Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 39, Number 100, 7 March 1914 — Page 10

PAGE TEN

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1914

Wet and Dry Communications

Editor's Note Thin space is reserved for communications on the local option election. All letters must bear the name and address of the writers. Contributions will appear In the order received.

GORDON'S STATEMENT. J. Bennett Gordon has submitted the following for publication: Editor Palladium: If the people of Richmond vote to confiscate the property and business of fifty odd saloon keepers who are living up to their end of the contract the people made with them by obeying the laws regulating their business the people of Richmond should do it after considering facts. Hysteria and fiction won't fill fifty odd business houses, or keep up the level of rental values; hysteria and fiction won't lower taxes, raise wages, eliminate crime, change human nature or assist the community to the amount of one cent's worth of real progress. The only fellow to cash in on hysteria Is the vaudeville performer no matter whother he performs from the pulpitor in front of the footlights. There never has been a campaign yet waged uncRer the direction of the Anti-Saloon League that wasn't rooted, reared and roofed in, of and by hysterics, fiction and libel. This campaign promises to-be no exception to the general rule. It has started off Elong the conventional lines. First there is thenotable conversion of B. B. Johnson, local ice magnate and secretary to a governor elected by a "wet" party. It was "some months ago," according to Mr. Johnson's own written statement that he became convinced of the enormity of the licensed saloon. He saw the light in his capacity as secretary to a governor elected by a "wet" party. But it didn't shine bright enough to lead him to resign his position as secretary to the chief executive of a "wet" party and flee the tents of wickedness. Oh, 'no! It was just a dim ' light. It didn't move him to hit the "sawdust trail" and publicly proclaim his conversion. Jlr. Johnson in his letter to S. Edgar Nicholson writes that at that time "I said to myself." It. was not un;til saloon dealers in Richmond began in real earnest the formation of a com,petinR ice company to Mr. Johnson's monopoly that he said anything about his conversion out loud where the world could hear it. It was not until the saloon dealers of Richmond began to loom up as a competitor to the ice magnate that the still small voice Within him warned him of the iniquity of their business and caused him to demand they be put out of business. Iet it be noted, hfs disgust with his job as secretary to a pjovernor elected ly a "wet" party hastrft inspired him j to the consistency of resigning, re- j pudiating the party and joining some i party that, stands against the licensed ! saloon. Not much! It is just the other j fellow, his competitor, he wants put ! out of business. He prefers to hold his job and his ice monopoly. He is getting almost sincere enough to accent a job with the Anti-Saloon League. : If the people of Richmond believe ' that guff and act on it, they will believe what he tells them about the cost of ice this summer. j Then there was the speech delivered i in Richmond Tuesday, February 17, by Wayne B. Wheeler, general counsel of the Anti-Saloon League, and member of K.. national committee. The

KENYON MAY HAVE TO LEARN TANGO

report of his speech which I have before me credits him with saying many things, which sound very like the argument of the Anti-Saloon League. He connected high taxes with "wet" territory and low taxes with "dry" territory, which of course isn't true and cannot be proved by authentic statistics. He said the elimination of the licensed saloon means the lessening of the amount of liquor consumed which isn't true and cannot be substantiated by anybody. It will be noted that neither he nor any other Anti-Saloon League authority gives any recognized authority for

such statements. They quote no figures put out by any official of any government in his official capacity. They make these bald assertions in the hope that no one will challenge them, and to forestall any such challenge Mr. Wheeler told his auditors if they were asked to answer any such challenge: "You don't have to explain it, it's nothing but a He." That is typical of the attitude of the Anti-Saloon League! If you disagree with it, you are a ruffian, a criminal, lost to all sense of honor, a crook, a blackguard. If you produce statistics to refute its claims you are a liar and that ends it. Five years ago when the "wet" and "dry" fight was on in Richmond, the American Issue, the official organ of the Anti-Saloon League, published the statement that the average number of prisoners In the Wayne County (Indiana) jail during the year immediately preceding had been 14,000 more than half the population of the county. It used this as an argument why the county should vote "dry." I had the pleasure at that time to denounce these figures as false and the publication which fathered them as libelous. The only answer I ever received was a verbal one from some of the local leaders that. It must have been a "typographical error." I

watched the American Issue for weeks j and never saw the libel on Wayne j count' retracted. It. is an example j

of how that organization fights; it is a sample of its fiction which stops at

nothing. I have no doubt some fervid !

