Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-04-11
AGENCY Cry. March. 1877.


Editors COmrter-GENTs: In the
Weekly Of the 2lst, in your article on
the Gubernatorial question:. you say |
our present prohibitory law is but |
another name for free rum, and while |
think there are quite a. respectable !
number of our citizens that don,t,seS
it in that light, admit that you.have I
q Formidable array of witnesses son |
yonr side. The distillers aud brew
ers, whisky-sellers and saloon. keep
ers, dram-drinkers and drunkards,
and gamblers, dead1
beats and tramps, all charge the same !
thing, and shout themselves hoarse for |
the repeal of the present law, SO that
the sale of liquor may be controlled |
by q judicious license law. Now, 1
admit that / cant very well UNDER |
stand why those classesare 30 anxious
to restrict the sale of liquor, but such
is their argument, and we are under
the necessity Of admitting them as
witnesses on your side. Again, in the
same article, you speak of the Tenn
perance candidates for Governor, as
though they were not gentlemen, but
belonged to the lowest strata of hui
man society, and in that you must in
clude such men as Gen. Weaver, Ed.
Russell, Gov. Newbold, Cage Will
liams, and others of like standing in
the State. Will these friends be SO
convinced Of their hypocrisy by your
article as to drop them and support
Gear, your ideal of manhood and
ability. But as you say you are not
advocating his claims for Governor,
will you please tell us when you do
advocate his claims, about his leaving
his Speakers chair and going into the
Senate chamber to lobby against the
repeal of the wine and beer clause Of
our present law, when said repeal had
passed the House by good majority,
and failed in the Senate for want of
one more vote. Tell them also that
the privilege Of cling wine and beer
enables the saloon-keeper to sell all
kinds Of intoxicating liquor with i'm
punity, wherever the sale of wine and
beer is permitted. The knowled &c
Of Gears services in the interest Of
saloons will very much help his pros
poets with that class which the CoUR-
TER seems to think worth while to
consult or favor, as your charge Of
Hypocrisy of professed Temperance
men is an insult to every temperance
man in the Republican party, which
ia at least four-fifths OF the party.
You talk about candidates who howl
loudly about temperance and their
other virtues as though temperance
men belonged to lower order of
society than your noble selves. and of
course IL is not necessary that their
views and feelings should be respect
ed. admit that such has been the
policy for the last few years, but
would Il not be well to modify that
policy . little, in view Of the fact that
tho party cannot carry the county
unless they are tolerably well united.
Win the COURIER think of the situa-
ton when speaking Of temperance
men T.. DUDLEY.
REMARKS By THE COURIER.
accordance with its usual liber-
atty towards its correspondents the
CouRIER publishes the above commu-
nication from Mr.. Dudley, believing
that il he can afford to make such
|
Misrepresentation as to our position,
the CoURIER can afford to publish
them.
It is sufficient for us to say that
we arc not supporting Mr.. Gear
for Governor, and do not expect to
support him unless he may be NOM
mated BY the Republican State Con-
vention. We were only asking fair
play for him . well as for all the
other candidates.
That Mr.. Ed. Russell, who gets the
above gratuitous fling from Mr.. Dnd-
ley, ID one Of tho most enthusiastic
champions Of Mr.. Gear in the State.
That tho mention Of his name In
the above connection, together with
that Of Gen, Weaver, Gov. Newbold
and Cage Williams is entirely
uncalled for by anything we have
said or written.
That we wer not then, and are not
now advocating license law In the
COuRIER.
That we used the word "free rum"
In its legal, and not in An opprobrious
sense, to indicate that under the pres
ent law, liquor 10 free, substantially,
from regulating taxation.
And that finally life Is too short,
and the public too well acquainted
with our views and Mr.. Dudley's up
ON this subject, to justify continue.
ton Of : discussion in these columns
upon the temperance question, which