The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1908-12-07
TO DRINK
ORNOT TO
DRINK, The
QUESTION
People Up inArnos
OUer Prohibition
Amendment

Charles Brooks Smith writes as TO!
lows in the Sunday letter to the Pitts
! burg Dispatch;
win West Virginia cut out TIL
booze? Tnat's the questttn. and the
answer may come next month at the
Legislative session, or 1t may not come
for two years and more later 1t all
depends-the length OF time to fetch
the answer-what the Legislature
which conYenes the second week in
next January. does: and by the Legis,
lature is meant in this particular in,
stance only the upper branch of that
august Iawpmaking body-the State
Scnate-tor there is no one knowledge,
Gus of the situation who can be founl
who will not agree that the resolu,
ton to submit a prohibition amend.
ment to the voters of the State will
30 through the House Il Delegates on
tls high gear. 1t did 1t at the special
session last January, and 1t will do 1t
at the regular session which conyenes
next month.
For what Is State Senate for? Is
IL not the great conservative force2
The safety valve on irrationalism?
The stratt-jacket for fanatics? Tho
irons Tor the icenolasts who, would
muss up the established order OF
things? sure. Faustine! If the House
Of Delegates want to be teetotalers
and want to make everybody else b..
sides themselves board the aqua pula
rounabout is it not meet and proper
for the great conservative force to step
in and give the Delegates a slap TN the
wrist couple Of times for getting too
gay with the personal liberties of the
proletarat, as we'll as trying to Sc.
off q 98auart nitroglycerlne shot under
40 per cent. OF the States revenues? ?
Meet and proper-verlIy, Faustine,
CHOPPED meat highly seasoned at that.
Drove Amendment Through.
That is what the Senate did last Jan.
uary. some thirty thousand folk. who
were already on the sprnkling cart, or
for selfpreservation, asplred to be
compelled to- get on, petitioned the
Legislature to let the voters say what
they should do. The House of Dele.
gates read the petitions and became
enamored of a desire to swear on
themselves, and they drove a prohibl.
tlon amendment through under whtp
and spur, but the resolution came a
cropperin the upper branch. Not that
all the Senators who stuck vote In
the way OF the resolution and tripped
1t like little something in theirs but
because Of a conscientious regard for
their oaths: or for teason that proll.
bition meant large slice out of the
States reevnues; or, because 1t was
"conflscatory legislation" or, 1t would
hammer down rental and realty val
ues in the towns and cities; or, It
would make labor hard to get in the
coal mines, steel mills and glass fac.
tories; or, it was too radical step to
be taken without the people pondering
ponderous time and they might do
lsometnlng hastily which they would
sadly regret afterward and which the
Senate, as their legal guardians,
should intervene to prevent; or, b4,
cause-well, there were enough rea.
: sons given all right, and any Senator
who voted against the amendment has
the list Of them. lengthy as it is, at
his tongues end,
At the Rinssde Again.
So, oHr old friend, the Rt. Honorable
Prohibition Amendment is back at the
ringslde, ready for scrap that is Ger.
tain to be one Of tae greatest fought
battles ever pulled of in the Charles.
ton legislative arena. When the last
January Legislature failed to let the
folk who do the voting have a say
whether the goblet should stand right
side up or should be made to stanl
on Its mead, there were first rumblIngs
OF discomfort, which arose to the deaf.
ening dignity OF a roar. Besides this
noise in the air thereewere handwrlt.
ngs on the walls and politicians ct
feast stunned pale as they read taem
Charles Wesley swIsher, then in the
fresh bloom of prominence as a suttor
for the Republican gubernatorial nom,
inaton, needed no outside hunca wnere
to aead in. He's politician possessed
of some titty-seven varieties Of intul.
tttons, He straightway. announced his
L -