Springfield Weekly Republican

HAYES ON TEMPERANCE.

He is in Practice, as in Theory, a Total Abstinence Man.

The Minneapolis Tribune publishes an extract from a private letter to its editor from ex-President Hayes, in the course of which he makes the following reference to certain published statements to which his attention had been called impugning the consistency of his temperance principles and practice:

When I became president, I was fully convinced that, whatever might be the case in other countries and with other people, in our climate and with the excitable nervous temperament of our people, the habitual use of intoxicating drinks was not safe. I regarded the danger of the habit as especially great in political and official life. It seemed to me that to exclude liquors from the White House would be wise and useful as an example, and would be approved by good people generally. The suggestion was particularly agreeable to Mrs. Hayes. She had been a total abstinence woman from childhood. We had never used liquors in our own home, and it was determined to continue our home custom in this respect in our official residence in Washington, as we had done at Columbus. I was not a total abstainer when I became president, but the discussion which arose over the change at the executive mansion soon satisfied me that there was no half-way course in the matter. During the greater part of my term, at least during the last three years, I was in practice as in theory a persistent advocate of total abstinence and shall continue to be so. All statements to the contrary are untrue and without foundation.