Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1909 — TEMPERANCE WINS IN FIRST OPTION FIGHT [ARTICLE]

TEMPERANCE WINS IN FIRST OPTION FIGHT

Wabash and Lawrence Counties Vote? «Dry” in Elections Held Under the New Law Tuesday. ■. —~ ■ c ■

The first elections held under the county option law passed by the special session of the legislature were held Tuesday in the counties of Wabash and Lawrence and in both Instances temperance prevailed and the doom of the saloons was sounded by a large majority of the voters. The cities of Bedford and Wabash are affected and in the former 17 saloons that were centered in one ward will be put out of business, and twenty-one saloons in Wabash city will be compelled to close. The majority In Wabash county was 897 and in Lawrence couny it was 1,508. The Sunday school children, ladies of the W. C. T. U. and many men paraded the streets of the cities where the elections were being held and at night a great demonstration was held by the temperance people because of the victory. /■ There was but little disposition on the part of any to carry politics into the fight, that contemplble attitude being reserved for the few who really favor the saloons and tried to hide their real motive behind some assumed political grievance. There was a political fight that affected temperance, but it was settled at the polls in November and persons who are sincere in their temperance views will not be affected by it 2 >2 As stated early last summer the Rensselaer Republican is for the uprooting of the licensed saloon. The republican state platform proclaimed county option and we believe and still believe in it, because we felt certain that it would be the doom of the saloon business da-elmast -ever Jr county of the state. The Anti-Saloon League joined hands with the Republican party and both were defeated at the polls. Not because the people of the state wanted saloons, not because every person that voted for Thomas R. Marshall for governor wanted the saloons reinstated, but because the majority of the democrats believed that the democratic policy of township and ward option was just as much a temperance plank as the republican plank and voted the democratic ticket But the sa-

loon keepers, the brewers and all off the people who opposed the advancer of temperance saw the difference and did vote for Mr. Marshall. The republican party failed because It had adopted a temperance plank in its platform and the Anti-Saloon League failed because it adopted the republican party. This alliance was severe® by the election. • The republican party; is done with temperance planks and the Anti-Saloon League is done with politics. But the individual preference of th#citizen Is not affected if he ishonest and the man who will permit his views on moral matters to be swayed by political bias is a questionable citizen and like the Dutchman’s flee, "when you put your finger on him, he Isn’t there.” The success of the temperance people in the two counties where the elections were held proves that there are but few of the narrow class, and that the voting is on a moral and not ‘ a political question and that democrats, republicans and prohibitionists who are really opposed to the saloons stand shoulder U> shoulder and never give a thought to the differences that divided them during the heat of the past campaign. With the success of the county option vote in Ohio and the early results in this state, the cause of temperance should grow until the licensed saloon is not only a thing, ’ of the past but the manufacture of all distilled liquors Is also prohibited. This is advocated not as a republican measure, because it has so signally , faihg as a rider to a political party. It is advocated as a principle in overthrowing an evil that has grown to threaten the life and happiness of every being a Divine Providence has created. That which no one can uphold and which makes for all the misery of the world deserves the censure of all right thinking people, those who are its victims more than those who are not, and the real temperance advocate should permit nothing toswerve him from the opportunity tor crush the monstrous evil.