The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-11-03
ANOTHER PREACHER IN roLlrrcs.
The news Item herewith appeared In
The Advertiser yesterday under an
opeiika date:

Services were suspended at all the
churches in the city Sunday night and
union prohibition meeting was held
AZ the court house. the speaker OF
pastor q &. e' cssn.Tai prssbste eaas;
Church at Montgomery. who delivered
prohibition sermon.
After prayer by Rev. o. ". Calhoun.
Dr.: Woods was introduced by Dr. A.
p. McFerrin, who stated that II should
be understood that II was not po-
litIcnl rally, but gospel meeting.
political preacher. and that ne would
stick TO his text: that he had been
IN political campaigns before. and that
&c naa eve does ppt have
Conner In mind when advocating pro-
In speaking Of regulating the. saloon
tried for forty centuries and had PROV
ed miserable failure. He scored the
sntf-amendment newspapers. SAYING
we're sos ', we're
$4,000 for whiskcy Advertisement
and who were. afraid that prohibition
Al the conclusion Of the speaking,
II was announced that union services
would be held at the court house
every Sunday night until the close OF
the campaign.
It 10 amusing to observe how DR..
Woods and his opelika colleagues
dlsavow the confessed evil Of po-
,itical preaching. But how did q
sn spension Of Sunday evening services
In the various churches. q gathering
Of many jealous church people in the
court house. q prayer by one minister
and q sermon by another. make the
occasion "a gospel meeting" when the
subject was q political question. and
the appeal was certainly for votes on
a political issuee The difference was
that between tweediedum and
tweediedee. 1t will be noted that
the purpose is manifestly politi-
cal. when IL was announced that these
gospel meetings" are to be held
every Sunday night until the close OF
the campaign.
It is quite clear. therefore. that DR..
Woods left his church pulpit In Mont
gomery on Sunday night to take the
leading part in one of a series Of po-
iiticai rallies In opeiika. He Is hard
ly so unsophisticsted as to plead that
he was deceived or trapped into po-
liticai preaching. Furthermore. there
is internal evidence in the report that
he went into politics very actively.
A striking proof Of his politics. and
of his being q ridiculous figure po-
Iiticaliy, is his statement that he did
mot have Conner In mind when advo-
eating prohibition" 1t is very plain
that he did have Conner In mind. and
that he is aware that Conner. as
factor in the prohibition fight. is Civ
ing the prohibitionists vast concern
They have tried In all sorts of ways
to rid themselves of the milestone
around their necks. and DIR. Woods
voiced their misery very distinctly.
This is true in~a marked degree In
Lee county. and DR.. woods's preach
ing the gospel along that line in ope-
iike. was probably not accidental pol
tiles. 81
/ But DR.. Woods made other political
arguments. One was that the legal
regulation OF the saloon had been
tried for forty centuries and had prov
ed a miserable failure. And then OBJ
serve the profound logic of this po-
litical sermon. Because human pow
err IN political channels has failed by
regulation to remove the evils of ex-
cessive liquor use. he appeals to the
same political powers to wipe out the
saloon. TO stop absolutely the manu-
facture and sale of liquors.! Why has
the political preacher so suddenly be-
come Impressed with the efficiency of
laws to wipe out utterly what they
have never regulated? The inconsis-
tency is amazing. And then II one
should go into the experience of 9TH
err States. which for fifty years tried
DR.. woods's prohibition panacea, what
miserable failures could be shown up?
Five of six New England States. after
continuous additions of the most rig
i'd character to prohibition statutes,
have returned to regulation as the
better method, and in most cases
many of the most zealcus Christian
advocates of the restraint of liquor
evils, have led in these returns to reg
ulation. The sale of liquor has never
been wiped out on any considerable
scale for any length of time; when
sight. 1t has always gone into the
darkness and into worse hands, and 1t
has never disappeared from politics.
In the light of experience Dr. woods's
indictment of regulation is not COM
piete; the lack of regulation--prohi-
bition-has been a more miserable
failure.
mon got into politics when he ar
raigned the anti-amendment newspa=
pers. He is reported to have scored
those especially whose "eeitors were
professed Christians" His logic is
that an editor cannot ne a Christian
and oppose prohibition. What right
has he to set himself up az a judge
M h..