The political parties are beset with moral reforms—prominent among these is the temperance cause. The friends of prohibition propose to introduce their principles into the dominant political party; or, if they fail, to grow a party of their own. This has been the policy of a certain class of temperance people in some sections of the country for several years. As an independent party they have never polled a very large vote for a National or State ticket, nor do we think that they expect ever to do so. But they have, in many elections, held the balance of power, particularly where the great parties were evenly balanced. On account of this the prohibitionists have compelled the Republican party to legislate in the interest of temperance. The radical temperance people, who have bolted the Republican ticket where prohibition has been denied them, or when men unfriendly to the cause have been set up as candidates for office, have done more for temperance by what they failed to do, than the independent temperance organization has done. It is this policy which has caused the Republican party to become the prohibition party in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Iowa, and Kansas, and other states. We have no reason to believe that this party would have enacted temperance laws but for the proposed action of temperance voters. Its fundamental doctrines as a party were on another line of reform: both the leaders and the rank and file had to learn the prohibition lesson. This the temperance people have been teaching them, and with marked success. But what of the future? Will this policy win, or will temperance people be obliged to adopt a new plan of campaign, a new method of work? The cause of prohibition is just. The traffic in spirituous liquors must be struck at the root; but how? How to get prohibition into law, and keep it there, is the problem that no politician, statesman, or philanthropist has yet solved. However just the cause may be, it is hard to deal with old party leaders, trained, as they have been, in the political schools of the past twenty years, and entrenched in strong organizations. A good cause deserves wise management, especially so when it is beset with tacticians who are backed by the power of money and of great organizations. Temperance leaders must consider carefully before going much farther; for the sake of the cause they must be cautious. All signs in the political world point to the breaking up of the old political organizations—certainly, neither one of them is cemented by a grand moral question. The party of the future must have some law of right in its creed before it can depend upon the support of the masses. Is prohibition a broad enough platform for a great national party to stand on, is a question that will be settled in the near future. EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.