Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1889 — STATE TEMPERANCE MEETING [ARTICLE]

STATE TEMPERANCE MEETING

Three hundred delegates attended >■ toiiiperanCe -.fon at Indlauapoli.® Wednesday aud Thursday. Committeefl| Pres J dent, D. C. Woolport, Warsaw; secretar T. A. Goodwin, Indianapolis; assistaqHj secretary, H. M Middleton, Crawford®! ville; vice presidents, Frank de Souchet« the Rev. Mr. Van Dyke. C. E. Line, R. Em Whiteman, Josenh A’len, John Morris, £■ F. Ritter, Allen’ Lewis, L. M. Crist, J. AW Maxwell, T. M. McWhinney, Leslie jfl Naftzger, Ncah Harper. The call state the object of the meeting to be to consuLW as to the best method of procuiS ing prohibition, State and national, an« pending the success of this movement how® best to secure and enforce such laws asß shall tend to the closing of Che saloon, buM in no case to form, or aid, or assail any poH litical party as such. Gen. Sam F. Carey fl of Ohio, delivered an address Wednesdafl evening. I Tharaday’s session opened with devoß tional exercises. Dr. Goodwin read itfl majority report on the plan of organizafl tion, in substance, as follows: I 1. The basis of organization should nofl be the extreme view of any man or set ofl men. Radical views should be abanfl doned. United work is necessary. ■ 3. Anything to meet the exigencies of ■ the case must contemplate permanency fl The liquor traffic will be hard to kill. fl 3. The organization must have moneyfl at its command, if it overcomes the millfl ions at the comand of the saloons. s 4. The organization must not only con-fl template the enactment of better laws, fl but the enforcement of them. . ---fl 5. This fight must be carried into poli-fl tics, but need not ally itself with any par-fl ticular party. The liquor interests knowfl no especial party. This organization mustfl meet tho enemy wherever it works, andfl its influence must be upon men, not parties, fl 6. Compact organization is necessary, fl A handful of people by that now carry the fl State for the liquor interests, ; fl 7. Children must be educated, and the fl people as well, by means of speeches and fl literature. One essential is a good weekly fl paper which is neither too liberal noifl fanatical. John T. Woodward,of Parke county,read ■ the report of the minority of the committee, fl It is said that as there are already sever- ■ al temperance organizations in the State, ■ it would be unwise to form another, but a that this convention should only pledge its ■ support to societies already existing,name- ■ ly.-the Indiana Phohibitlon League, the ■ State Temperance Christian Union and I the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, I A long, heated discussion here ensued, and I it was decided to hear the Committee on.| Resolutions before tackling the two reports-3 read. Dr. M. M. Parkhurst, of Greencas- 1 tie, was chairman of tho Resolution Cbm-■ mittee, and before reading he announced 1 the report had been prayerfully prepared I and was unanimous. (Vociferous ap- I plause.) The article set out with the usual praam. I ble, and the resolutions in substance wertf I that the members of the convention would I use their moral power and authority against I the saloon; that they would renounce all I all allegiance to organizations which | countenance saloons; that pending the I coming of prohibition such laws as are or I may be made should have their support I and that the gospel temperance phase of I the question should be pressed upon the I people. At first a flood of sentiment in favor I es the resolutions swept over the audience There was an enthusiasm which could only find expression in hand shaking and a hymn. Dr. Goodwin said he regarded tho report as grand and almost inspired.* When the confusion had subsideda few men began to analyze the resolutions and to think may be they were not quite what^ been. John T. Woodward, the Quaker temperannee mani from Bloomingdale, said he wanted to see. some such resolution as, “We are unalterably and always opposed to licensing an-, loons.” He was not willing to go beferei his God and his people with thia compromise with the saloons resting upon him. Captain E. F. Ritter said the resolutions, were all that God or man would ask. Ha helped compose them and ought to now.! The committees, he said, had been oareful to introduce nothing that could cause friction. Dr. Ryland T. Brown stood up and* refused to be suppressed by overwhelmingcries of “question) question I” When al faint semblance of order was restored, he| intimated that the resolutions were spine-! less, and missed the points which they! should have made strongest. J. G. Kings-! bury offered an amendment pledging toe members of the convention to support no man or party not openly and boldly in favor of State and National Prohibition, but he couldn’t get it adopted and it was. referred to the Committee en Resolutions. Tho report was finally adopted as first read. The two reports on the plan es organize * tion, after a long, heated and at times acrimonious debate were re tarred back to tor committee to be harmonized. The convention then adjenrned to meet at some future time. Many were the oxpresflons of dissatisfaction and disgust which were heard as tho crowd want out. The third party Prohibitionists were freely charged with having packed the con ven tion to obstruct its action, and toe general sentiment teemed to be that the meeting had failed in seme of the principal objects for which it was called together. The belief that the committee will fail to agree and that the convention will novar be called together again was not without fre quent expression. The joint committee met immediately and adopted the following resolutions : Resolved, That the organization shall bo called toe Christian Temperance Alliance of Indiana. Resolved, That toe following members of this committee, living in Indianapolis,* shall constitute a lecture bureau, whose Indorsement, as to fitness ami abUlly shall be necessary to the employment of any one as lecturer or organizer under this organization: Eli F- Ritter, T. A. Goodwin, W. J. Beckett, A. Jones, J. A. Roadtoaler and C. A. Van Anda.' Resolved. That each member of the joint oommittoo be constituted an organiser ofi alliances in his coagresaional district, and t..at he shall seek to organize an alliance, on the basis of the r esoiutn»us adopted by toe convention, in every county in the district. 1 Resolved, That the lecture bureau bo requested to formulate the work tar tee organization of oounty alliances. I Resolved, That the executive semmittes shall consist es the lecture bureau aad the president of tee joint committee, and U shall have power to call a meeting of ths jointoommittee whenever, la Ito yietT-r the exlgenchss damaiA —