violated, and only proceed upon indisputable evidence. Having begun the war, there should be no compromise, and nothing less than submission should stop the attack.

The law and order leagues have the same right to exist, and are founded upon the same general principles as are all other societies which are formed to uphold particular laws. The societies for the protection of children or of animals stand upon the same ground. The associations formed to secure the enforcement of the laws for the protection of fish and game exist by the same right, and no other, as the law and order leagues.

Many leagues have found it impossible to influence the public officers to a faithful performance of their duties, and have then availed themselves of the right which all private citizens have, to institute proceedings in the criminal courts against the law-breakers. Leagues which are obliged to enter upon the work of prosecuting must avail themselves of some means of securing the necessary evidence that crime has been committed. Violations of liquor laws and other similar offences are committed more or less secretly. It, therefore, becomes necessary to resort to the use of detectives. There has been a great hue and cry raised against the agents employed by law and order leagues, and many good people have listened to, and been influenced by, the clamor and abuse raised against such agents by the law-breakers. As the executive officer of the Massachusetts League, I have employed and directed a force of these detectives for nine years. During that time I have had men assaulted many times with deadly weapons; I have seen abuse, vituperation, and epithets of all kinds heaped upon their devoted heads; and mine has come in for its full share for employing persons to secure the necessary evidence to convict men whom everybody knew were violating the law by selling intoxicating liquor to children, disobeying the Sunday law, or selling in no-license towns.

But, after nine years' experience, I know of no better way. I believe it necessary to employ detectives if we wish to have our liquor laws enforced. But this method must be carefully guarded. Great care must always be taken to secure honest, incorruptible men; and they should always be employed upon terms which make it easy for them to do right and hard for them to do wrong. We use detectives to hunt all other classes of criminals, and I believe that the methods which the courts and the people approve in other cases are good enough, and none too good, to be used to hunt the persons who are corrupting and destroying our children, desecrating our Sabbath, and constantly committing violations of law which are spreading misery, pauperism, and crime broadcast over the land.

It should always be remembered that the cases of the law and order leagues are tried in the courts, and that the judge and jury must pass upon the evidence and the manner in which it was obtained. If we can satisfy the courts, I feel that our friends and supporters should also be satisfied. We have always made it a rule not to prosecute any person for a sale made to an agent of a law and order league, because it may well be claimed that the purchaser furnishes the opportunity for the commission of the offence, and may have persuaded and induced the seller to make the sale, and is therefore morally particeps criminis, although not legally so.

I should be glad to extend this article, and to give in detail the known

results of the work of several of the prominent leagues, but I have already exceeded the space allowed me, and therefore ask those who would know more of the law and order leagues to subscribe for Lend a Hand, edited by Rev. Edward E. Hale, D.D., which is now the official organ of the International League.

Hon. Charles Carroll Bonney, one of the leading members of the Chicago bar, is President of the International League, and letters addressed to him or to the writer will receive prompt attention.

50 BROMFIELD STREET, BOSTON, MASS., July 1, 1891.

CITIZENS' PROHIBITORY LEAGUES.

BY A. J. KYNETT, D.D., LL.D

IN the great and prolonged war on the saloon now in progress, a closer alliance of all citizens who would suppress it is an immediate and urgent necessity. Ballots are as indispensable on this field of conflict as were bullets at Waterloo or Gettysburg. The ballot is

"A weapon that comes down as still

As snow-flakes fall upon the sod;

But executes a freeman's will,

As lightning does the will of God."

But ballots will be as ineffective as melting snow-flakes unless their quality be preserved, and they are packed one upon another in a congenial political atmosphere with thoughtful and inflexible purpose; as innocent as sheetlightning playing across the face of distant clouds, unless gathered and concentrated for a chosen end. For the suppression of the saloon any other weapon is as irrelevant and useless as Mrs. Fessenden's housewife polishing piano-keys in the parlor to drive pestilential rats out of the pantry. This lightning to be effective must be unchained by an instinct of righteousness, and converted into thunder-bolts which will strike the right place at the right time. This is possible only through a closer alliance of independent and patriotic voters, with lines co-extensive with and facing those of the liquor power.

The first movement toward such an alliance must be at suitable local centres, the organization of Citizens' Prohibitory Leagues, under a plan for an alliance of all who shall agree upon the common object, however differing in reference to other questions. Important as is the suppression of the saloon, it must be conceded that there are other questions of public policy of great moment, and thousands of our fellow-citizens, who agree that the saloon should be suppressed, have strong convictions on opposite sides of these other questions. Such are questions entailed by the war, involving sectional differences between the North and the South; questions of suffrage: "an honest vote and a fair count"; questions arising out of the relations of capital and labor, involving manifold industries; questions of revenue, involving tariff and free trade; and above all, questions of party control of the government, State and National, involving immense political patronage. Under these conditions it is idle to expect citizens in any considerable number to ignore all other questions and unite in a separate political party in order to secure the suppression of the saloon. We may and do accord the primacy to this question, but we cannot persuade a majority to do so. This, in our opinion, explains the failure of the Prohibition party, after more than twenty years of honest and earnest effort by the best of men, to enlist one out of every ten who have otherwise evinced earnest opposition to the liquor power. In

seeking a basis of alliance for political action against the saloon, we must, therefore, provide for honest and earnest differences of opinion on all other questions. No better reason has yet been shown why a Republican or Dem. ocratic citizen should sacrifice his political affiliations and opinions on other questions, than why a Catholic or Protestant, a Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist or other Christian citizen, should sacrifice his religious beliefs and fellowships for a like purpose.

