Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-03-06
TEMPERANCE. GENUINE AND OTHERWISE.

majority or the mouse committee anC
others at the hearing held upon the
Shankland bill in the house chamber
at Des Moines Wednesday evening the
affair turned out to be unanimously a
temperance gathering. In behalf OF
the bill, which has been favored by
the liquor interests of the state for the
purpose of abolishing the mulct petit
ton under which many of the largest
cities are going dry, appeared three
| speakers from Ottumwa, all strong in
their professions of temperance, but
none for some strange reason identi-
| fled with the temperance association
of that town which had put the saloons
out of business. According to them
conditions in Ottumwa were so shock
| ingly demoralized that the town was
as dead as a door nail as the result OF
several mulct petition fights and no
| new factories We're coming to town, yet
| the leading manufacturers of OttumWa
had fought the saloons and We're OPP
/ D0SeQ 10 the SIduhIdLt piii.
Then followed lawyer from Des
Moines who claimed to be an ardent
| temperance worker. He had been en-
gagged in trapping preachers, college
professors and other genuinely tenn
perance people into writing letters
| in support of the Shankland bill under
/
endorsing the Australian ballot. When
they had subsequently, withdrawn their
! original replies, this ardent temperance
worker was inclined to pinion them
with the charge Of cowardice. There
also appeared a Methodist preacher
whose incumbency of Methodist
Episcopal pastorate will. under the
circumstances, probably be Of limited
duration.
Two other Des Moines preachers.
however, opposed the bill on the
ground that local option ballot fights in
Ohio and other local option states had
proved just as fierce and as embar-
RAISING to voters as any petition fight.
Then Mr.. Taft, of the Business Mems
Temperance Association Of Cedar Rap
| ids himself a wholesale merchant, OPP
posed the bill and declared that the
| Ottumwa men had exaggerated con-
ditions and libeled their town.
| Mr.. Black, the big dry goods mer-
! chant, and Mr.. Wilson. OF Waterloo. tes-
tilted that the petition fights in Water
| loo had not hurt the town. They in
sisted that the reason the liquor inter-
ests are trying to abolish the petition
| method is because il was actually do
| ing the business for those who seek
| to abolish saloons.
| Mr.. Norris, Of the citizens temper
ance association of Marshaltown. a
publisher and a manufacturer, said
that his town was far more prosperous
since the closing of saloons than it had
been in sixteen years. He advised
the committee to examine the credent-
| iaIs of those who posed as temperance
! workers who were supporting the bill
and exposed the fact that none Of them
seemed TO be Identified with the anti
| saloon organizations of their towns. He
said that the literature circulated In
tha interest of the saloon cause was
boosting for the Shankland bill. In
his opinion the saloon crowd, who had
| proposed the petition plan twenty
wears ago. were trying to change the
rules of the game now simply because
they were being licked under their own
rules He declared the protestations OF
ma triotism insincere on the par OF the
| bills authors because the ballot was
substituted for those who wanted 20
get saloons in, while the petition
method was left for those who would
get saloons out and no effort had been
made in the bill to extend the sancti-
! fled ballot 70 the voters Of county in
the vicinity of saloons baneful in
| fiuence but outside of the city nor to
the women of the city and county who
were far more entitled to voice in
the selection of environment for their
sons and husband than any man could
| be.
| Repeated interruptions Of the Mar
shalltown speaker by Mr.. Shankland
and his attorneys indicated that the
speaker was uncovering some things
that were not pleasant but the majority
of the committee and opponents of the
saloon seemed entirely satisfied WITH
their witness. Later an attorney from
Ottumwa in rebuttal interrupted by a
question from Norris retired in con-
fusion under the excuse that ne had
misplaced his glasses.
! The Shankland bill will not be passed
By this Legislature.
| Topics of the Times