Arizona republican., 1902-09-24
PR0HIBITONISTIS
 STRAIGHT TICKET
County and Territorial COnVen-
 lion in Phoenix Yesterday
The Contest Ragged Over an Unsuc- cessful Proposal to Endorse the Best Nominated by the Rspub
 lican and Democratic Parties.

The county and territorial ccnven- tions of the prohibition party were held in this city yesterday, and a complete ticket was put in the field About forty gentlemen, either prohibiticnists or of prohibition tendepcies met in the district court room yesterday morning. There was only one point upon which they were divided and that was the question of the propriety oi indorsing candidates which had been nominated by either the republican or democratic party. The sentiment in favor of en- dorsement seemed to be the stronger. A roll was prepared for the signature Of all who were willing to declare themselves to be strict prohibition party men. Those who feared the straight ticket proposition might pre- vail declined to sign the roll, and so commit themselves to such an action of the convention. If they had done SC, they could easily have controlled the convention.
 Before the controversy was decided d atform was presented It met the views of not only the prohibitionists. but of the populist members of the party. It declares against the drinking and the gambling evils, favors the in- itiative and referendum, advocates the | election oi all officers by direct vote of | the people, declares for government ownership of public utilities and de- mands that the officers of the territory 1 receive salaries, and that the fees Of all officers be turned into the treasury 1 After the offering of the platform and the signing of the roll an adjourn ment was taken until half-past l | o'clock. Then the question of nomin- ating straight ticket came up The debate upon it lasted an hour and a half. The straight ticket men were not hopeful of the success of any ticket they might put in the field. but they had a curiosity to know how strong the party was growing, and they could | find cut in no other way. There was. too, they said, principle involved, and principle was mere to them than polit = ical success.
 ! Those who favored endorsement ba- heved that the object of the party was to secure results. They had been frit- tering away their strength. and had never effected anything until two yea IFS ago, by endorsing whom they believed to be the best men on both the re- publican and the democratic tickets. they had contributed to the election of most of them. They pointed cut that Tn the making up of the tickets of the two parties this year it happened that Tn some instances temperance man was on one side and a whisky man on the other. They asked if 1t was not their duty to support the candidate whose principles and manner of living was the nearer to their own The other side replied that no man was with them who was not prohibition lst. Temperance and even teetotalism was one thing and prohibition was an other The endorsement men asked the straight ticket advocates that if in the fooling away of their votes it should happen that unfit men were elected to office, they would not hold themselves responsible. To this the reply was
 made that they would not feel so.
 One oi the most enthusiastic of the straight ticket advocates was Dr. George B. Pratt, who likened the course of the wavering prohibitioniste to that of the Israelites who loitered for forty years on the thither bank of the Jordan with the land of Canaan in plain view, filled with milk and honey They were afraid of the giants in the mountain. When they finally deter mined to enter the land they encount- cred no giants. but took possession ot the fertile region which might have been theirs forty years before. Dr Pratt said it was the plain duty of the party to go forward bravely and feal nothing but a failure to perform a duty
 The elasticity of the scriptures was illustrated by MT. H. Newberry oi l 7 -hn of the conquest of Canaan that the endorsement plan was the better. The Israelites, he reminded the convention did not have plain sailing after their invasion of the promised land. It was true that they captured Jericho by 6 miracle, but they failed miserably be- fore the men of Ali, and their hearts were turned to water. Even the brave Joshua was in despair and complained that he had been deserted of the Lord But the Lord had not deserted his fol lowers. He taught them, though that battles are not always wen by putting ones head against stone wall He recommended to the Israelites to eXer- else some common sense and get be- hind their enemies when they were not looking. They therefore instead ol marching straight against the city lay In ambush behind it, and SO Ali was taken.
 straight ticket orator made tho statement that no good had ever come of se&eCting the best candidates of the old parties. An endorsement man re minded him oi the operation Of the local option law, which had been se- cured by the votes of the members ol the legislature for whom the party had voted two years ago. It was show: that where there was prohibition in the United States it had been secured by one or the other of the old parties. A statement by the straight ticket party that the party was steadily growing was met by the statement that thC liquor power was growing more rap idly. In the course of the allusion tC the results of two years ago a dispute sprang up as to who had contributed most to the victory for good then. l was not, some said, the prohibitionists but the Citizens league. Others claimed