The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-05-26
OVERMYER THERE.
Eloquent Democrat Addresses
ResubmissiOn Mass Meeting.
About 500 People We're in
Auditorium.
CHARACTERISTIC TALK
ProhibitOry Law Assailed and
Topeka Situation Discussed.
6. C. Clemens and J. A. Davis
Also Speak.

AAoO CRC0Ae
1.-THE ministers of certain Protestant
churches have undertaken to rule this
city; they'll never do it.''-David Over
myer.
We don't propose to have few
preachers and women and womanly
men to run this city.'-G. c. Clemens.
God hates a coward; ana don't be-
lieve he has much respect for a man
who takes a pistol. puts on mask
and violates one law to enforce anoth-
er.'-J. A. Davis
Above are three parallel representa-
tive utterances made public by the
speakers at the meeting held Sunday
afternoon in the Topeka auditorium
under the auspices of those who favor
the resubmission of the temperance
question, and whom an evening paper
has dubbed as the ..WhiSkyitaes, thus
mourning the extreme diSpleasure OF q.
c. Clemens, whom the morning paper
charges with being the "instigator' OF
the meeting
Probably fifteen hundred people at
tended the public haying of Rev J. L.
Mcfarland. former Chief of Police
Stahl and others who have been so
Jealous within the last year in the law
and order movement, at the hands OF
the three speakers heretofore quoted.
MarShallS band occupied position on
the platform, and while the audience
was gathering discoursed number OF
selections. After J. A. Davis. a mer-
chant having a wholesale meat and
poultry shop at the corner of Sixth and
Jackson, had called the n Getting to or
der the Mohawk quartet sang Amer
lea" Then Chairman Davis started
surprise party by saying that he was a
prohibitionist; but that he believed in
practical prohibition. w nave come
here, said he, Ito agitate this question;
all important questions are settled by
agitation. I am not ashamed of my
! convictions on prohibition; L was not so
IN slavery times nearly nifty years ago
although nearly all my relatives were
slave holders Mr.. Davis related how
when a boy living in North Carolina the
conscripting order of the confederate
government had made it necessary Tor
him in order to avoid enliSting under
the stars and bars to walk six hundred
miles and join the federal army. He be
lieved that there was a right and wrong
way of doing things. He had been a
| devotee of prohibition longer than al
most any one, but he had seen that it
| was a failure. When there were only
/ 13 prOhibitiOnists in Cloud county, he
/ had been numbered among those L
want to say to you though, that the
/ law is a humbug and a farce on the
statute book. I an ashamed of a great
many business men who are not here
/ but who when the time comes will
sneak around under cover to the Aus
i tralian ballot law. If this ruins my bus
/ mess I want to tell you L can move out
on my farm and raise potatoes and ar
! tichokes and feed them to the hogs /
voted for John P. St. John three times
for governor and once for president;
| and I venture there IS only one man
! that has stayed with prohibition longer
/ than I and he is Albert Griffin.
IF the ministers of Topeka will or
ganize school OF integrity. ana non
| esty and truthfulness they will do much
| more good than they are doing. In
/ North Carolina, the state where I came
| from, men banked on honor. In every
| bank and wholesale house in Topeka.
/ you can find the business record of ev-
| cry man in Kansas and of every state
| in the union. In North Carolina there
| is the highest comm ercial rating of any
! and in Kansas it is the lowest because
men don't bank on honor. Let US or
| ganize a school of integrity in every
| county of the state.
IF I had my way I would have IT
| enacted that wherever the people wanted
| LIQUOR it should be sold. The man,
though, would have to take down his
screens and sell it so that anybody from
! the street could see who was drinking
Another thing, I would have the law SO
that in a town of a thousand popula-
ton there should never be less than q
thousand dollars license. That is the
kind of law they have in Missouri
there The prohibitory law in Kansas
has been tried q years and is a failure.
David Overmyer. the champion of the
resubmission cause, then came forward
and gave the clearest, most logica
statement of the case presented during
the meeting. He humorously referred tt
the report of the Democratic convention
at Wichita few days ago as it ap-
peared in the morning paper as sug-
costing that he was dead.
We are here" continued Mr. Over
nyer, as citizens to discuss this mat
ter. Several years ago it was my priv
lege to discuss the matter fully all ovel
the State and I will not enter TO-DAY
into an elaborate argument. This GROVE
IS as good as the best and better thar
any that will question its goodness
What is the purpose of the prohibi
tory statute? 1t is to prohibit the man
ufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor,
entirely, except IN certain cases, 70
scientific or medicinal purposes. If tn
matter were only the sale of the liquor
that would be simply merchandising
But your purpose to prevent the per
sons from using It as a beverage. Doe
anybody doubt that? Does the stat
have the right to prohibit the use?
would like to ask, Why haven't yOi
. done 1t2 Because you dare not Be
cause every man has the right Talk Il
: your prohibition neighbor and ask hin
why don't you punish the man directly
for taking a glass of beer2 Why don
you do it, if you have the right2 Yol
know you haven't the right. You know
7 II IS the privilege of every adult per
3 son to judge what he shall take into hi
{ stomach. If you haven't the right u
, say to the citizens that they shall no
use that which is not right then yOl
can't deny to them that which you ADM
is their right. It never has been don
{ and never will be done. Intemperanc
= has been a great evil and so is prohibi
: enforced and apparently feels bound con