The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-07-20
LOCAL OPTION ON TOP.
The Prohibitionists Sit
Down on Resolutions
DenOunCing It.
A WORD FOR THE wERTs BILL.
Bank President La Monte Scores a
Big Victory Over the Chattle
Faction

| Special Correspondence jersey City Neacs.
AsBURY PARK, July 10, 1Ss9.-The great
Prohibition party of the State of New
Jersey fiunked badly when confronted
with local option. General Fisk had set
the cue; and his influence in the commit
| tee was felt way from Detroit. 1t is not
| so many years since the conspicuous tenn
perance leaders in the State urged the
Legislature to give the counties the privi-
lege of licensing or not licensing, as they
saw fit. 1t was only when they saw local
| option within view that they planted
their flag on the now distant rampant
of universal prohibition, and opened
their batteries afresh on the greater part
| les that control the affairs of the Com
| monwe ealth.,
A POINT FOR LOCAL OPTION.
This little reminiscence was poured into
| the ears of the members of the Committee
| on Resolutions, and when their platform
was read it contained no allusion to this
! particular freak of Republican legisla
| ton.
| One of the brethren listened with grow
ing indignation to the platitudes of the
declaration of principles that had been
formulated in the committee room and
when the reading had been finished
| sprang to his feet, white with excitement,
but with combative ring in his sharp,
penetrating voice. He had evidently de-
termined to bring the men who, by refus-
ing to condemn the Republican legisla-
t1on had tacitly approved it, to their
stomach.
II have a resolution that I desire to
have EN- bodied in that platform" he ex-
claimed, as he sent a bit of paper to the
secretary's desk.
The resolution, with magnificent con-
sistency, denounced local option as q Re
publican makeshtft to beguile Prohibi-
tion voters, and abused the Democratic
Legislature for repeating it.
A GOOD WORD FOR THE wERTs BILL.
The Rev. Solomon Parsons, of Pater-
son, stood up to speak against its
adoption.
Local Option" he said, sis dead.
Where's the use of revivifying the corpse?
Don't turn it over in its grave Besides,
many people think that the Werts bill is
a much better piece of temperance legis-
lation."
That argument prevailed and the reso-
luton didn't. 1t went on the secretary's
table to stay there
There was a very much warmer dis
cussion on the woman suffraee plank
In spite of the view that as few eide issues
as possible should be lugged in, for fear
of Obscuring the main Issue. it carried
the convention. 1t is only make-weight,
like the declaration for ballot reform and
that against trusts, for votes
WHAT'S IN THE PLATFORM.
Among the other things in the platform
are these ''resolveds:"-
That we are unalterably opposed to every form
of license or compromise and that we believe
Prohibition to be the only remedy for the sin and
crime of the liquor traffic.
That the success of Prohibition depends on
separate party organization and action, as the
results OF recent contests in several States for
Constitutional Prohibition have demonstrated
the inherent weakness of non partisan effort and
has also proved the subserviency of the old par
ties to the liquor power, and that union with
either of the old parties would be to abandon our
principles and betray our trust.
That we do not discriminate between the old
parties as temperance legislators, neither has
promised to support the grand issue of our party
which is the total prohibition of the liquor traffic
and that all palliatives and compromises such as
local option and license, either high or low, but
tend to defer the great end for which we are
striving.
That the responsibility of the continuance of
the liquor traffic rests on the good men who still
remain in the old parties, and by their votes and
influence encourage the trafickers in alcoholic
poison, believing that the temperance votes of
New Jersey are in the majority, and that their
union in one party would Sound the death kneIl
of the liquor traffic; and whereas, such a union
is impossible in either old parties, therefore we
cordially invite all such voters to unite with us
In the only party that has declared as its ulti-
matum:-''rhe complete and utter destruction of
the traffic
George La Monte, who was nominated
for Governor after the platform had been
adopted, was picked out of half dozen
nominees. There were Nicholson, of |
Camden; Merritt of Montclair; Chattle, |
of Monmouth, and t. J. Kennedy nom |
mated Joel w. Brown, of Jersey CITY. |
The vote showed large arrival of dele |
gates by the early morning trains. |
Chattle was the main object of attack. |
seen that, in spite of all the talk for him, |
he was weak candidate. His vote was |
only So Lamont's was 270.
A SKETCH OF THE CANDIDATE.
Mr.. La Monte as stated in my special |
despatch yesterday, is president Of the |
First National Bank of Bound Brook. |
He ran for Congress on the Prohibition |
ticket year ago. 1t is needless to say he |
was not elected. He is also a member of |
the firm of Augustine Smith & Co.,
paper manufacturers, in New York city. |
He was born in Charlottville, Schoharie |
county, N. Y, August 5, 1884. His an
cestors were among the early settlers of |
that portion of the State. They were
staunch Methodists and sterling demo
teen, began his career as a teacher of the |
district school. He was very ambitious
for college education and by his own
efforts secured the means to put himself |
through Union College, where he gradu-
ated with distinguished honors in
1857 He then went to Virginia and be-
came engaged in educational work and at
once took his rank among the educators
of the South, and was successfully presi-
dent of the Farmville Female College.
Immediately after the wal, in 1865, he came
to New York, and single handed entered
the commercial world of New York city.
For the first few years it was hard strug-
gle to make both ends meet, but today
there is no man in the paper trade better
known than he is, and it is said that he
has invented more improvements in paper
and paper making than any other one
man in the business.
Chattle was around receiving the con-
dolence of the delegates after the conven-
tion closed. He did not look happy.
Dr. Quimby thinks that the Prohibition
vote is going to be an unusually large one
this year. DR.. Quimby was, by the way,
chirman of the Committee on Organiza-
tion. He had been assigned to the Com
mittee on Resolutions, but he swopped
places with Stephen B. Ransom.
YVES.
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