Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1908 — BUT MR, WATSON REMAINS SILENT. [ARTICLE]

BUT MR, WATSON REMAINS SILENT.

F. W. Lough, Prohibition state chairman, has written the following letter of inquiry to the Hon. James E. Watson, republican candidate for governor, but so far has received no reply. The letter, which follows, appeared in sac-simile form in the Patriot Phalanx, the prohibition state organ, last week: A Indianapolis, Ind., Aug. 10, 1908. Hon. James E. Watson, Rushville, Indiana. Dear Sir: On May 7, 1908, Revresentative* Parsons of New York offered an amendment to the Canteen Bill, granting old soldiers in each of the Homes the local option privilege of deciding by majority vote whether or not a saloon should be established in the Home. The amendment was defeated by a vote of one hundred and forty-six to sixty-two. Twelve Indiana Congressmen, including yourself, voted against the amendment. Now, Mr. Watson, we insist that you explain to the citizens of Indiana why you, by your vote in Congress, denied the right to vote a saloon into a-Soldiers’ Home; and yet, as candidate for Governor’on the Republican ticket, you Insist that if the people of a county want saloons, they have a right to have them. We are extremely anxious that you answer the following questions: Why should you vote in Congress not to establish a saloon In a Soldiers’ Home by a majority vote, and three months from that time recommend the enactment of a law to establish saloons by the majority vote of a county? How can it be wrong to establish one saloon in a Soldiers’ Home, and right to establish twenty-five saloons in a county-seat one mile away? As this letter will be published in our state paper, the Patriot Phalanx, and will go intq ten thousand Indiana homes, I hope for an early reply, that we may publish, it in the same patter. Yours truly, ~ 2 ' . • ' • F. W. LOUGH, State Chairman.