The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1908-02-01
URGES DEFEAT
OF LIQUOR
BILL
Head Of German-A American
Alliance Pleads With
Senate Committee.
Especial to the Evening start

WASHINGTON, ID. c., Feb. DE
claring that the passage of an inter-
state liquor bill would be an infringe
ment ON the rights of citizens, and
would be a check to their personal
liberty, c. ]. Hexamer, president of
the National German-American ALI
ance, appeared before the Senate COM
mittee on judiciary today n urged
the members to report adversely on
the proposed measure. He referred to
resolutions which had been passed by
the State and national executive COM
mittees of the alliance, expressing the
views of the German-American ele-
ment on the matter. His plea in part
follows:
I'VE are bitterly opposed TO the passage
of any law that destroys our rights of
personal liberty, and for the protection
OF those rights we stand united as one
body. The right TO drink our wine and
our beer, and TO import 1t we consider
as absolute an attribute of human liberty
as 1t the right to buy any other food. The
I in hls own way should not be sacrificed
to the fears and the fanatioism OF those
who regard or pretend to regard drink as
a crime, We COMMUNICATIONS have
| Nv ailONNb OAt ' VI " oha hAiAhh
TO degenerate into intempcrance or to
interfere with the good OF the community,
aud we regard these bills as an upright
eous invasion OF CUP manhood rights and
Of human freedom, and as one of the most
misleading and ubiquitous measures ever
introduced into Congress.
1.-THE strongest plea that can be put for
ward in favor of this iniquitous measure i,
that It would enable the governments OF
prohibition States to prevent persons to
bring a glass Of beer TO their tables. be
I ra men u T,paxaf1fY,v mo opffar In CIIat1 Stat
desires. or pretends to desire, this end.
Let us hope, Mr.. Chairman, that the spirit
Of liberty has not sunk so low In this oui
beloved republic that national laws can be
enacted to crush the individual freedom OF
an intelligent minority in States that have
become so atrophied that they cannot en-
force their own police regulations,
w are opposed to prohibition, not be
cause we are addicted to the use of splritu-
GUS liquors. for we are not. but for the
sake of principle and personal liberty, and
for those we stand embattled against hyp-
ocrisy. This is our duty because we are
able TO prove by statistics that there are
more, than twice as many arrests for
drunkenness IN pI2hLpitlon states thaf
I'VE advocate temperance or moderation
not total ~abstlnence, because we know
what Germany has achieved by virtue OF
education in the furtherance of true tenn
per9nce.
WASHINGTON. Feb. 1.-The sub-com-
mittee of the Senate committee on iud-
iciary consisting of Senators Knox, Nelson,
Fulton and Bacon. appointed TO hold hear
ings ON bills and resolutions providing for
the withdrawal OF Federal liquor licenses
In prohibition States, today listened TO argyll
/ ments by members OF the German Ameri-
car alliance and representatives of Wine
Growers Associations, directed against the
passage OF any measures of the kind pro-
posed.
Miss Phoebe Cousins, the former tenn
perance advocate and woman suffTagist,
made a stirring address in support OF the
contentious of the COMMUNICATIONS, say
ing that she had once supported the pro-
hibition idea, but that she had found it
to be n fraud and a failure" She said
that 1t was decreed In the constitution
that men should not be deprived of life,
liberty and the pursuit OF happiness, and,
therefore, it was outside the province of
the government to interfere in the liquor
traffic by admitting that States rights are
supreme over the powers of the Federal
government.
You cannot take man." said she, "who
from time immemorial has been accus-
toned to some kim of drink and deprive
him of II. Every nation the world has
known bad its form Of strong drink. Noah
himself had a potion in his days. which
would be considered as strong and harmful
as wood alcohol. You cannot remove the
custom of drinking by a prohibition law
Miss Cousins said that S2S7, 5000 was
paid to the government annually in the
form OF internal revenue, and drew atten-
ton to the fact that the Senators OF the
subcommittee were themselves drawing a
part of their salary from this fund. Are
you prepared to destroy this revenue at
the dictatlon Of a monopoly she asked.