238 AMERICAN FARMS. 



for its life and vigor ; though it is not difficult to obtain 

 data to prove that the backbone of organized temperance 

 reform is with the rural classes, while it is little less 

 difficult to discover that organized opposition to this 

 work has its chief strength with the urban classes. 



To-day with the vast city vote against the country, the 

 country majority is handicapped by the city majority, 

 whatever it may wish to do in order to stay the tide of 

 intemperance. The great temperance reforms of the 

 past have been principally fought out in the country 

 towns. To carry on this warfare successfully must 

 become more and more difficult, as the cities grow while 

 the country stands still. 



Remarks Mr. Strong : " Our cities are growing much 

 more rapidly than the whole population, as is the liquor 

 power also." After which he propounds the query : "If 

 this power continues to keep the cities under its heel, 

 what of the nation, when the city dominates the country ? " 

 New York is now practically ruled by the liquor inter- 

 ests, but New York is not alone in this by any means. 



There are no more active workers in our political 

 caucuses than the city and town dealers, manufacturers 

 and promoters of this degrading and destructive traffic. 

 These men spend vast amounts at every election to 

 corrupt voters. And thousands of dollars are put up at 

 every session of our legislatures, to buy up legislators for 

 the purpose of keeping open this highway to destruction. 



It is not the farmers of America who desire the growth 

 of this evil, or who crave its exhilarating effects. And, 

 be they prohibitionists or moral-suasionists, they have 

 little desire to see the accumulation of revenue through 

 the sale of privileges to import, to manufacture, or dis- 

 pense that which debases, enslaves, and pauperizes so 



