The Use and Need of the Life of Carrie A. Nation [73]
Yours very truly,
Oakwood, Ills. JACOB F. ILER.
I hope thousands will follow the example of this man. Oh! how
the cry comes in: "I want a place in your Home. My husband or son
is a drunkard." Help the poor innocent results of the licensed curse.
Persons have often remarked, "How did you feel, when you went
in these places. Imagine a burning house, a frantic mother, for her heart
treasures, her babes, are in that building. She hears their cries, she sees
their little arms, waving behind the closed window, amid the smoke
that soon will be a flame. She seizes an axe or hatchet near at hand,
with which she breaks open door or window to let her darlings escape.
Is there a mother in all the land that would not act thus? The mighty
ocean, in its anger is lashing a frail vessel, storm tossed, the captain
orders the cannon to boom! boom! boom! arousing and calling for help
to save the crew. We amputate the diseased limb with a knife, we pull
the aching tooth with an instrument of steel. "Why? In order to save.
Just so, the people are asleep, while our precious ones are in danger of
being engulfed in ruin. The smashing is a danger signal, and I kept
it up, to prevent the people from relaxing into indifference, just as a
frantic, living mother would think only of the salvation of those she
loved.
AN APPEAL TO THE NATIONAL PROHIBITION COMMITTEE TO CONCENTRATE THE
FORCES IN KANSAS.
(Emmett L. Nichols, Wilkesbarre, Pa.)
It is a fact beyond dispute, that wherever prohibition is carried in a
state, the liquor dealers' association of the nation in a menacing manner
demands the dominant party in such state that she sees to it that liquor
is allowed to be sold in enough places, at least, to make it appear that
prohibition is a failure, they knowing that the people once made to see
the beneficial effects of prohibition will adopt it generally, as the true
solution of the liquor question, as it really is, all other methods having
been proven to be absolute failures. The politicians fearing the influence
of the power of rum, organized as it is, for self defense yield to the
demands of liquorocracy. Mrs. Carrie Nation has shown this to be the
true state of affairs in Kansas in her hatchet raid upon the joints of that
state. She has shown up to public ridicule the officials of that state, in
different places, in demonstrating the fact that they not only refuse to
enforce the prohibition law, but screen and protect the violators thereof,
and arrest any citizen who attempts to perform the duty which they were
sworn to perform. This state of affairs is most exasperating to every
lover of country. I contend that Mrs. Nation's hatchet has been the
means of bringing about the most critical period of the prohibition reform
movement in its history. It has laid open before the world the fact that
prohibition does not prohibit in certain portions of Kansas, simply because
public officials in violation of their oath of office will to have it so. Now
I further contend that unless these officials are forced to prohibit in
Kansas, prohibition will eventually be repealed in that state, and the way
thereby made all the more difficult for the triumph of the truth if the
officials of Kansas are allowed to continue their work of perfidy in refusing
to enforce the prohibition laws there, prohibition will not only be
repealed in that state, but the securing of national prohibition by peaceful
means will be an impossibility. Viewing the conditions in Kansas
as I do, I am moved to make this appeal to the National Committee of
the prohibition party to concentrate its forces in that state, with the view
of arousing sufficient sentiment among the people there to drive every
"joint" from within her borders. "On to Kansas" should be the battle
cry of the prohibitionists of the nation. It is more important that
the will of the sovereign power in Kansas be enforced in the matter of
prohibition than it was on the principle of the squatter sovereignty there
Oakwood, Ills. JACOB F. ILER.
I hope thousands will follow the example of this man. Oh! how
the cry comes in: "I want a place in your Home. My husband or son
is a drunkard." Help the poor innocent results of the licensed curse.
Persons have often remarked, "How did you feel, when you went
in these places. Imagine a burning house, a frantic mother, for her heart
treasures, her babes, are in that building. She hears their cries, she sees
their little arms, waving behind the closed window, amid the smoke
that soon will be a flame. She seizes an axe or hatchet near at hand,
with which she breaks open door or window to let her darlings escape.
Is there a mother in all the land that would not act thus? The mighty
ocean, in its anger is lashing a frail vessel, storm tossed, the captain
orders the cannon to boom! boom! boom! arousing and calling for help
to save the crew. We amputate the diseased limb with a knife, we pull
the aching tooth with an instrument of steel. "Why? In order to save.
Just so, the people are asleep, while our precious ones are in danger of
being engulfed in ruin. The smashing is a danger signal, and I kept
it up, to prevent the people from relaxing into indifference, just as a
frantic, living mother would think only of the salvation of those she
loved.
AN APPEAL TO THE NATIONAL PROHIBITION COMMITTEE TO CONCENTRATE THE
FORCES IN KANSAS.
(Emmett L. Nichols, Wilkesbarre, Pa.)
It is a fact beyond dispute, that wherever prohibition is carried in a
state, the liquor dealers' association of the nation in a menacing manner
demands the dominant party in such state that she sees to it that liquor
is allowed to be sold in enough places, at least, to make it appear that
prohibition is a failure, they knowing that the people once made to see
the beneficial effects of prohibition will adopt it generally, as the true
solution of the liquor question, as it really is, all other methods having
been proven to be absolute failures. The politicians fearing the influence
of the power of rum, organized as it is, for self defense yield to the
demands of liquorocracy. Mrs. Carrie Nation has shown this to be the
true state of affairs in Kansas in her hatchet raid upon the joints of that
state. She has shown up to public ridicule the officials of that state, in
different places, in demonstrating the fact that they not only refuse to
enforce the prohibition law, but screen and protect the violators thereof,
and arrest any citizen who attempts to perform the duty which they were
sworn to perform. This state of affairs is most exasperating to every
lover of country. I contend that Mrs. Nation's hatchet has been the
means of bringing about the most critical period of the prohibition reform
movement in its history. It has laid open before the world the fact that
prohibition does not prohibit in certain portions of Kansas, simply because
public officials in violation of their oath of office will to have it so. Now
I further contend that unless these officials are forced to prohibit in
Kansas, prohibition will eventually be repealed in that state, and the way
thereby made all the more difficult for the triumph of the truth if the
officials of Kansas are allowed to continue their work of perfidy in refusing
to enforce the prohibition laws there, prohibition will not only be
repealed in that state, but the securing of national prohibition by peaceful
means will be an impossibility. Viewing the conditions in Kansas
as I do, I am moved to make this appeal to the National Committee of
the prohibition party to concentrate its forces in that state, with the view
of arousing sufficient sentiment among the people there to drive every
"joint" from within her borders. "On to Kansas" should be the battle
cry of the prohibitionists of the nation. It is more important that
the will of the sovereign power in Kansas be enforced in the matter of
prohibition than it was on the principle of the squatter sovereignty there