Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1886 — Prohibitionists in General [ARTICLE]

Prohibitionists in General

. ... - And Chairman Adana in Particular. ' i ( There are in the ranks of the third party prohibitionists many who, notwithstanding the impf&ctibility of their views, and the fact that the only result yet accomplished by their party has been the strengthening of the hands of the liquor Interests^ deserve yespect for the„ purity and sincerity of their motives. This class of prohibitionists are drawn almost wholly from the ranks of the republican party. Another kind of political prohibitionists are so only in name and by pretense, but at heart are members of some other party, and vote the ticket of that other party. They are really democrats and their sole purpose in professing to be prohibitionists is to influence temperance republicans to forsake that party and join the prohibitionists The prohibitionists of Jasper county need not to search very closely to find a number of such counterfiet prohibitionists among their numbers. A third, and very influential class of third party prohibitionists consists of men who have become angered and sour towards some other party, usually the republican, because they have not received as many offices and other favors as their selfishness or their egotism demanded. These men are usually practical politicians, familiar with political methods, and shrewd managers, and they are really the most influential and active members of the party. They are prone to use their influence with their gullible brethren, the earnest prohibitionists, and induce them to help elect some particular candidates of one or the other of the two great political parties. Ol this class of sore-head politician prohibitionists, the present chairman of the prohibitionist county central committee, Mr. Henry I. Adams, is a prominent example. He has twice been given the office of county treasurer by the republicans of the county, but because, on account of his personal unpopularity and unwillingness to make any sacrifices for the good of the party, they have not evinced a disposition to honor ’him with any further political favors, he has suddenly discovered that his conscience requires him to forsake the republican party and join the prohibitionists; and having done so to do all in his power to compass the defeat of that quite as good a temperance man as himself, Dr. Washbtirn, in the interest of the democratic candidate for treasurer, who probably does not claim to be a temperance man at all, as that term is usually understood. Our implied assertion, abuve made, that Mr. Adams’ conversion to the prohibition party was vefy sudden, was made with the full knowledge that the gentleman himself claimed, at the late prohibition county convention, that it was the.failure in 1883 of the legislature to vote for the submission of theprobibit-

ion amendment, that madehim.JL prohibitionist. If that was, indeed, the leayen that worked in his moral system and made him a prohibitionist, it must have lain dormant for a long time, and then performed its work with about as much suddenness as did the miraculous demonstration to Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus. Gertain it is that in 1884, long after the prohibition amendment was dead and in its grave, Mr. Adams was, to all seeming appearances, as ardent a republican aS ever, and even was a candidate before ,the republican convention for .the,, nomination as candidate for member of the state House of Representatives, and he also went about the county making republican speeches. More than that during the early part of the present year he openly acted as a republican, was present and voted at the county primary convention and pledged himself to support its nominees, and also attended the republican convention of his township and accepted the nomination for township trustee. A few days later, however, he changed his mind about the trustee’s: office and declined to be a candidate; and forthwith began a more or less thorough canvass of the County to learn if he might not hoar, far off but clearly, the voice of the people calling him to become the republican candidate for county auditor. The voice was not heard, to even the most limited extent, and behold, Mr. Adams is a political prohibitionist, “after the straitest of his sect”—except perhapsforalittlequietwork now and again for his brother-in-law, Wm M. Hoover, and one or two other democratic candidates. Wall paper at Kannal’s cheap store '