Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1910 — W. J. BRYAN DECLARES FOD COUNTY OPTION. [ARTICLE]

W. J. BRYAN DECLARES FOD COUNTY OPTION.

Commoner Says the Democratic Party In lowa Must Be Divorced From the Liquor Interests. W. J. Bryan has come out flat-footed for county option in Nebraska. He takes a step in advance of this and declares democrats must divorce themselves from the liquor interests, because an alliance with the saloon generally can be regarded as an alliance with vice. The saloon, he says, is constantly used to debauch politics and to prevent the intelligent consideration of public questions. The liquor interests, he declares, made themselves odious at the last session of the Nebraska legislature by preventing the submission of the initative and referendum. Mr. Bryan declares the right of the government to regulate the sale of liquor cannot be denied, and the right to make the country the unit of regulation is just as plain. Mr. Bryan’s pronouncement, which will appear as an editorial in the forthcoming issue of his Commoner, under the heading, “The Liquor Question in Nebraska,” is regarded there as epoch-making, and is almost certain to split the democratic in Nebraska at least,and probably to deprive him of its leadership. The significant parts of the statement follow: “The saloon—not every one, but as a rule—is in alliance with vice. It is constantly used to debauch politics and to prevent the intelligent consideration of public questions. The liquor interests interfere in all matters that may even remotely affect their interests. They made themselves odious at the last session of the Nebraska legislature. “The democrats had a majority in both branches for the first time in the state’s history, and the splendid record of the legislature has but one blot on it, and that blot is pat there by the liquor interests^ “They controlled enough of the senators to prevent the submission of the initative and referendum. “They were willing to deny to tile people of the state the right to express themselves on any question rather than risk the uke of the initiative and referendum for the submission of the liquor question. Insolence, arrogance "and impudence cannot go further. “The democratic party cannot afford to act as the mouthpiece of the liquor interests. It can have nothing in common with the selfish, mercenary and conscienceless crusade that the liquor interests have organized against the home and the state, againßt private virtue and public morals.*-^