The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-09-27


The question is not What do Demo-
Gratis understand by the liquor
plank in the Republican platform? 1T
is What do Republicans understand
by it, and what do Prohibitionists
understand by it9 OF special interest
is the the question, What do the Re
publicans and Prohibitionists of the
Southern tier of counties understand
by the plank. And since the question
is of special interest, THE JERSEY
Cry News, with its customary enter
prise has addressed itself to the task
of finding the answer.
Our special correspondent has been
making a tour of these counties, get
ting all the answers he could to the
great connundrum of the campaign.
Two letters, embodying the results OF
his labors, have already appeared;
others are to follow. The former OF
those which have been published was
devoted to General Grubb's prize
enigma. The second presented to our
readers yesterday the views OF the
leading republicans of Camden.
For the most part these gentlemen
We're not so diplomatic as General
Grubb. They spoke right out, they said
what they thought, and the result
vas one of the most amazing jumbies
of contradiction that ever embarrassed
a political party. Every claim that
THE JERSEY CITY NEWS has ever
made regarding the ambiguity, the
elasticity, the fraudulency OF the
liquor plank, is amply proven by n
variety of Interpretation which these
gentlemen, all republicans, and all of
one city, put upon it. 1t is in fact, as
it was intended to be, and as General
Fisk and Candidate La Monte pro-
nounced it, a shuttle, a straddle, an
evasion of the whole issue.
We do not propose to waste o
words. We just group a few of the
interpretations put upon the plank
by the Camden republicans, and let
the reader judge for himself. Here
they are
Ex-SpEAKER E. A. ARMsrRoNa;-'It commits
the party entirely to local option"
COUNTY CLERK BuRRows:-"As the people of
South Jersey were in favor of the local option
law which was killed by the Werts law last win
ter, I take it to mean that measure"
JOHN j. CRANDALL:-'T don't like it at all. l
was for an out and out unmistakable whisky
issue. What does this plank mean, anyhow
CRY SOLICITOR j. WILLARD M~oReAN:-"Oh
no, it does not mean local option. But it does
mean that the party is pledged to such measures
as will restrict and control the liquor traffic"
LAWYER HAYES, of Robson & Hayes: -"By
their record we shall know them"
Ex-senator JAMES ScovEL:-"I always thought
that it was an unwise thing to commit the party
to local option and high license, and there is a
arge portion of the Republican party which
doubts the wisdom of the movement. But Gen
eral Sewell, who don't believe in it himself, insists
on throwing it out as a tub to the Prohibition
whale. We know the Republicans of Hudson
and Essex don't like the measure, and l don't see
why we should cram it Town their threats. .
POSTMASTER BRowNINe:-"I think the platform
Commits the party to local option
THE REV. J. B. GRAw, editor of the Temperance
Gazette.-'Do not be deceived. No specific
measure for the suppression of intemperance' is
named. There are but three ways of dealing
with the trafic-not ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Prohibition, local option and license, high and
low. The leaders in their wisdom will select the
measure which, in their estimation, is the best.
Which will it Der Can there be a doubt but that
this is another swindle.n
EXCISE COMMISSIONER CoPPERwAIrE (prohibi
tionist:-'It is a delusion and a snare, and means
nothing"
Is not this an astonishing showing?
and the whole State is divided the
same way.