The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-09-10
TIMES p,srArcH AND THE ENABLING ACT.


The Times-Dispateh, still refusing TO recognize
the fact that the Enabling Act was introduced
In the Legislature in the form In which the
Temperance leaders desired 1t passed. and that
&c introduced 1t did not contain certain amend
msnts to which the T;mesD Dispatch now takes e1-
ception returns to charge that prohibition
leaders believed real prohibition law would not
be adopted by the voters"
The T,mesDispatch knows, and has known all
the time, that t,is not question of what the
voters would adopt but what the wet Senate OF
Virginia would dare to refuse their constituents.
The Times Dispatch does not state that 1t opposed
the Enabling Act before the amendments over
which Ii now gags, were adopted, and that re-
s1rdiess of the success OF the wet interests IN
defeating the manifest will Of the people, ana
the plain desires of the temperance leaders, In
grating these amendments on the bill, the
TlmesDtspdtch opposed the Enabling Act In the
list Legislature Just as 1t has opposed any and
every temperance measure that has ever been
before that body.
The T4mes-DEspatch is manifestly attempting
ID show that It's opposition is based On certain
were placed there by the Temperance leaders
snd that therefore. the ground of It's opposition
vas furnished by the temperance leaders and
not by Its own animus and constitutional OPP
rcsst,on 70 any sort of temperance reform move
ment.
The effort to charge insncerity to the voters
of Virginia by asserting that they would not
saoyt a real temperance measure. but would
srnz xYd saive their consciences with a defec-
tive rus are. Ia another page out of the book
from which the TimesDtspatch drew the as
founding charge that the State of Virginia was
governed by "plunderbund." II may be wise
Tor political effect to berate, Islander and viify
! few leaders. but campaign manager would
support the Indictment brought by the Times
Dispatch against the voters of Virginia. Edmund
Burke declared that he did not know how to
draw up an indictment against whole people,
but things that trouble great statesmen are easy
Tor the Ttmes-Dispatch.
Again. the Times Dispatch says In all solemni
": .There is no reason to believe, and there
never was any reason to believe. that the
Enabling Act would have been defeated In the
General Assembly of Virginia If these and other
unfair and dislngenuou amendments had not
been incorporated into the bill"
This statement Is all the more remarkable in
view or the fart that tire 7'fmFssf1tsputch and
every other wet paper in Virginia. predicted be
fore the Enabling Act was introduced (un-
amended, and at many stages of its passage
through the Legislature. that the Senate would
defeat the measure in any form on the final vote
The Times-Daspasch knows. IL 1t knows any
thing. that 1t only by the greatest general
ship that the bill got even tie vote IN the
Senate It knows that II there ever was neces
sity for the political expediency" that 1t depre
Gates the passage of the Enabling Act by the
Senate was that necessity 1t places itself In the
posftion Of absolutely contradicting the adage
that .half loaf is better than no bread"
The truth of the matter is that the Times
Ysspatch and other wet interests hoped that the
bill would be so crippled on the floor that it
xould be refused by the temperance leaders. who
would thus play into the hands OF the opposition
Another truth is that the TinesDispotch OPP
posed the Enabling Act in its original un-
amended form. and is now attempting to offer
excuses for Its defense Of the saloon by crying
down the means by which the saloon is to be
abolished
why bubble now about amendments adopted
b. the Senate last winter to the Enabling Act?
The design Of the Enabling Act. for which the
people had been pleading for years. was to per-
ptit the citizens Of the State to vote the ques
tlnn of the States continuing Its partnership
With the liquor trafhc. The Ttnes-Dfspntch was
opposed to the people being given that right Just
. Ii 10 now opposed to abolishing the saloon
TIE people understand the position OF that paper
ma Ii less than two weeks they will record their
4udgment on tho issue involved-The Saloon!
THE RICHMOND SALOON.
NacAmonA. tho ocn.er OF the State liz much