The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-09-22
w. H. Carpenter, Fellow Towns
man, Calls Him to Account.
Charges Governor With Misrep-
resenting Bryan's Position.
THE LIQUOR QUESTION
Says 1t Did Not Enter Into Con.
tests Cited.
Says Governor Is Partisan
Before a PrOhiIi ionist.

W. H. Carpenter. a Marion lawyer,
takes exceptions to the interview
given out by Governor Hoch. Septem-
Der 81 relative to the comparative po-
sition of William Jennings Bryan and
Judge Taft on the prohibition ques-
ton. and has addressed the following
open letter to Governor Hoch:
Having read your interview con-
tanned in the Topeka State Journal
OF September 81 in regard to Judge
Taft, and knowing that it is in part
so manifestly untrue. 1 take this oc-
casion to call your attention to that
part Of your interview which is un-
true an dtO which I take exceptions.
] am not raising any question regard
ing Mr.. Taft's religion either in my
public addresses or elsewhere. Neither
do I want to be understood as criti-
cising you for saying that you are go
Ing to vote for Mr.. Taft regardless
of his religion. but when you say
over i'm Nebraska a few months ago
Mr.. Bryan tried to make Mr.. Dahl
man governor of the state, and Dahl
man. YOU know. is one of the cham
ptons of the liquor interests of Ne
braska. you state what you know to
be untrue. and must have known il to
be untrue when you made this state
lnpnL as quoted. Mr.. Ddnlman, NT.
Shallenberger and MIR. Berg were all
candidates for the nomination for gov
ernor on the Democratic ticket at the
primaries in Nebraska. You know
that Mr.. Bryan. being a candidate for
president. would not have taken sides
with any one of these candidates for
the Democratic nomination. You
know. or should have known, that Mr..
Bryan did not indorse, in the Com
moner or in any speech. Mr.. Dahlman
for the nomination as against the other
two candidates. You know, or should
have known, that Mr.. Shallenberger.
who was nominated at the prima ries,
is. and has been for many years
close personal friend of Mr.. Bryan,
and that he came to this state year
ago last February for the purpose of
addressing the Democrats of this
state at a banquet held in Topeka as
the personal representative of Mr..
Bryan. Why you should repeat an un-
truthful statement made by the Kan
sas City Star. which paper put in two
months time. about two years ago,
discrediting you. is more than l am
able to understand.
80 far as Mr.. Taft's prohibition
record is concerned. you know that
Mr. Taft did not fight Cox because he
was a whisky man, but that he fought
Cox in order to break up the Ohio
machine to the end that he might
build one, and that Cox is one of the
main spokes in the front wheel.
I'm a speech delivered at the Audi
forum in Topeka May 81, 1904 Judge
Taft deliberately attacked the prohibit
ton situat ton in Kansas in these
words: There has been on the part OF
good Kansas people the strong. convic-
ton that men and women can be made
morally greatly better by legislation
Such a feeling always possesses an
agricultural people of strong moral
conviction and lively imagination, but
as cities grow and the population be-
comes more dense the truth steals over
the clear-headed however moral and
high minded that there is a limit 20
the making or keeping people good by
law. and that when the law essays
more than it can really effect, public
morals are not improved and the au-
thority and sacredness of enacted law
suffers
WILLIAM Howard Taft was against
the abolition OF the canteen, or army
saloon.
william Howard Taft, as secretary
of war, wanted to pay the whisky men
a large sum of money for the whisky
that was destroyed in San Francisco at
the time of the earthquake and fire.
william Howard Taft said in pub
lie speech that the idea that prohibit
tion should be enforced in large cities
is silly and idiotic.
William Howard Taft went to the
territory of Oklahoma and made a
speech for the purpose of defeating the
Oklahoma constitution and prohibition.
For your information will say that
the Mayhan Supply company, a large
wholesale whisky concern now doing
business in Wichita, has a pamphlet
gotten out in defense of whisky selling
IN which there is a long quotation
from a speech made by your William
Howard Taft.
''The trouble with you, Mr. Hoch. is,
that you are always a partisan before
you are a Methodist, you are always a
partisan before you are a patriot, you
are a partisan before you are prohi-
bitionist.
II am as much interested in temper
ance as any man, and have fought re
submission both in and out of the