that copy of the American Issue today and working himself into a frenzy before some audience telling them how 14.000, or one-half of the population of Wayne County, Indiana, is habitually in jail because the saloon keepers here obey the law and conduct themselves as respectable citizens. It is an example of how an Anti-Saloon League lie goes marching on instilling venom, creating prejudice, libeling whole communities. Take another example. Every citizen will remember that during the height cf the last presidential campaign there appeared in this state.

sent, through the mails, thousands of

copies of a temperance publication entitled "Clean Politics." Its purpose was to give credence and a circulation to the infamous lie that Col. Roosevelt was a drunkard. It printed and circulated this lie for weeks in several states. But the people now know that that publication lied about Roosevelt, and they know if a publication of that kind would lie in such a matter involving so prominent a man, it would not hesitate

to libel the character of a community j or twist figures to suit its cause. It j has never retracted that libel and had it not been for the suit Mr. Roosevelt I brought against the Michigan editor, j there are thousands of good people to- j day who would believe that Roosevelt I

Senator William S. Kenyon, of Iowa, who is pictured above, is "in bad" in Washington. Never again will he attempt any pleasantries in speaking before a strange audience. Not long ago he was in Philadelphia and spoke at a church meeting. Among other things he said that aside from more work and less social diversion the country's business at Washington needed more publicity. Next morning he woke to find himself committed against the fish walk, the hesitation and the tango. Since then he has been busy explaining not only to his colleagues but to numerous Washington hostesses. In order to "square" himself, he says, he may have to learn the new dances and do them.

is a common drnnkard. It Is only another of those lies that go marching on. Mr. Wheeler also is quoted as attributing the greater part of insanity to drinking. This is as unreliable an assertion as the others he is quoted as making. No official figures from insane asylums will back up any such a statement. On the contrary, there are more people in the asylums today because of some religious hysteria, started and fanned by some tango revivalist who is out working for the Lord, (if he gets paid for it) than there is because of drink. There are more men and women lose their minds because some charlatan plays on their emotions, arouses their fears, and topples their reason by making them believe all their amusements are hellish, all their neighbors and friends are libertines, hypocrites and filled with the devil and that they themselves are facing the prospect of being eternally boiled in oil. I say there are more poor souls who are raving crazy behind the asylum bars because of such charla

tans than there are because of the licensed saloon of the character Richmond enjoys. It will be Just as well if the people of Richmond get down on earth and g've this question of going "wet" or "dry" serious consideration, ask for and demand facts. It is a business proposition that calls for sanity, not hysteria and fiction. . J. Bennett Gordon. REV. ANSCOMBE'S VIEWS. Editor, The Palladium: Sir Kindly allow me space to reply to Mr. Gordon's statements. First As regards "confiscation of saloon keepers' property.' When the liquor dealers went into the business they knew perfectly well that there was the risk that the time might come when the people would publicly decide to. do without the liquor business. They accepted that risk.. They will, therefore, have no cause of complaint if the people do so decide. The liquor business, because of its dire consequences, has a different status than any other business. The liquor dealers all knew this when they voluntarily engaged in the traffic. Second Mr. Gordon claims that "the saloon keepers are living up to their end of the contract." Very well. The contract is, that saloons may operate according to the will of the people. If the people vote "No," the saloons may be open, if they vote "Yes," then the saloons are to be closed. That is the only "contract" there is. That is the way the "business is regulated." Third "Hysteria, fiction and libel" are, according to Mr. Gordon, the only weapons of the temperance party. By "hysteria," of course he means earnestness and deep feeling. We accept his jibe. We do feel deeply; we are in earnest. The horrors and abominations associated with the liquor busiiness are certainly warrant for indignation. But speaking of hysteria. Will Mr. Gordon please say how many drunkards' mothers, wives and children have been driven into mental agonies for which hysteria is a feeble word? As to "Action," we can only say that the temperance party does not need "fiction" in order to advance its claims. Mr. Gordon knows well enough that the degradation, poverty and misery to which drink may reduce its victims is beyond exaggeration. We can assure Mr. Gordon that the "dry" forces will find truth adequate in this contest. As to "libel." Let us say plainly that we are not fighting individuals, but the traffic, and it is impossible to libel alcohol and intemperance. Fourth As to Mr. B. B. Johnson's "notable conversion." Why incinuate

