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Show COLD WATER PARTY fifty OLD Was Organized for National Political Po-litical Action in 1869. FIRST POLLED 5,607 VOTES John P. St. John's Stirring Campaign of 1884 Great Work of Miss Wii-lard Wii-lard and the W. C. T. U. in Suppressing Intemperance. Final triumph for its cause came to the national Prohibition party almost ; at the time of its golden jubilee, It i came into existence fifty years ago j next September in Farwell hall, Chicago, Chi-cago, by the act of a convention of about 500 delegates representing 19 states. For several years the formation of such a party had been discussed because be-cause the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties had virtually ignored the advocates of prohibition. The Good Templars, organized in 1851 as a society of total abstainers, urgi 1 such action, and other leaders believed it necessary. At a state temperance convention held in Pennsylvania in 1S67 the plan was first publicly broached, broach-ed, and two years later on May 29, 1809, the call for the Chicago convention conven-tion was put out by the grand lodge of the Good Templars in session at Oswego, Os-wego, N. Y. A committee to formulate the plans was named, conprising John Russell, Detroit; J. A. Spencer, Cleveland, Cleve-land, O. ; James Black, Lancaster, Pa.; John N. Stearns, New York, and Daniel Dan-iel Wilkins, Bloomington, 111. The convention con-vention called by this committee or ganized the party on September 1, adopted a platform and appointed a national committee of which John Russell Rus-sell was chairman. First National Ticket. Nearly three years later, on Wash-ingtoa's Wash-ingtoa's birthday, 1872, the new party met in convention in Columbus, O., to place a national ticket in the field. James Black was nominated for president presi-dent and John Russell for vice president. presi-dent. Mr. Black was a prominent Good Templar and also was one of the founders of the National Temperance Society and Publication house and of the Camp Meeting association at Ocean Grove, N. J. Mr. Russell, also a leader of the Good Templars and a Methodist minister, was known as the father of the Prohibition party, for he published a newspaper, the Peninsular Herald, which led the way in advocating advocat-ing the organization of the party for political action. With all their devotion to the cause, the Prohibition leaders had no hope of success in the election of 1872, and they were not disappointed. Their ticket received only 5,607 votes. This did not discourage them, and four years later they put Green Clay Smith of Kentucky and Gideon T. Stewart on the ticket. These gentlemen received re-ceived 9,737 votes.5 General Neal Dow of Maine, who had gained fame as the author of the Maine Prohibition law, was the next presidential candidate, in 1S80, with H. A. Thompson in second sec-ond place on the ticket. They polled only 10,366 votes. St. John's Hot Campaign. When the plans were being laid for the campaign of 1S84, Frances E. Wil-lard Wil-lard and her fellow workers of the W. C. T. U. entered the field. They sent to the Republican convention a great petition asking that consideration be given the pleas of the temperance advocates, ad-vocates, but it was ignored and even thrown into the dirt on. the floor, and Miss Willard promptly turned to the Prohibition party. Her help was welcomed wel-comed and John P. St. John of Kansas Kan-sas was put at the head of the cold water ticket. Already he was a notable nota-ble figure, for he had fought in the I , " ' j ' i Frances E. Willard. Civil war as lieutenant colonel of the 143d regiment of Illinois volunteers and later served two terms as governor gover-nor of Kansas, lie was a Republican, but his party thought him too warm a friend of the prohibitionists and he was defeated for re-election in 182. Accepting the Prohibition nomination, he went into the campaign with all his vigor and delivered stirring speeches all over the country, especially espe-cially paying attention to New York state, where the fight between James G. Blaine and Grover Cleveland had made things very warm. St. John was out to beat the Republicans, and he succeeded, for the Prohibition vote was large enough to let Cleveland win New York sraie and. in consequence, the nation. The Prohibitionists polled the