The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1885-10-09
A COMBAT OF WORDS.
Gov. HOadley and Judge Foraker Of
Ohio, Address Large Audience
in Joint Debate.
The Principal Issue of the Discussion
IL the Status Of the Iiau0r
Question.
THE JOINT DEBATE.

| republican and democratic candidates re
speclively for governor OF Ohio at lh
| election. next Tuesday drew an enormou
audience last evening to Wheeler
opera house. The building will sea
| /, 200, Ten minutes after tie door
opened every seat and all available stand
ing room WAS occupied, while on th
stars and the street below were crow d
clamorine for admission. The stage wa
provided with 224 seats equally divide
between the two committees, for whc
tickets were issued and which were occu
pied by prominent leaders of both parties
4 small table in front mal ked the centr
| line of the stage. To the right and lef
of this respectively were 9th er tables, two
chairs to each, occupied by the two
speakers and chairman. Judge John Ii
| Doyle was chairman of the meeting OF
part of the republicans, Rcpresentaiiv,
Frank llurd for the democrats, The tint
of speakers was divided AS follows: Gov
| Hoadly opened with one hour, Judge For
| aker then one hour and IA half Hoadlel
| to close with half an hour. Judge Doylt
called the meeting TO order and an
nounced the program. Representative
Hurd Immediately arose and introduced
Gov Hoadley in few words and the lat,
ter gentleman began his speech amid en-
,husiastic plaudils from the audience.
HoADhEy's FIRST SPEECH.
Gov. HoadIey began by reciting the
circumstances leading to the challenge tc
Joint debate. The most important issue
of the campaign, said he. is the question
of personal liberty aud how far interfored
with by law, as to the habits of drinking.
lie then proceeded to define the position
of both parties on the liquor question 10y
reading The platform of each. defined the
plank in tie republican platform, rec
ognizing the right of the people to
amend the organic law of the state, to
mean that The republicans favor the pro,
hibitory amendment; argued that the
point was how far the law may go to re-
gulate the personal habits of citizens of
the state. The answer depended upon
the answer to other questions "Is
drinking Il vice? Is it harmful or wrong
to take one glass of beer or
wine? Is IL man TO be allowed
to indulge in moderate drinking
which can do him no harm? If drinking
be vice. selling liquor is II vice. But if
q man who is capable of self control who
takes IL drink on farm does not do
harm, then he does no harm to drink it
i'll the saloon. He referred to the local
option feature of the Scott law on pro-
hibtion in spots, whch differs from total
prohibition IN spots, which differs from
total prohibition as Il coach dog differs
from a dog all one color; mathematical
the Scott law for this feature and defined
himself as opposed to partial prohibition
or total prohibition and in favor of per-
sonal freedom to the fullest extent
The speaker elaborated the point that
if wrong in one place drinking was
wrong in all, if right in one place, right
III all, The principle that would
justify the Scott laws local option
feature would justify the prohibi,
bacco within the mnnipality. The con
clusion was that the legislation must be
directed against the evils of liquor drink
in2, but not against drinking itself. This
was the right direction Of temperance leg
islation within the cities or without them
The most valuable possession of l citizen
is his personal liberty, therefore all move
'nents which strike at tins must be op
posed. Drinking is not vice, but excess
sive drinking is Prohibition is failure in
Maine, in Kansas in Iowa. Statistics of
the number of United States liquor Ii
censcs in these states were read, showing
An increase i'll two of the states. Pro>
nounced prohibition is an incentive to
hypocrisy, and he was against it root and
branch He challenged Foraker to state
why he was in favor of local prohibi>
ton in municipalities and not in favor
of prohibition in the whole state. For
aker is in favor of the Scott law. The
9th section gives municipality the power
10 prohibit. now how can he Justify this
and not Justify state prohibition? Com
pared Foraker TO the man aandwiched
with placard on the front mot for pro.
4ibiion.' on the back piacard not against
and challenged him to state
whether he was in favor of prohibition
N opposed to it. He insisted prohibition
$ the issue in Ohio because the next leg
slalurc will be asked to pass prohibition
egislation, He desired to know if.
Foraker is elected governor whether he
Will, in his message, recommend the subs
mission Of the prohibitory amendment to
he state constitution; demanded also to !
know whether if a republican supreme
'ourt is elected it will reverse the late de, |
,ision that the Scott law is unconstltu.
ional and compel the saloonkeepers to
,ay back the taxes; charged that this is
he republican programme; declared there |
we're hut two methods Of settling the !
emperance question, prohibition and
license; declared he favors a graded |
license. measured according to the |
AMOUNT of the sales License protects |
he traffic, secures personal liberty of the |
'eople, crushcs out low dives and secures |
bidiencc to the law by the dealers; de-
Jared that the houses of i'll fame would |
lot be licensed to sell liquor as under the |
scott law. The speaker quoted Senator |
sherman rs saying the legislature Of Ohio
an not license the sale of liquor and |
ould not see how that law
,ould be passed that will not have to be
Construed by the courts as license, de-
Jared taxation a revenue power, not a
'olice power as the Scott law made it.
hat law proved a failure as u police |
leasuIe, because more United States
censes were issued the year it was in
nrce than in the previous year. The
peaker closed with a brief legal argus
lent to show that taxation is really lie
nse and Unconstitutional. Tremendous
heering.
FoRAkER's REPLY.
Judge Boyle introduced Judge Foraker
tho after the applause subsidized began
y referring TO several minor points of
toadley's speech. He then said that from
le character of Hoadley's remarks he
q yi1pptiv rnistpnt tho sneaEpr for 7 annS |