The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1912-05-23
THE PEOPLES FORUM
Continued from Page Four


change. He is entitled to, and will
have earned, all the honor" such pro-
ceedings brings to any man. In his
latest effuslon he points out how easy it
would have been to secure the passage
of the Oakland Bill in the House, yet
in his former winnie he endeavored to
have it appear that the task was too
great for any member to accomplish
that the bill came over to the House too
late; that it was not in the hands of the
Temperance committee at all, and that
any effort he might have made in its
favor would have been of no avail.
Hypocrisy again-or ignorance, which?
Weimer knows, should know, that the
House Temperance committee was
named by the Speaker at the behest of
the Baltimore City gang and that the
committee was controlled by the 'wets"
who were in the majority on that COM
mittee. He knows, or should know,
that the House Temperance committee
would report no measure providing for
local option anywhere in the State, IN
less compelled to do so, and right here.
in these circumstances, is where the
good Cor bad offices of the Garrett coun.
ty temperance enthusiast GU could have
been effective. Had Weimer and his
colleagues, Messrs. Lawton and Long,
with his Senator, gone to the Temper
ance committee and demanded that the
Oakland bill be reported, Weimer knows
the rules could have been suspended as
often as was necessary to report the
bill and push it along to its final passage,
had he been favorably inclined to such
procedure. But with the Garrett Dele
cation divided with even one member
(Weimerl of the Delegation opposed to
the bill, however impecunious that
member NAV have been, the Temper
ance committee had all the excuse,
argument and precedent necessary to
hold the bill and strange it to death
and this was done. The Oakland Bill
was smothered by the Temperance com
mittee, not because of Weimer' s self
opinionated influence one way or the
other. but because the committee re-
ported nothing in the way of temper
ance Legislation which they were not
actually compelled to report by positive
and united action on the part of the
delegation in interest.
Wemer contends that he wanted all
of Garrett county to vote on the local
option proposition for Oakland. and he
flaunts this. and Senator Speicher' s
alleged refusal to accept such a pro-
position, in the face of the people as an
evidence of his own sincerity and of the
Senator's treacherv. More rotor
ignorance: Weimer knows, or should
know, that under the provisions of the
Anti-Saloon League Local Option Bill
ALL DRY" TERRITORY WAS
EXEMPTED FROM VOTING, and the
question of voting for or against the
saloons was to be submitted only to the
''Wet' sections. Isn't that so, Mr.
Weimer? Isn't that the very thing
which defeated the Anti-Saloon League
Statewide Bill-the adoption Of an
amendment which left only the dry
territory to come in under the provisions
of the bill, and these could not vote at
all? Is that right or wrong? Yet YOU
boast of your sincerity in the temper
ance cause and your consuming desire to
see local option for your home city by a
means which you must have known was
forbidden and prohibited by the State
wide Bill itself? Out upon such count
erteit temperance loyalty.
This controversy has reached the
stage where self-respect compels me to
halt. After reading Delegate Weimer' S
first attack upon Senator Spelcher
through me, in which Weimer endeavor-
ed to make out as erroneous and I'M
worthy of belief certain facts and state
ments which | had given to the people
Of Garrett county through my news
letters from Annapolis / set out, on
reading this, to prevent any injustice
being done to the distinguished Senator
from Garrett through me, and also to
prove that what had written for the
Oakland papers concerning Delegate
Weimer and his defeat of the Oakland
Local Option Bill was true. In this
have succeeded. Having, in my article
under date of April 10th, bun I'D the
Garrett County Statesman under an
avalanche of fact and corroboratve
evidence sustaining everything | had
said or intimated concerning him pre-
viously, and the Oakland Local Option
Bill as well, now attempts to evade the
whole proposition and side-step my
proofs and of his questionable conduct
with respect to Senator Speicher's bill.
Ignoring entirely my complete exposure
of his inconsistency and contemplate
misrepresentation, he would dispose of
the whole matter by brazenly confess
ing Eyes, | killed the Oakland Local
Option Bill and would do it again, and
then runs from the field. returning with