The public weal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1906-1908, 1907-07-01
FORWARD! MARCH!"
Legislation While Named by Sar Chamber
Council il ST. Washington

For half century the dominant
parties have held the power of gov
ernment, both state and national, and
the saloon still lives. 1t thrives. 1t
flourishes. 1t has increased five
times as fast as the population dur
ing the past five decades. And it
will continue for the next hundred
decades if those political parties COM
mitted to it's protection continue to
name the Speaker and the committees
of our legislative bodies.
We have elected majority of mice
men" to the legislature with the gusto
of victory at nearly every election for
thirty years but we never yet had
temperance committee in either house!
Where was the local option measure
slaughtered last winter? In the COM
mittee! Who sandbagged the bill to
allow the people of this state direct
vote on the liquor question? The COM
mittee!
Who killed county option in the
Senate? The committee!
Who killed county option in the
House in 1905? The committee! And
when Jake Jacobson made his valiant
fight for the same measure eight
years ago, what beat the bill to a
jelly and dropped it out of the win
dow? The committees!
And in 1887-twenty years ago
when a great popular demonstration
for the submission of the question to
the people was ditched, who was re-
sponsible? The committee!
And who makes the committee?
The Speaker!
And who controls the Speaker?
His party! He is elected by his party
and is his party's servant. If his party
is for high tariff, he appoints high
tariff committee. And he ought. If
his party is for free trade, he appoints
a free trade committee. And he ought.
If his party is for gold, he appoints a
gold committee. And he ought If
his party is for bimetalism, he appoints
a committee dominated by that faith.
And he ought. If his party is for
whisky he appoints (and read his
tory) a whiskey committee. And he
ought. If his party is for prohibi-
tion he appoints a committee which
stands for it. And he ought.
Speaker Johnson in the last session
appointed a Temperance" (?) COM
mittee hostile to every temperance
measure that was worth picking up
off the street. For him to have done
otherwise would have been as treach-
erous as for Tom Reed as Speaker Of
the National House in 1897 under Nc
Kinley to have appointed free silver
committee to handle the currency
bills.
Lieutenant-G Governor Eberhard is a
Christian and temperance man, but
as Lieutenant-G he is the SER
want of party committed to the
liquor interests, and when he put eight
whiskey men out of total of nine
on the temperance (?) committee Of
the Senate last year, he did his plain
duty If the Prohibitionists should
elect brewer as Lieutenant Governor,
he would be a Judas If he did not
name a temperance committee favor
able to prohibition.
There is cry for better men. Where
are we to go for better man than
Lieutenant-G Eberhard a
temperance man, a total abstainer, a
vigorously active Christian, and a
faithful servant Of the party that elect
ed him! But the worst Prohibitionist
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