The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-14
IN ONE LONG LINE
Temperance Advocates March
Through the Capitol.
Demand Prohibition in District
of Columbia.
I EXCITING SCENE.
Robert Cranes Speech Is Fre-
quently Interrupted.
Said That Liquor Regulation
Had Been a Failure.

Washington, Feb. 14.-Temperance
advocates, one thousand strong,
marched through the national capitol
today in support of the bill introduced
by Representative Webber of Ohio, to
rid the District of Columbia of the Ii
quor traffic. Men. women and chill
dren representing a score of total alb
stinence organizations and the leading
churches of the district formed the
procession which moved through the
capitol for more than two hours, while
Representative Webber and other pro-
hibition advocates were speaking be-
fore the house committee on the Dis
trict of Columbia in an effort to Sc
cure a favora BILE report on the bill.
Only fifty of the temperance advo-
Gates were able to get into the small
committee room, but the army of pro-
hibitionists moved constantly past the
open doors of the room and lent their
support to the arguments against the
sale of liquor.
Repeatedly the crusaders moved
about the rotunda, under the great
dome of the capitol and again and
again the leaders of the movement re-
marked were moving just as around
the walls of Jericho and the barriers
of the demon rum will fall
Surrender was the watchword of
the reformers' and many of them
pointed to the great oil painting in
the rotunda representing the surren-
der of Cornwallisand Burgoyne and
confident that right and justice always
trfumphs, declared that perseverance
will inevitably bring triumph to the
temperance army.
The white ribbons of the Womans
Christian Temperance union predomina-
ted in the long line of crusaders. Wo-
men made up three-fourths of the
al 1Ir's mr. If oil n haT
wore the white badge. There were
plainly dressed women OF all ages and
women dressed in the height of fashion
walked with those wearing the plain
uniform of the Methodist deaconess.
Many mothers carried children in their
arms and led their Families. Among the
ed to prevail. The Rev. Carl G. Doney
and the Rev. E. g. Dinwiddie of the
antisaloon league were among the
prominent leaders. Mrs. Clinton Smith,
president of the District Womens s
Christian Temperance union, headed
column composed of prominent mem
bers of the Recha bites, the Good Temp
lars, the Prohibition Crusaders, the
Catholic Total Abstinence union, the
Christian EndeavOrerS and other re-
form organizations. s
Representative Webber was IN charge
of .he prohibition speakers before the
house committee and Robert Crane led
the argument against the Webber bill.
In his opening speech Mr.. Weber sta
condition of 80 per cent of persons in
the jails, warehouses; and insane hos
pital of the District, and after review
ing the income from liquor licenses. ex-
planned that 1t falls more than 100000
short every year of maintaining the
institutions which he said liquors makes
necessary.
In support of his declaration that
prohibition has been a failure wher-
ever it was tried, Robert Crane quot
ed from statements of the Right Rev.
Henry c. Potter, the Protestant
Episcopal bishop of New York. The
mention of Bishop Potter's named
called forth derisive laughter, followed
by kissing from the temperance ad-
Crane denounced the action of the
prohibition delegation and stated that
Neal Dow, the Maine prohibition lead
er, admitted the week before his death
that he had been on the wrong track
all through his long fight for prohibi
ton.
IT'S not true" practically all the
ed, jumping to their feet and repeat
ing their denials again and again.
Mr.. Crane said the south was mis-
taken in its movement for prohibition
and that the laws regulating liquor
selling in Tennessee and Kentucky
have been a failure. He stated that
the "blind tigers of Tennessee have
caused an increase of murder and
crime in that state. This brought an
emphatic denial from Representative
Sims, of Tennessee, a member of the
house committee on the District of
Columbi who said the speaker had
no knowledge of what he was talking
about and declared that the state of
Tennessee has found its prohibition