Oxford Democrat., 1906-09-11
Governor hanly's Address.
AN ELOQUENT SPEECH IN SUPPORT OF
PROHIBITION AND GOVERNOR COBB.

Il AM w 1Ah<NSAs SSs
| The last Republican rally of the cam
paign at South Paris was held in Ne'
Hall Friday evening, addressed by HOr
j. Frank Hanly, governor of Indiana
one of the governors who have attracte
the attention of the country by thei
courageous stand in support of the en-
forcement of law and order and civi
righteousness. The governors remark
were devoted entirely to discussion
constitutional prohibition, modification
and resubmissiOn, and the position O
Governor Cobb and the Republican part
on the issue, as viewed from the stand
point of citizen of distant state.
Walter l.. Gray, Esq, officiated a
chairman of the meeting, and before in
Producing the speaker pointed out t.
the Republicans briefly some ways II
which they could assist in getting Ou
the full vote on election day.
Governor Hanly is all he has beer
represented as an orator, and while the
term "spellbinder" has fallen into
certain disrepute in politics, there is nc
other effective way to describe the
effect of his address upon his audience
but to say that he held them spellbound
Many of them declared that they would
have sat till midnight without weari.
ness, and numbers crowded upon him
after his close to assure him that 1t was
the best thing they had heard this year,
while the remark was frequent that it
was the best temperance speech ever
thncn xuhn nnf in
full sympathy with his position could
but feel the deep sincerity of the man
and his high character, and appreciate
the force of his telling argument. And
to those who believe that the saloon is
an unmitigated evil and set their faces
steadily against any movement looking
toward its legaiization, it was a message
of cheer and hope and encouragement
such as is rarely heard.
If the governors address, word for
word as delivered here, could be pre-
served, it would be contribution to the
literature of law enforcement to be
placed beside Governor Cobb's Deering
address, to supplement and strengthen
and support it. Unfortunately that can
not be done, but the effect of it, with
those who heard it (pity there were not
ten thousand to hear it) remains.
The liquor traffic and the saloon were
treated by Governor Hanly as always an
evil, like the gambling resort and the
brothel, always liability and never an
asset to the community. The different
of dealing with the traffic,
from unrestricted freedom to prOhi-
biiion, were reviewed, and then the con-
and statute provisions of the
state of Maine, requiring prohibition,
were taken up. Discussing the question
of enforcement, he said, "The law should
be enforced. There is no higher duty
in the executive than to enforce the law,
and no higher duty in the citizen than
obedience to the law"
Passing to the question of non-enforce-
ment and notification, Governor Hanly
made quotations from Governor CObb's
Deering speech with the highest COM
declared that by his courage
Dus, honest stand in that matter Gov
ernor Cobb had placed himself among
the great governors of the time, one
whom all the country was watching, and
asked. "Can't you afford to re-elect a
governor like that?" 1t was Governor
Cebb's Deering speech, he said, and the
plank in the Republican platform sup
porting his position, which brought
him from Indiana, when he could i'll
spare the time, because he wanted to
assist in holding up the hand of such
executive, standing firm for
law and enforcement.
Then Governor Hanly said he found a
demand for resubmisSion of the prohibit
tory amendment voiced in the platform
Of one of the political parties, and he
pointed out that every liquor seller,
every saloon keeper, every manufacturer
Of liquor, are in favor of resubmission,
and the distillers and the brewers of
Indiana are contributing to break down
in Maine. Resubmission is
asked for because it is step toward
license.
The governor took up the question of
local option and high license, advocated
by some as panacea for the evils of
the liquor traffic, and out of his wide
experience in his own high license, local
option state, declared that such plan
did not stop violations of the law, and
never would. Figures were quoted at
length, interesting and convincing, one
of his most effective points being the
sta ement that forty-four per cent of the
arrests and convictions in Indiana are
for violations of the liquor law.
In closing, he declared that prohi
bition ought not to be taken out of the
of Maine, but that if it were
possible for him to do it, he would
write it into the constitution Of In
diana, to remain forever.
Governor Hanly in his own state is
doubtless accustomed to addressing
audiences which are warmer in their ex-
pressions of feeling than our New Eng
land audiences, which westerners some
times think cold, but there can be no
question that his audience was with him
on this occasion, and they gave evidence
nr hy frannant annnfanaOns and