The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-04-20
EXPLANATION
BY SECRETARY
WATERMAN
DISCUSSES AT LENGTH THE CUES
TON OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL
HANDLED BY THE CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE SATURDAY.
Editor Pensacola Journal:

Editor Pensacola Journal:
Please give me as prominent space
as you can to attempt to correct sew
eTal misinteTpTetations of the meeting
Saturday of the Chamber of Com
merce, due in part to lack of informa-
ton as to certain details and in part
to the headlines of the local press
over their reports of the meeting, and
to the absence of details of debate
and explanations OF votes in the re-
ports
1. At no time was either the prin-
cipIe OF the eXpediency of prohibition
discussed, and the vote was not a
lineup for or against prohibition. The
discussion was confined strictly to,
first, does the disturbing of business
incidental to a long campaign justify
the chamber as such in acting? Sec
Ond. do the circumstances constitute
a political question in the sense in
which political questions are barred
by the constitution of the Chamber OF
Commerce?
=. Several of the leaders of those
who voted for the MuldOn resolutions
are avowed prOhibitionistS, and so de-
clared at the meeting, explaining their
votes in favor Of the MUldOn reso-
luton against the statewide prOhibi-
ton amendment by saying that while
they had voted dry in the local cleo
ton and would do so again, they OPP
pose 3 tWO-year agitation of the queS-
ton and consequent disturbances of
business. and also oppose statewide
authority in matters of individual con-
duct that constitute proper exercise
of police power, or local regulation.
3. On the other hand, the leader Of
IaA % ne.rs
of Commerce as a BODY taking any
action whatsoever, is a local optionist
and a dry. He is as much in favor of
local option as the local option men
who voted against him. He was floor
leader of both vets and drys who regard
the pending amendment as a political
question because some have made pro-
hibition a political platform, and there
fore held that IL was a violation OF
the constitution of the Chamber of
Commerce to consider the question at
all. In this class were both vets and
drys.
4. There we're still others who held
that prohibition is d moral AMI eco
nomic question, not a political one,
and that the chamber therefore had a
perfect right under its constitution to
discuss prohibition itself, but who
nevertheless believed that. inasmuch
as the general public regards every
phase of the prohibition movement
as political, the chanJcer as mat
ter of expediency should not discuss
any phase of it. Some of the vets
who voted for the Williams resolu-
ton did so on this ground. So did
some of the dTyS-
AS to the notice of the meeting:
The second largest meeting in recent
years, the one held to discuss the
street car strike. was held on shorter
noSce than the meeting Saturday,
and without any newspaper pUblica-
ton of notice. No complaint was
then made by those who complained
Saturday.
Permit me to observe personally
that in nearly twenty years of news
paper and secretarial work. / have
never known any meeting to adhere
more closely TO the business before
it when that business was divided by
d narrow line from a particular ques-
ton not under discussion. And ]
wish also to ask a little more space
to say as secretary of the chamber
that in the year of my service as
such l have not once before seen so
complete and genuine a desire on the
part of every man present to con-
serve the interests of the chamber as
such
It is impossible to keen extremists
on either side from viewing the
meeting in the light of their own de-
sires, but after year of service as
the executive agent of the chamber
the meeting Saturday. despite the ref
erences of opinion, boJa vets and
drys being divided among themselves
on every point before the meeting, l
feel intensely encouraged by the so
lidarity of spirit and esprit de corps
exhibited at the meeting. 1t was a
1lne proof that the Chamber of Com
merce sentiment has grown finer and
stronger among the members irres-
pectlve Of personal differences on
given points, and as an employee I
feel greatly encouraged over the fu-
ture of the chamber
G. A WATERMAN, Secretary,
Chamber Of Comemrce