Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1913-11-20
A Thrilling Statement.

Al inc SIcdl SOHfSHllOn OF tnc NdIlOndl
Anti Saloon League in Columbus, Ohio,
last week, one Of the most remarkable OF
number of episodes was the thrilling
statement of former Governor M. r.
Patterson, of Tennessee. Twice elected
Governor of that State as "wet' candi-
date, Mr.. Patterson has become convert
ed TO the temperance cause. In his speech
before the conYention he said in part:
The Anti-Saloon League and have
not always been friends. The paths we
travelled were wide apart. They seemed
so parallel that il looked incredible that
they should ever meet. But they have
met. The path travelled turned in its
course. 1t ran into the other, and we
now find ourselves in the same road,
marching in the same direction, under
the same flag, actuated by the same de-
sire to destroy the traffic in liquor and
redeem nation from its curse.
al am aware that to have suddenly
changed the views OF mature manhood,
which once asserted and proclaimed
from one end of Tennessee to the other,
has excited surprise and provoked COM
ment. But this is world OF change.
Stagnation is decay, and progress is the
command of the age and the hope of
mortality. am neither ashamed nor
abashed TO stand before this great audi
ence and acknowledge the wrong, when.
| once advocated policies which would
have made legal trade which have
come 10 look upon as having no rightful
place in the scheme and economy of
Christian civilization"
Commenting on one of his own mes
sages to the Tennessee Legislature in
which he opposed further legislation TO
regulate the saloon traffic, Mr.. Patterson,
reiterating that at that time those were
his honest convictions based upon mis-
guided judgment, continued:
81 say to you, fully conscious OF the
meaning and responsibility of the decla-
ration, that if this message has encour-
aged lawlessneSs or ever been sought as
a refuge for violators OF the law, if it had
to stand as my last expression on the
liquor question, would consume il in
the living fires and erase it forever from
the minds and memories of men.
"My life has had deep sorrows. My
soul has been tossed on the waves of
angry seas. My nature has been pro-
foundly touched and stirred.
81 have seen the trial of liquor in the
criminal courts where have prosecuted
crime. know and have been a partici-
pant in its paralyzing and corroding in
fluence in the social and public life of
our National Capital. AS the Governor
of Tennessee have seen il veritable
and raging center OF storm around which
gathered its defenders and assailants, and
from which sprang divisions in parties,
disputes in families and dissensions in
churches.
"Going through lite, have seen il
drag down many OF the associates of my
boyhood, blasting their hopes and con-
signing them to uhtimely graves. have
seen It's forked lightning Strike my first
born-the child Of my young manhood
and have borne with him the suffering
and tried to help him in his brave but
sometimes melancholy struggle for re-
demption. At last have felt its foul and
stealthy blow as it turned upon me in
its deadly and shaming wrath-upon me
who had pleaded before the people for
its very existence. Men have called me
strong; and while could see its harm
in others, | thought myself immune, as
thousands before my time have thought,
and suffered for the thought.
"AIl this | knew and felt without
revelation Of the deep pathos and mean
ing OF it all. needed help, for | was
cropping and my feet were stumbling in
the dark.
"When logic failed and reason gave no
answer, I cast aside all pride OF opinion,
all thought OF what the world might say
or think, and went to the throne of AL
mighty God. There, on bended knees,
asked for light and strength. and they
came. The curtains Of the night parted,
and the way was clear. Iarose changed |
man.
"The saloon cannot produce one vera
cious witness in its favor as il stands in
dicted before the bar of public opinion.
''It stands convicted felon and must |
receive the sentence OF the law. 1t must :
go, never to return, and with the going ]
of the saloon liquor itself should go.
81 favor prohibition in any form that
will either reduce or destroy the liquor
traffic. favor it personal-wide, town
wide, State wide, nation wide and world
wide"
Progress on the extensive improve
ment work which the Baltimore and Ohio