Time to Toast the Party?

In 1892 the National Prohibition Party's presidential candidate garnered more than 270,000 votes--or 2.2% of the total. Over the following decade the party was strong enough to elect several Congressmen, a few Governors and lots of local officials. In last year's election, a paltry 15,893 voters--.02% of the total--pulled the Prohibitionist lever. Moreover, the party, which was formed in 1869 and is the nation's third oldest, has not elected anybody to anything since the days when people drank their whisky out of teacups. What to do? Last week the party did what many another stumbling enterprise has done: changed its name. The N.P.P. will henceforth--at least on an experimental basis in some states--be known as the National Statesmen Party. Whether the name change will hoist the party out of the category of political oddity is doubtful, but at least it may attract a few of the folks who take a drop now and then.

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