The bee., 1911-08-18

1 and must be dealt lightly with, the ar
gument is effective upon many mem
bers. The interest" gets Its protec-
ton. It pays In party contributions.
There Is no other earthly reason why
they contribute to campaign funds. II
Ia for immunity. And they must gen.
orally get what they pay for, or they
would have quit paying. Only very
rich concerns could stand such ex-
pense. They OF course expect TO and
DO get their money back OF the peo-
pie whose representatives they have
led TO betray their trusts. Thus II has
been that the great interests have
grown 20 enormously III this country.
They are Democrats where the Legis-
lature IL Democratic, and Republicans
whsro Il Is Republican. Their agents
are known as lobbyists. They are
partisan bipartisan and omni-partisan
They are always genial, kindly cour-
teous and corrupt. They are cunning
and quiet. They hate noise, and light,
and the confusion Of public discussion.
Their ways are turtive, their influence
sinister, their power corroding. II
these gentry should be curtailed In
their activities two results may be ex-
pected-one. the campaign fund, so
dear and 30 necessary to the main.
tenance OF party machine, Is cut on;
and the other. the peoples representa-
tives In the Legislature would be un-
trammeled by the influence OF that
body in enacting laws. My notion Is
to abolish the professional lobby. They
bring disgrace sooner or later-as wit
ness Ohio and Illinois; they bring In
evitably corruption; they retard pub.
lie business; they defle our statutes.
When you smash the lobby you will
have swatted the mother of party ma,
chimes.
The business of the professional lob
byist is to either procure legislation
which his employer wants enough to
pay we'll for II, or to defeat general
legislation In behalf Of the public when
It tends 10 curtail his lawless opera
tions. The lobbyist works for hire
works always against the public, and
always for interests conspiring to
hlch the public His concern is only in
his pay. But his employers concern
is much larger. Hence he and his em.
ployer fight together against any one
on the same footing with the rest OF
maintain that a professional lobbyist
is good thing; they do not care to
discuss that issue. They prefer that
II be not discussed. No more do they
desire the merits and demerits of their
particular business methods discussed
But they know these matters will be
discussed unless public attention is
distracted by something else. Hence
they. and all who serve them and all
whom in turn they serve politically,
unite In clamor to drown discussions
Of the main ISSUE False issues must
be raised instead The people must
be fooled - and enough additional
bought to outnumber those who listen
think and act according TO clear judg-
ment- You need not be surprised
therefore in this campaign to hear me
most bitterly arraigned for all kinds OF
imaginary or trumped-up things. Per-
sonal abuse is an old-fashioned weapon
that has done much service In the past
in obscuring real issues In the alb
sence of any real matter for complaint,
they will invent, lie slander, and de-
stroy. Do not think that the interest
which deliberately plans to plunder a
whole people would stop at any kind Of
injury TO him who dares get In the
way. II has already begun In deadly
earnest. You might look 10 see who
II is that speaks In behalf Of these in
terests. They employ talent, where II
10 for hire, always IN preference to
stupidity. They do not always pay In
money. once is both a good and valu-
able consideration In such transac-
tions. Then by making their attack
under the name of a great political
party they can get for nothing the serv-
Ices of the bigoted class of partisans-
including newspapers of that class
small men blinded by party fury and
consumed by small hatreds. Such are
their methods, and II Is this fight
which is now on In earnest before the
people OF Kentucky.
Shall Liquor interests or Constitution
PrevalI7
There are a number Of such interests
back Of this fight against our ticket
in Kentucky this year. I will from
time 10 time speak Of them and their
methods in detail Today I will men
ton one only. That is the liquor inter
est. It's concern Is great. 1t Is one OF
the oluebts DOlueSL ana mObL BucceSSIQl
trusts-or rather, two trusts-in the
country. The public has not concerned
Itself much with the commercial fea-
lures Of those trusts, because It was
not concerned much whether the price
OF drinks was high or low The con-
dition Is wholly unlike that presented
by manufacturers of other commodi
ties. Hence the whisky trust and the
beer trust have gone along unmolested
and uninvestigated in so far as they
are simply trusts. The public has
dealt more with the question of regu-
lating the retail business, as a matter
Of policing, rather than with its COM
mercial feature Among the expedi-
ents resorted to by the public Is that
OF prohibiting the sale by retail at all
In certain localities, as in sparsely-
settled rural communities, In the
of churches. schools, etc
Kentucky undertook in the beginning
Of the discussion to regulate, not only
where and how, but whether liquors
should be sold by retail in particular
sections. In 1891 the people adopted a