The Western Reform Advocate du lieu suivant : Topeka, Kansas • 4

4. (WESTERN REFORM ADVOCATE. CHAS. CROWTHER, Editor. tacking array confident that the God of battles will aid them to bring confusion to the best laid plans of opposing forces.

Many are wavering between the two armies. For or against, is the challenge. Reason and justice demand, that whatever is wrong in our social or political economy should be reconstructed, hence, neutrality is inexcusable. J. L.

HARBOUR, Associate Editor. JAS. A. TROUTMAN, Cor. Editor.

Civil service reform, that pet child of every national political convention, recommended with great show of feeling and interest to each succeeding assembly of our national congress, does not appear to grow very fast. Future generations may realize the blessing of this reform, but it is too much to expect that the people of this generation will live to see that devoutly hoped for consummation. tsbikozial. PERSONAL LIBERTY. Some idea of the genuine alarm with which the liquor dealers of the country view the progress of temperance reform in the west, may be gathered from the fact that at the various conventions held this summer, resolutions expressive of general dismay have been passed, and furthermore, large sums of money voted to prevent temperance legislation in Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, and Indiana.

The acknowledgment is a fatal one for them to make. No amount of money, gentlemen, can purchase real and substantial victory, it may delay defeat, but that is all. The people of these states are determined to break down the consolidated rum power and make the traffic a shame and reproach. TO THE FEIENDS OF BEFOEH. A copy of the Reform ADVOCATE has been forwarded to a large majority of the friends of temperance and other reforms in Kansas, and we have strong hope that the plan and spirit of the enterprise will commend itself to them, and that they will practically aid us in the work we have undertaken.

We ask of those who can do so, to present its claims to their friends and secure subscribers; and those who cannot find time to do this' to put it into the hands of some competent person who will canvass for it. The person who sends the names of ten subscribers for one year, may retain 25 cents on each subscription, remitting to the publisher $1.25 for each name. And when ten names shall be sent; accompanied by $12.50 the person who has secured this, shall have his own paper free for one year. There are many vast evils abroad that need rooting up. The drinking curse is by no means the only one that must be placed under the ban of the law.

brings virtuous liberty to a nation. Men are frequently wrong in their conception of liberty; thus, great crimes have been committed in the name of freedom, and enormous evils are permitted to exist on the ground of personal freedom. It should not be lost sight of by honest opposers of reform, that there is an implied principal of righteousness, as well as of right, lying at the very foundation of human freedom; ignore this and it becomes a monster, a tyrant. There too much selfishness in the modern idea of personal liberty, not enough regard for the happiness and welfare of others. Those who advocate the prohibition of customs and traffic which is directly opposed to the safety, prosperity and tranquility of the state, are branded as fanatics, and no means are spared to confound reformatory measures.

In jurisprudence the personal liberty of one man is not allowed to interfere with the safety and, liberty of another. Such a liberty the liberty to do wrong makes a mockery of law and civilization. The following comments from two of our greatest expounders of the law, are worthy of consideration: Let a man be ever so abandoned in his principles, or vicious in his practice, provided he keeps his wickedness to himself and does not offend against the rules of public decency, he is out of reach of human laws. But if he makes his vices public, though they be such as seem principally to affect himself -as drunken-ness, or the like they then become, by the bad example they set, of pernicious effect to society: and, therefore, it is then the business of human laws to correct them. (1 Blackstone, 124).

The Government may, by general regulations interdict such uses of property as would create nuisances and become dangerous to the lives or health or peace or comfort of citizens. On the general and rational principle that every person ought to use his property as not to injure his neighbors, and that private interest must be made subservient to the general interest of the community. (2 Kent, 340). Whilst this as a principal of right and justice is recognized by modern law, it is at times ignored by modern society, and commerce if such it may be called is permitted and what is worse, licensed, which openly sets every principle and tenet of rational personal liberty at defiance. But, mens ideas upon this question are happily undergoing a transformation, the experience of the past, although bitter, has been instrumental in producing this great change.

The leaders of reform are no longer on the defensive, but are leading overwhelming hosts onward in at This is an age of progress, an age of great reforms, an age of glorious achievements. We see the happy results of triumphant skill and labor on every hand. The broad prairies teeming with moving life and waving with golden grain, the impenetrable forests falling before the mighty strength of the colonizer, the cities, towns and villages growing up with marvelous rapidity; the smoke and roar of vast furnaces, the hum and throb of mighty engines of commerce, all tell the story of progress. Continents bound together with electric bands that record the daily deeds of a nations life. Iron pathways, laid down to bring from their hiding places the accumulated treasures of the ages; boring through mighty mountains, bridging deep chasms, spanning vast rivers, and sweeping on through forest, field and plain until the whole land becomes a net work of iron roads, along which forever thunders the ceaseless rush of life and trade: highways across the face of the great waters, peopled with the steam-sped messengers of the world of commerce; all tell the story of achievement.

Reforms which our fathers of yesterday ranked among the impossibilities have come to pass, and we look forward rapidly to others which shall in their turn revolutionize society. In all lands reformatory influences are at weyk, the masses of the people are awakening from the slumber and ignorance of ages to think, to act, to achieve. Hound up in the fetters of caste, surrounded by the ramifications of wealth and influence, hedged about by the strictures of social tenets, tortured, tormented, kept down, enslaved humanity, sends forth the cry of- the age -give us liberty! and the falling shackles of bondage in one state or realm is heard with startling force 'in another; until the shout of triumph is caught up by continents and from their mountain peaks, hurled across intervening waters and goes echoing around the world. But personal liberty must 1 be achieved, and there is no grander victory gained, than that which Do you think the motto at the head of the first page appropriate? the language is that Of Addison. Remember in all your work, and the boasted freedom of your country, its enslaved millions, slaves of vile habits and degrading, licensed vices.

I used to be an odd-job Christian, said a man in a Liverpool, England, prayer meeting not long ago, but now thank God Im on full-time. There are too many of these odd-job workers in the Reform Army, too many of them in society, too many of them in every department of life. In November next the voters of Nebraska will cast their ballots for or against the woman suffrage amendment in' that state. A vigorous campaign has been entered upon, in which the tried and proven advocates of that reformatory work from all over, the land are taking an active part. This is not so much a question of expedience as it is of right and justice; and he would be bold, indeed, who would venture the assertion that woman is not capable of performing her duties as a voter.

We await the results of the campaign in Nebraska, I with great interest. In the meantime what is to be the outcome of the wqjnan suffrage resolution passed by the republican state convention? IMPORTANT NOTICE. After much careful consideration we have decided to make the subscription price of the Reform Advocate $1.50 per annum, instead of $2.00 as announced in our circulars, believing that its cheapness as well as its value as an educator, will secure for it the cordial support of all classes. Do not wait for the agent to call upon you, but if you are interested in the cause of temperance and progress, send in your subscription without delay. Every person receiving a copy of the Reform Advocate is appointed an agent.

Examine the various departments of the Reform Advocate carefully, and if you like its tone and general make-up, with due allowance for a first appearance, subscribe for it yourself and induce your friends to do likewise. Three copies of the paper, when ordered by one person, will be forwarded to separate addresses one yar for $3.75. This is a trial offer and will be withdrawn in a short time..