Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1908 — PRIME ISSUE FIXED [ARTICLE]

PRIME ISSUE FIXED

We do not blame Albert Lieber and” Crawford Fairbanks for fighting agaffist-’ttife popular movetfrCnt in Indiana, cryßtalfiZed In the Republican platform, for an extension of the legal regulation of the sale of intoxicating beverages or restriction, if a majority of residents in a county nullification of the remonstrance law, if more than half the voters in a county so desire. Fairbanks and Lieber are party politicians, but first and all the time they are brfewers. They are fighting for their purse, and with it incidentally. Thjeir means of livelihood are Jeopardized. 1 OnA thing they' have done we adnitre. They 1 haVe nailed ; to the peak .of the political mast- county local option as i the prime issue between the. parties and before the people of Indiana this year. We acoept it. In the fervor of their opposition to prohibition advooated by those who believe that the rights to personal liberty when massed aye supreme, they are not punctilious In truth'. Their wishes are prolific parents of theif thoughts and they debtfi thA reading of their dreams will make them come true. Truly, the issue is fixed. Each man's ballot in November will be a factor for weal or woe. Lieber and Fairbanks are in a trade that breeds criminals, makes good women weep in actual wajjtt, makes, weaklings of men that might be strong tp support them, that lures to degradation young men and young women that are the hope of the land. Indiana Republicans as a party seek to stay the woeful work of the open saloon; their political opponents are striving strenuously against them. The brewers are now in thd open as leaders of the Democratic narty in this state. The men they sell (heW* goods to have violated all the reasonable laws framed to restrict 'heir trade wisely in the public interest. which is essentially the personal liberty Interest. and their violation of 'aw has bred and nourished the present temperance wave that is sweeping" 1 state and country. They know It now and they know that Lieber lied when he said the other day that the ware Is receding. It Is not the hope of the Republican party and Ita adherents In all other parties on this question to abolish the saloon from every corner of the state. Ita work this year is to allow the people to say whether or no they desire to permit the sale of Intoxicants In their community, the county being considered the true communal unit. That Is all. What the brewers, speaking'for the Democratic party, have proclaimed as the.sole and only Issue of the current campaign In Indiana can be understood by everybody. Too many hearts and mlpda have had the question scared deeply into them. It needs little discussion. Its two sides ails plain to all. Choose which you win support