surprisingly large vote of 150,626. That-the 'Republicans credited them with giving victory to the Democrats was proved by the fact that in more than a hundred cities St. John was burned in effigy. The Prohibition convention of 1890 split the party over woman suffrage and money. The "free silver" minority minor-ity formed a Liberal party, with Bent-ley Bent-ley of Nebraska and Southgate of Illinois as its standard-bearers. They polled about 13,000 votes. The feature of the Prohibition campaign cam-paign of 1000 was a tour of the country coun-try by the candidates and a corps of IS" 1 "J'W v V. Francis Murphy. speakers by special train. In 1912 the Prohibition convention renominated renom-inated the candidates of 1908. Results in Later Years. . The candidates since 1SS4 and their vote are as follows : ! 1SS8, Clinton B: Fisk, New Jersey, and J. A. Brooks,' 'Missouri, 249,945 votes. 1892, John Bidwell, California, and J. B. Cranfill, Texas, 270,710 votes. 1S96, Joshua Levering, Maryland, and Hale Johnson, Illinois, 130,753 votes. 1900, John G. Woolley, Illinois, and H. B. Metcalf, Rhode Island, '209,469 votes. ' 1904, S. C. Swallow, Pennsylvania, and George B. Carroll, Texas, 258,205 votes. 1905, Eugene W. Chnfin, Illinois, and Aaron S. Watkins, Ohio, 253,231 votes. 1912, Eugene W. Chafin, Arizona, and Aaron S. Watkins, Ohio, 208,923 votes. .1916, J. Frank Hanley, Indiana, and Dr. Ira Landrith, Tennessee, 214,340 votes. .Women Prominent in the Fight. For many years the women have been prominent in the prohibition movement, for the evils of intemperance intemper-ance bore heavily on their sex. To them must be given a very large share in the credit for the success of the fight. They started it publicly on a large scale in 1873 in Ohio with a crusade cru-sade to pray the saloons out of existence. exist-ence. This movement,- inaugurated by a little lit-tle band of women who held prayer meetings in saloons when permitted and on the pavements outside when not allowed to enter, spread like wildfire wild-fire throughout the nation, and was denominated by the press a "whirlwind from the Lord." Many saloons were swept out of existence, but it soon became be-came evident that prayer must be accompanied ac-companied by action if they would prevent pre-vent the return or the re-opening of the saloons once closed. The call for organization was issued from Chautauqua, N. Y., in August, 1S74. The convention was held in Cleveland, O., November 1S-20, 1S74, and at that meeting there was organized organ-ized the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Delegates were present iioiu jl j Mines. The plan of work was presented by Frances E. Willard and . most of the thoughts embodied in the plan were later worked out in the W. C. T. U. At this convention Miss Willard offered of-fered also the famous resolution : "Resolved, "Re-solved, That recognizing the fact that our cause is, and will be, combated by mighty, determined and relentless forces, we will, trusting in him who Is the Prince of Peace, meet argument with argument, misjudgment with patience, pa-tience, denunciation with kindness, and all our difficulties and dangers with prayer." Pursued Many Roads to Its Goal. From its very earliest years the W. C. T. U. sought out a variety of avenues ave-nues through which the children of the nation might be educated in the principles prin-ciples of total abstinence and the adult won for the absolute prohibition of the liquor traffic. Out of the juvenile j work grew the Loyal Temperance Legion, Le-gion, for the children, and the Youn-Peoples' Youn-Peoples' branch for the young men and women. Later the children were enrolled en-rolled as "Young Campaigners for Prohibition." Over forty departments were organized, organ-ized, and carried on to some degree in every state and territory, and in from ten" to twenty thousand local unions. Among these were: Temperance work in Sunday schools, which, with scientific scien-tific temperance instruction in public schools, brought practically all the children in the nation in touch with temperance truth; medical temperance; temper-ance; mothers' meetings; flower mission mis-sion and relief; equal suffrage; moral education and race betterment ; oratorical oratori-cal and declamatory medical contests; Christian citizenshin, and child welfare, wel-fare, i |