that Mr. Johnson is not sincere? is not this very much like "libel?" Mr. Gordon adroitly evades the whole point of Mr. Johnson's statement. Will the voters of Richmond please read Mr. Johnson's letter again, and then read Mr. Gordon's remarks, and he will then see that the latter ignores the real situation. Fifth Your correspondent denies Mr. Wheeler's claim that "wet" territory means high taxation, and "dry" territory low taxation. He simply says, "Of course, it Isn't true, and can not be proved by authentic statistics." Well, we promise the people of Richmond to prove It during this . campaign. Our speakers at the tabernacle will prove it. Meanwhile, let Mr. Gordon try to disprove it. Sixth Your correspondent next asserts that "the elimination of the saloon does not lessen the amount of liquor consumed." If that be true.

why then, in the name of reason do the persons interested in the sale of liquor oppose and vote against the open saloon? Can Mr. Gordon explain why there were 641 arrests for drunkenness in Muncie last year, but only 269 In 1910 when the city was "dry?' Seventh Mr. Gordon tries to blind the eyes of the people of Richmond by pretending that "more men and women lose their mind through religious mania than through intemperance." I will ascertain recent official statistics on this point at an early date and will ask you to publish them. Meanwhile, let me ask the people of Richmond why they should tolerate any longer the saloon which does undoubtedly produce a considerable portion of the nation's insanity? Another question! Does the victim of religious mania cause his friends a fraction of the anxiety that the drunkard causes his?. Eighth Mr. Gordon probably thinks he is very funny when he refers to "a tango revivalist who works for the Lord (if he gets paid for it)." The people of Richmond are wondering whether Mr. Gordon is coming to Richmond to visit his mother-in-law or to write for the liquor people because "he gets paid for it?" Ninth Mr. Gordon concludes by remarking that the people should give the "wet" and "dry" question "serious consideration." We agree; they should. , It is, as he eays, "a business proposition that calls for sanity." If the men of Richmond are really sane, and they can not be sane unless they be sober, they will decide to wash their hands of a business which is associated with so much iniquity, misery and abomination. FRANCIS C. ANSCOMBE, 100 South West Seventh St. Richmond, March 7, 1914.

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BOSTON, IND.

Mrs. and Mrs. Farest Bailey are the proud parents of a baby daughter. Mrs. Derbychire, Miss Helen Derbyshire and Mr. Harry Derbyshire, of Peru, Ind., are visiting this week with Mr. Mrs. H .Knox. ' Mr. Howard Johnson Is reported very ill. Born, Wednesday night, a son to Mr. and Mrs. Avery Oxer. Mrs. A. B. Parks, Miss Leah Parks Miss Grace Phenis and Miss Grace Pottenger were Richmond visitors Thursday. The Needlecraft Club met at the home of Mrs. Ada Robinson, on Wednesday afternoon. The hours were

' dainty menu was served. Several of the members were present. Mr. andMrs. Thomas Shook are both much improvedat this writing. Elmer farnsworth has returned home after attending the funeral of his aunt. Mrs. Susan Davis. Mrs. Carl Synder of Richmond, lnd. ; has returned home after visiting with Mr. and Mrs. Howard Johnson.

MELLEN AGAIN SEEKS TO ESCAPE TRIAL

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Beginning Saturday, March 14, The Richmond Palladium will present a series of twelve piano lessons, with full charts and complete directions for the beginner. They comprise the system perfected by W. Scott Grove for quick entrance to the world of music, and are recommended by famous pianists.

One lesson will be printed each Saturday until the course is completed. Each lesson will contain charts, with directions for folding so that spaces in the chart will conform to the keys of the piano. If you follow The Richmond Palladium's free piano lessons, you can't help learning to play !

Read what IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI, great Polish pianist, says about the method : Here Is the Letter: To the Editor of The Cleveland Press : You have my deepest admiration when in America of commercialization you try and teach and develop the artistic side of young Americans in music. Your lessons are ideal both for young and old who cannot afford a music teacher, and allow me to compliment you, as they are an innovation to the educational side of the modern newspaper. IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI.

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