The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-11-01
REV. WADLE|GH DEFENDS WET
CAUSE BEFORE BIG AUDIENCE

Rev. r. r. Wadledgh. of Illinois,
an ordained minister of the Congrega-
tional church, made the last address
for the "wet" cause at the Royal
Skating ring last night. His audience
filed the building. In the corse of
his remarks he denounced local OPP
tion, stated his reasons for aband-
oning the principles of prohibition
and emphatically advocated the regu-
lation and control of the saloon in
Marion county. His subject was the
Farce and Failure of Local OPTION"
AT the opening of his address he
denounced and denied certain articles
which appeared In the Mirror pre-
tanning to the local option question.
He referred in particular to the
article headed "Meeker, the Apostate
Priest of God" "That article is maxi
ing wet votes hand over fist he said.
lie Denounced the Writer of Article.
Continuing the speaker said, "Ou-
dry friends are good noise makers
but what we want is more light and
not so much noise. We want truth
and cold facts. 1t matters not what
the breweries support. The question
Is DO the dry men tell the truth p
The drys say there Is only one side.
] am here to challenge that statement
There is another side and I will show
you that the dry side epouses the
cause of bootlegging. blind pigs and
speak easles.
"There are on the dry side dreams
and visions against cold facts ana
truth on the wet side; lawlessness
against strong appeal for law and
control of the liquor tl\lffib. We
claim that we are on the right side
and that we uphold the law. The
man on the other side fosters law
breaking. 1 don't care whether a
man is wet or whether he is dry, II
he can't look at both sides of the
question he can't cast an honest ver-
diet at the polls.
"To settle this complicated ques-
ton, we must be honest. We must
quit plpe-dreaming. We must come
down to earth We have cold facts
to deal with and We must be honest
and face the problems of the day.
'The church IS divided on the ques
tion. The man who says that the
church is a unite opposed TO the IT.
ouor traffic, lies. The Catholic church
Int llulHtIdil 1hhiNbt hii'
church are not in sympathy with th'
antl-saloon league and there are gus
as many good Christians dn thes'
churches as in others and there ar
Just as many going TO hell IN thes'
churches as in Others. Discord an'
discomfort are found in the church
have had preachers tell me ina
local option is a farce and tallur'
but they have shackels on their zee
and rings around their neck and the
don't dare break away from the doc
trine of the church. In the rank ant
file of church members you Will nm
hundreds secretly opposed TO loca
option but openly they are Tor II
And I'm not talking at random
have been in the church for twent
years and I know.
r. The sneaker stated that there Wer
four classes of members in the churci
First the tolerationists. These he sal
were the life of the church. Il woul
In God there We're more OF them'
The second class We're the mouera
tionists. "The average church mem
her uses Intoxicating liquor. IT the
don't get a pain in their stomach
and use Il as medicine, they use
for something else. would IKE
have a dollar for each church mem
her who has booze in his cellar, q
I'm his ice box. or under his belt
said. The third and fourth classe
were the local optionists and the pre-
hlbitionists. These Rev, Wadleigh d'
nounced as trouble makers fanatic
and extremists. n
Taking up another phase OF ll