TEMPERANCE COLUMN. THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENCY.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 61, 14 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

TEMPERANCE COLUMN. THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENCY.

The Consulting Secretary has received the following letter : — 58, Reade-street, New York, 4th Deceihber, 1884. My Dear Mr. Barker, — The cable and our American journals will have given you the general results of our late national electoral contest. Governor Cleveland becomes President of the United States by an extremely small margin, so small that only the most careful and searching official count could determine it. For the first time in nearly a quarter of a century the Democratic party, 'on the 4th of March next, will assume control of the national government. The official returns of the Prohibition Party vote for Governor St. John and Hon. AVilliam Daniel for president and vice-president are not yet fully known, but tho aggregate will not vary much either way from 150,0(70. The St. John vote in the State of New York alone, which proved to be the pivotal State in the great contest, was 25,006. Cleveland's majority over Blame in this State, by which he won the presidency, was but 1141 ! You will naturally query as to the effect of this political change upon tho movement for the prohibition of the liquor traffic. There can be little doubt that, temporarily, the opposition to prohibition will be increased. The National Democratic Convention, which nominated Governor Cleveland for President, made a distinct bid, by resolution, for the saloon vote, as did Cleveland also in his subsequent letter of acceptance. The party, nationally, and the president-elect, therefore stand committed against prohibition. Republicans, naturally enough, are greatly disappointed, and many, from whom better things might be expected, are passionate and unreasoning in their denunciation of the Prohibitionists. St. John has been many times burned in effigy, and in some localities Ministers who spoke and voted for St. John, and other active Prohibitionists, have been subjected to much abuse and petty annoyance and persecution. All this, of course, for the time reacts unfavourable against the work of the National Temperance Society, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and other kindred temperance organisations, and it is not unlikely that from the same cause the various State Legislators, soon to convene, will be averse to any advance action of the present in the way of prohibitory legislation. Many angry prophets of evil have proclaimed that the cause of temperance has been put back at least twentyfive years. Personally, as between Blame and Cleveland, I should have much preferred the election of Blame. I am by no means disposed, however, to accept as my own the gloomy view of the situation. As you in England have appealed long and earnestly to the dominant Liberal party for the legislation you seek for the popular control of the liquor traffic, and thug far have realised more in the way of promises than of performance, that also has been our experience, in the sphere of national temperance legislation, with our Republican party. For a decade, with the Republicans a portion of the time in control of both Houses of Congress, and with a succession of Eopublican Presidents, we have sought in vain for even a national commission of enquiry which involved no technical legislation whatever, but which has been steadily and successfully opposed by the distillers, brewers, and liquor sellers, because they do not want the light turned upon their iniquitous business by the proposed official, impartial investigation. Despite the present angry feeling of many Republicans, the outcome of their defeat, they are quite likely to realise with the " sober second thought" that there is to be a "a day after to-day" in their political career, that large as this country is, it is not large enough for two successful saloon parties, and that their only hope of being again reinstated in power will be an alliance with the prohibition voters of the nation rather than with the saloon interest. I am supported in this view by so good an authority as ex-Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts, who is reported from Washington recently as expressing the belief that very soon the Republican party must take up the question of prohibition in the States more in earnest, and that though the liquor interest will triumph for a time, prohibition must ere long become the leading question in both State and National politics. We shall press with renewed vigour, in this and other States, for the submission to the people of prohibitory constitutional amendments. This work, as you know, is prosecuted, as in Maine, Kansas, lowa, and Ohio, on a non-partizan basis, and is exactly adapted to secure the co-operation of all, irrespective of political party affiliations, who seek the prohibition of the liquor traffic. The late magnificent majority of 47,000 for the prohibitory constitu^ tional amendment in Maine, shows what can thus be accomplished, and will do much to promote kindred efforts in other States. I have read with deep interest the report of the proceedings of your late annual meeting, and congratulate you heartily that, despite business depression and parliamentary delay, the important work of the Alliance is so well sustained. I sympathise with you deeply in tho loss by death of so eloquent and influential a co-worker as Mr. Sullivan, ¦with whom it was my good fortune to meet at the Alliance Anniversary a year ago, and on other occasions both in England and America. I congratulate you that you still retain the added strength which you realised from your American trip, and shall hope and believe that many years of

health and usefulness are yet in store for you. With most cordial greetings, I am, sincerely yours, A. M. PowklL.