1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1511 



lyA.I.ROOT 



Righteousness exaltetli a nation; but sin is a re- 

 proach to any peoi^le. — Prov. 14:34. 



J. have several times expressed my admi- 

 ration for Hon. J. Frank Hanly, Governor of 

 Indiana. 1 heard him speak first at the Na- 

 tional Anti-saloon League convention at In- 

 dianapolis, and a year later at Columbus, 

 O., and also at our Chautauqua convention 

 at Chippewa Lake, in our own county. I 

 think I remarked to a friend after hearing 

 his first speech that 1 should like to see Mr. 

 Hanly elected to the presidency of the Unit- 

 ed States; and every time I have heard him 

 since then I have felt more impressed that 

 he was just the man we want for our chief 

 magistrate. When I expressed my views to 

 Dr. Howard Russell he said he had faith to 

 believe the time would come when the people 

 would elect such a man as President of this 

 country. There is a large class of people — 

 yes. Christian people and ministers of the 

 gospel — who think it is not best to come right 

 out into the open, even in regard to the liq- 

 uor-traffic; but, may the Lord be praised, we 

 are just lately finding governors who do not 

 hesitate to speak their convictions right out, 

 without fearing that they may lose the votes 

 of the liquor party. And may the Lord be 

 praised again, that these men do not seem to 

 be losing any votes — at least not on the whole. 

 The men who have broken away, and who 

 have come out fearlessly for their convictions 

 of right and wi'ong, seem to be just now the 

 particul.Hr favorites of the people. 



Now, I have not been able to gather from 

 the papers that have been sent me that any- 

 body else feels very strongly just as I do 

 about Governor Hanly. Very likely our 

 great politicians would smile at my sugges- 

 tions if they deign to notice me at all. Our 

 political giants, or at least those who thought 

 themselves giants a while ago, are beginning 

 to recognize that there are Davids in the camp; 

 and who knows but God may, in his infi- 

 nite wisdom, see fit to make use of the little 

 pebble that I have thrown out in the way of 

 a suggestion, even as he blessed the young 

 shepherd David when he took a pebble out 

 of the brook, and with the simple shepherd's 

 sling (I might almost say a boy's plaything) 

 brought down the great giant who was de- 

 fying God's army? These political giants of 

 whom I have been speaking laughed, and in- 

 dulged in great glee over the matter when 

 the Anti-saloon League was started; but now 

 see what havoc it is making throughout our 

 land. If you do not know Governor Hanly 

 you can get a glimpse of the man by reading 

 a portion of one of his speeches to a body of 

 ministers in Chicago. I wish our space would 

 permit me to give the whole of that great 



talk; but I will clip only a part of it from an 

 issue of the Home Herald. See if you do 

 not think as I do after you have read it. 



The domain to be fought for is this republic— its 

 manhood, its womanhood, its childhood, its institu- 

 tions, its institutions founded with tears and sacri- 

 fice; institutions loved by the fathers and revered by 

 the sons; institutions for which men have died, fond- 

 ly dreaming they were dying to perpetuate them to 

 the last generation; but the trophy to be struggled 

 for is the stainless flag, the banner of the free. 



The foe is the organized liquor-trafflc of America. 

 It is an enemy worth while. It has great wealth. It 

 is resourceful. It touches the financial interests of 

 many men. It is desperate. It observes no law, hu- 

 man or divine. It violates legislative enactments. 

 The rules of civilized warfare are to it a meaningless 

 jingle of idle words. Its banner is a black flag. It is 

 an outlaw. Its god is mammon. It has no religion 

 but the greed of gain— no love, no pity. It debauches 

 the best citizenship of town and country. For money 

 it spoils the finest of womanhood. It invades the 

 family circle, overturns the house, and breaks asun- 

 der the dearest ties that Heaven ever made. The 

 Christian church of America must meet it or run 

 away. But it will not run away. It must stay and it 

 must fight, and it will stay; it will stay, and it will 

 fight, not ''The but a hundred battles. Hear me! If it 

 fights it will need men — men of moral fiber, of sound 

 judgment, and of inflexible purpose — men whom the 

 lust of office will not kill— men who have honor— men 

 who will not lie. The church can win, but it must 

 collect and organize its forces, and bring to bear eve- 

 ry influence it possesses; and these must be wisely 

 directed— patience must be exercised. The church 

 must be persistent. The field is too wide and too 

 well defended to be captured by a single charge. It 

 can be won only a little at a time. There are citadels 

 that can not be carried by storm at all; and because 

 these strongholds can not be taken by assault, the 

 church must not refuse to take and hold every point 

 of vantage it may acquire. Every inch of ground is 

 worth while in this contest. Territory won must be 

 garrisoned and held. The church must educate. It 

 must create and keep alive public sentiment. It must 

 lay bare the economic waste and weakness of the 

 traffic- its harm to the public, its injury to industry 

 and enterprise; its awful strain on every vital force of 

 the nation, while the ultimate extinction of the traf- 

 fic must be the goal toward which it struggles. It 

 must not refuse to regulate and restrict and control ; 

 for every restriction, every successful effort for con- 

 trol, means added strength and new adherents. As 

 for myself, I have seen so much of its economic 

 waste, so much of broken-down manhood, so much 

 heartache of the child, and the ruin that the traffic 

 entails upon the home and commonwealth, that I am 

 prepared to strike it anywhere and everywhere when 

 an opportunity presents, in public or in private life. 

 For three years I have witnessed an unending proces- 

 sion of women, mothers, daughters, and wives, com- 

 ing with broken hearts and in tears to the executive 

 chamber to plead for clemency for loved ones who 

 have transgressed the law, and whose liberty the 

 State has taken away. I have read hundreds of crim- 

 inal records in my hotel, in my home, in the executive 

 office, and in railway trains ; and in eighty-five per 

 cent of the cases the cause can be traced to the exces- 

 sive use of intoxicating liquors. I was opposed to 

 the traffic before I took the oath of office ; but after 

 three years of close observation of the fruits of the 

 traffic I am prepared to state that all I have, all I am, 

 is ready for the task that lies before me. I am pre- 

 pared to give unqualified approval to any measure 

 looking to the further restriction of the traffic, which 

 I believe to be within constitutional limitations. It 

 was this feeling tha.t impelled me last week, in a pub- 

 lic address in Indiana, to pledge my influence and 

 whatever ability I may have to secure an enactment 

 of a remonstrance law that will make the city and the 

 county the unit of remonstrance. It was this that 

 impelled me to say in an address at Columbus, Ohio, 

 not long ago, that whatever influence and ability I 

 could spare to them would be given in their contest in 

 Ohio for a county local-option law, and it is that 

 which impels me here and now to make the same 

 promise to you. The principles involved in the right 

 of remonstrance by the voters of a township and city 

 ward are entirely sound. Tne principle is in keeping 

 with the spirit and genius of our institutions. This, 

 we know, is the people's government—" a government 

 by the people, of the people, and for the people." 



And there is no more certain right of a free people 



