Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1912-07-10
EVERYBODY IS ROASTED
TAFT is CHARACTERIZED AS HAv.
ING PLAYED INTO HANDS or
LIQUOR INTERESTS
ROOSEVELT IS ACCUSED
TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN SAYS
FORMER PRESIDENT is NOT
SINCERE

Atlantic City, n. }, July lO.--f
sensational attack upon Presiden
Taft, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt an'
the republican and democratic par
ties in general marked the beginning
here today of the eleventh nationa
prohibition convention. Clinton H
Howard of Rochester, N. Y, temper
airy chairman of the convention
made a speech which bristled will
denunciation of the ''boss-ridden, 1t
quor-controlled old parties" He de
clared nothing in the way Of real re
form was to be gained from either Of
them or from third party dominated
by Colonel Roosevelt.
mo other president since the foun,
dation of this government, declared
Mr.. Howard, has surrendered more
abjectly to the liquor interests of this
nation than has William Howard Taft.
His record is too recent. familiar and
odoriferous to require review in this
intelligent presence"
Mr. Howard said 1t would be a
criminal waste of time to argue that
the liquor traits could be stamped out
through the republican party, ''by its
silent platform. its present and un-
worthy leadership. its long consistent
liquor record and its present mono
poly nurtured candidate who obtain
ed his nomination at the hands of a
convention which Theodore Roosevelt
declares represents nothing but sue
cessfAl political fraud perpetrated in
the interest of political and financial
privilege and who more than any
of his predecessors has become the
wet nurse for the saloon"
"And what better results can be
expected from the democratic party?
Not only as little but less than no
thing at all.
Exactly the same influences that
poisoned the republican puarty at Chi
cago we're in control at Baltimore.
1T may be said in truth that the
splendid Woodrow Wilson was not
Mr.. Murphy's choice; but the cam
paign banner decorated with his pic
ture. was flung to the breeze in front
of Tammany hall one half hour after
his nomination, on the order Of
Charles Murphy by long distance tele-
phone, and the candidate has since
sent his regrets that a prior engage
ment prevented his presence at Tam
may on the Fourth Of July"
The temporary chairman said that
while Governor Wilson was known as
good man" the prohibitionists are
mot here to elect good man. but
to kill the liquor traffic." Mckinley
and Harrison were good men" in the
White House, he AIDED 'but they went
out Of office with the country more
saturated with rum than when they
went in"
After severely criticising the demo-
cratic house of representatives for
its failure to enact legislation pro-
hibiting the shipment of liquor into
prohibition territory in the souta,
Chairman Howard turned his guns on
Colonel Roosevelt.
How about the promised progress
sive Roosevelt party?' he was asked.
I'VE have already two whiskey par
ties and do not need another. From
the standpoint Of the prohibitionists
by his record, public utterances and
personal habits, he is the
least desirable of them all
Posing as the thou shalt not steal
candidate because his partisans were
not preferred over President Taft's
in the convention, he brazely boasts
that he stole the Isthmus of Panama
from Colombia and let congress de-
bate about It afterward'