The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-03-20
.BROADS|OE SENT
INTO DRY CAMP
BY MARSE HENRY
Veteran Editor, Henry Wat
terson, Denounces the Tenn
perance Wave in Very
Caustic Editorial.
UNION OF THE CHURCH
AND STATE ATTACKED
He Cites the History of All
Ages to Prove the FutiIity
Of Prohibition Aims-virtue
Fled.

tennessee, winch recently went Dry.
and the fight which has already begun
in Kentucky for the adoption of a uni
form county unit law. and perhaps for
state wide prohibition, Henry Waiter
son. from his winter home in Florida.
last night sent broadside into the
camp of the Anti-Saloon league and
prohibition forces.
In his declaration which was pub
lished this morning. Mr.. Watterson
not only flags the preachers and others
throughout the land who are clamor-
ing for prohibition. but also silences
those who have been reporting that he
retired from activity. He makes good
his words Of few nights ago that he
was still on the firing line
when one takes heed of what has
passed and is passing in Tennessee. he
Is impelled to think. with Antony. that
men have lost their reason and patriot
ism and virtue have fled to british
beasts says the veteran editor. AS
suredly those who are responsible for
this state of things and who promote
it can not be too severely antagoniz-
ed.
There has been no time in Tennes-
see or Kentucky, or in any state of the
union, when John Barleycorn could be
called king or when he exercised pre-
ponderating influence.
John Barleycorn is simply con-
venient figure Of speech. He wears a
coat of many colors. Sometimes he
calls himself republican and some
times a democrat. though, as a rule.
inclining to prohibition-as to sumptu-
airy laws in general-the republicans
call him democrat.
Burn House to Roast Pig.
"In Maine and the Western Reserve
lion has long been the republican
watchword.
But, in point of fact. John Barley
corn has no fixed politics. His influ-
ence has always been sporadic and cas-
ual. Nothing is easier than to down
him on any issue having reason to
support it.
are temperate people. They are sober
people. Public opinion may always
be united on proper restriction and
regulation. Order and law. the foun-
dation of morality. can only be promot-
ed by proper regulation and restric-
ton.
This does not suit the combine of
politicians and preachers who consti-
tute the Anti-Saloon league. To roast
their pig their sole idea is to burn the
house
That the states of the South. with
all history to warn them against the
fusion of religion and politics-espec-
tally with the history of Puritanism
in Massachusetts, and of Prohibition in
the state of Maine to advise them of
the wickedness and futility of sumptu-
airy laws-should propose. at this late
day to forget the lessons of the past.
and at a time when the better judg-
ment of the North inclines toward the
separation of church and state. to ex-
change places with the New England
of Cotton Mather and Wendell Phil
lips and Lloyd Garrison. is proof mere
ly of how enduring things are often
sacrificed for present relief.
ITO keep whiskey from the negro is
the strength of prohibition in Georgia,
Alabama. Mississippi and Tennessee.
The white people in none of these
states can believe that hysteria Is a
possible basis for good government. No
thoughtful man can see a flock of ig-
norant and excited women and inno-
cent children gathered about the polls
with equanimity.
Reason Is Sent to Rear.
eff it is wise and right in one cause,
it must be wise and right in every
cause: reason sent to the rear, emotion
hurried to the front: song and prayer.
not intelligent discussion. the arbiter
in elections; the fanatical preacher in
collision with the raseally politician,
the real leaders of the people: the un-
ion of church and state complete.
Truly. the negro, to whose impas-
siye agency we owe SO many woes.
still is potential instrument in the
hands of the intolerant clerical and the
artful demagogue.
But is it possible that these sinister
1OEcoS. UlsSukStu DIS temperance WCTk~
ers can blot out from the memory OF
Kentucky and Kentuckians the lessons
which their fathers brought from Vir-
ginia. or blind their eyes to the evil
spirit which their efforts. in the name
of morality and religion. have already
caused to walk abroad in Tennessee
Alabama. Mississippi and Georgia. IA
sr.- hi
fancy partyism eliminating in blood.
shed.
The world owes 100 years of blood
and terror. of brutality and wrong to
religion in politics. As the church.
built upon the teachings of Jesus OF
Nazareth. acquired property its priest
hood began to grid this property round
with laws to protect it, Out Of these
laws grew theology
NO man holds religion in greater
rsyerencs and its ministers In more re-