We have no petty schemes or favorite names, but the general plan of the Union Prohibitory League of Pennsylvania seems to us better adapted to the ends sought than any other thus far proposed. It is simple but comprehensive and adapted to the various conditions under which the question must be met in every State and Territory of the Union. It is briefly this: "OBJECT: THE SUPPRESSION OF THE SALOON. This by

"1. The strict enforcement of the suppressive measures of existing laws

LAW AND ORDER.

"2. The early enactment of more stringent and prohibitory statutes—

PROGRESS.

"3. The final adoption of Constitutional Prohibition for State and Nation

-STABILITY.

"DECLARATION: 1. PRIMARY ALLEGIANCE TO GOD AND HUMANITY, TO COUNTRY AND COMMONWEALTH. All party affiliations are subordinate to these higher claims.

"2. Liberty to choose political associations, but freedom from the dominion of the liquor power, through whatever political party. THE SALOON

MUST GO.

"Here we stand, and will organize and seek alliances, offensive and defensive, with all who will stand with us."

During the campaign for Constitutional Prohibition in Pennsylvania, several thousand names were enrolled on this platform. A few local and county organizations were formed, and a State organization, at first provisional and afterward permanent by convention, was effected. Owing to the lapse of public interest, lack of funds, and the absence of special occasion for action, but little beyond this has been done. The plan is before the public, and the league continues to urge local organizations, in churches and elsewhere, as opportunity may offer. In a few churches the plan has been considered, received with favor, and organizations formed. One church in Massachusetts, having 175 voters, carefully inquired through committee, called a special meeting, and, with fifty voters present, unanimously adopted this plan and organized for work. We see no good reason why every church should not at least extend hospitality to this movement and provide for similar organization.

The remarkable movement in Camden County, New Jersey, resulting in a similar organization to suppress gambling and illicit liquor selling, proceeded on the same general principles, and has now a powerful Law and Order Society, able to prosecute successful war upon the evils that have so long disgraced that county and State, and recent events prove that here, as elsewhere, a permanent and powerful organization is required.

The mode of procedure in effecting such organization for the prosecution of successful war against the saloon was exemplified in the organization of

the Union army, thirty years ago. When it became manifest that the slave power would yield only at the end of overwhelming defeat by a victorious Union army, the sound of the fife and drum was heard in every neighborhood. Citizens of all forms of political and religious belief rallied under the banner of freedom. They were enrolled in companies, organized and officered, and speedily consolidated into regiments, brigades, divisions, and army corps. The enemy was encountered on his chosen fields, and defeated by land and sea. Union forces swept away all obstructions from the Mississippi, captured the strongholds of the enemy, marched from Atlanta to the sea, invested the Confederate Capitol, and compelled surrender at Appomattox. The doom of slavery was sealed forever. Resulting questions have been dealt with as varying conditions have required. Liberty has been "proclaimed throughout all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof," and the flag of the Union is everywhere honored and respected. None are so poor and mean as to honor the memory of slavery. It is outlawed throughout the world.

The time has fully come for a similar movement against the liquor power. Its insolent and insatiable demands are equalled in history only by those of slavery. Let our citizens be summoned to local, county, State, and National organization, without respect to party or creed, for successful warfare by ballots that shall strike the enemy wherever found and drive him forever from our fair heritage.

Our plan for Citizens' Prohibitory Leagues has many and great advantages:

1. It invites the co-operation of all who would enlist for this war, without respect to parties or sects. It leaves an equally open field for every existing or possible political party to pursue its chosen policy and aims with no interference from our leagues, provided only that no party shall be approved in protecting and perpetuating the saloon. It does not disturb the religious opinions or affiliations of any who may join in this movement. Like the Society of Christian Endeavor, church leagues may be under the general direction of each pastor and local church, and serve the general purposes of a temperance organization.

2. It is adapted to existing conditions, and provides for the immediate want in every community; and by alliance of local leagues for a general organization in every State, and in the country at large. The enforcement of existing laws, the enactment of more stringent laws, the final adoption of Prohibition for State and Nation, or Progressive Prohibition, are ends to be sought everywhere, immediately, continuously, persistently. Everywhere the Saloon stands over against the Church. It defies the law, cries out against restraint, and demands liberty and license to continue, unhindered, its destructive work. They all combine to subsidize the press, to corrupt public sentiment, control legislation, obstruct the enforcement of law, and by infernal skill rule or ruin the party of the majority in the State and nation. Good citizens must combine against the combined power of the saloon, and meet it face to face on its chosen fields. If they always unite to control the party of the majority, and we unite in any party of the minority, it requires no prophet to foretell the results of the conflict. Through Citizens' Leagues we may everywhere contend for the power which rules.

3. It makes available individuals and existing organizations already favor