upon the whole, best for the poor man.—“ Harper’s Weekly.”