"I cannot see, father, that the moral issue is any different. Of the two great evils, intemperance is certainly a greater curse than ever slavery was; for while it has all the pain and heartaches and sorrow of every description that accompanies slavery, the worst feature of it is that hell is filling up with souls that drink their doom when they drain the wine cup. I think I understand myself, father, and I say again, I am an Abolitionist. Bring on some other party platform."
"There are no others but the labor organizations and the 'cranks.'"
"What do the labor people say?"
"They regard intelligence, virtue and temperance, important as they are, as secondary to the great material issues now pressing for solution."
"And the 'cranks,' as you call them?"
"They have no policy, and their politics consists in trying to undo all the temperance legislation they get through other parties because it does not come through theirs. As a political party they are the most fanatical and narrow-minded that history takes account of. Indeed, I doubt not that, in certain instances, their obstinate opposition to men and measures has been little short of criminal. But I will read:
"'We favor the legal prohibition by state and national legislation of the manufacture, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages.'"
"Eureka!" she shouted. "I am not alone. How many others like me?"
"A quarter of a million, I presume," he answered, a trifle grimly.