Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1907-12-05
REV. c w. MORROW
Driving Booze out Of Michigan and
Entering Politics.

Saturday Night in recent issue oevOteo
three columns to the work OF Rev. G. w.
Morrow as superintendent of the Michi-
gan Anti-Saloon league, to which he went
from the superintendency of the Vermont
organization, undertaken when he re-
signed his passionate of the Christian
church in Randolph. The Detroit jour
nal says in part
"Tbe Michigan branch Of the league
has been in existence for several years,
but it has attracted serious public atten-
ton only within the last two or three
years under the administration of Rev. @.
w. Morrow, who has brought it into pol
itics, not as third party, not as an ag.
gregation of uniformed and inexperi-
enced enthusiasts, but as an organization
that knew the legislative game as it is
played according to Hoyle.
ssFor instance, during the last session
of the legislature, demand appeared for
the organization of surety bond com
pany within the state for the handling of
securities required from saloon keepers.
The Anti-Saloon league did not like the
idea; for it was by making the smaller
cities and villages sizzle with Indignation
against any private citizen who went on
liquor bond that the league had stirred
up many hornets nest for the saloon in
terests.
s.The league was strong enough and
alert enough to see that some kind of a
bonding measure might pass, and
through its attorney tackled on an amend
ment which in effect provides for town.
ship and municipal option. This amend
ment leaves the acceptance of the liquor
bond, without which no saloon keeper
can engage in business, entirely to the
discretion of the township board, village
trustees or city aldermen; and it also
makes it unlawful for any of these local
bodies to accept any bond if a contra Pc
tition is presented by majority of the
voters for governor at the last election.
1t was home run for the Anti-Saloon
league with the bases full.
ssBut with the wisdom of experience
on the firing line, the Anti-Saloon league
is not going to tamper with the constitu-
tional convention unless some hostile en-
actment is proposed. From Lansing
come frequent rumors that constitutional
prohibition will be attempted, and these
gain credence from the fact that
a prohibitionist is at the head of the con-
vention's liquor committee. But it is the
feeling of the Michigan league that con-
ditions are not yet ripe for prohibition in
this state and they could consistently ask
for nothing less.
sssAll we ask is the American privilege,
the right of the majority to rule said
Morrow. 1--WE ask that
the people of each community shall be al
lowed to say whether or no they want the
saloon. We have only one dry county in
Michigan now. But beginning at the
Indiana line in the west of the state we
90 for
paign for local option in a double tier Of
"a counties extending to the north of the
peninsula.
I'VE have eight people who are devot-
ing all their time to the work, and while
it keeps us busy to finance our affairs we
are getting most encouraging support.
We have an Office in Grand Rapids and
an office in Ishpeming. Up in that min
ing town, 81 saloon men were hailed into
court during part of September and Octo-
Der and two of them sent to Jail. In
Grand Rapids, Prosecutor Macdonald has
the law in way that classes
him with Joseph Folk of Missouri.
9. Detroit and other large cities will
hardly enter the prohibition class for
many years to come, chiefly on account of
the number of foreigners to whom beer is
meat as well as drink. The next step
will probably come in the reduction of
the 160O-odd saloons which infest the city
in the proportion of one to about 225 peo-
pie.
80 The extent to which anti-saloon leg
islation has swept the country is best evil
denced by the fact that in the past seven
years the number of people in the United
States living under prohibitory laws,
state or local, has increased by over 49,
900. 600. The figure is now 33, $780, 900, or
about 40 per cent of the entire popula-
ton. In 1870, just about one-tenth that
number were in dry territory.
g AS might be expected, the dry senti
ment is not evenly distributed over the
1t is at the present time strong
est in the south, long famed in jingle and
anecdote as the home of the mint julip
and the bibulous colonel.
6 sGeorgia's recent fight, resulting in
state prohibition, has, of course, attracted
much notice. Besides Georgia, Okla
homa, which may properly be considered
4 southern state, voted prohibition into
its new constitution. The election of
Governor Noel in Mississippi practically
assures the passing of prohibition law
in that state, and Former U. S. Senator
Carmack, one of the shrewdest of demo-
cfdllc LEAFLETS, Is out LOT tne RuDeTHdtufidl
in Tennessee on a straight
prohibition plank. South Carolina is al
so likely to vote dry in the near future
and it is practically certain that the Ala
bama legislature will pass prohibitory
aw at it's next session. Governor Glenn
Of North Carolina and Governor Broward
Of Florida are both out for state prohib-
tory law.
g sOf other southern states, Kentucky
has 81 dry counties out of 119, with only
Jour that are wholly wet. Arkansas is
swo-thirds dry, under local option.
Louisiana has the least prohibition senti-
nent of all the southern states, but at
hat seven-eighths of the country districts
are dry. Texas is two-thirds dry.
g Maine and Kansas, of course, are the |
Did prohibition states. North Dakota is |
also dry throughout, making five in all. !
Other northern states that have large no.
license districts are Iowa, with So out of