The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-24
Patterson Den0unces Traffic In Liquor Ex-Governor ProclaiIns Pass ing of the Business in Im- passioned Address at
 Chautauqua As
 seInbly. APOLOGIZES FOR HAVING
 VETOED PROHIBITION His Attitude Is One of UncoIa- promising Opposition to the Continuation of
 the Business in
 This Country.

patlOnS. of those in, charge, ana 1nd1-
 eating one of the largest patr onized
 and most substantial occasions of it's
 kind in the history of the city, the
 fifth annual Chautauqua Assembly o1
 Bridgeport Pastors association was
 formally opened last night in the New
 Casino, 1O75 State street Everything
 went off tremendously. the seating ac-
 commodations~ were excellent and the
 program of exceptional merit. From
 the time that the Y. M. c. A. eight
 piece orchestra, under the 1eadersh ip
 of L. C. Minor, gave the sopening num-
 Der until former Governor Malcolm R. Patterson of Tennessee, concluded his
 address there was close attention. The
 attendance is reported as having ex- . ceeded the 1s50O mark.
 The program was formally opened !! with prayer by Rev. John MacLaren Richardson, pastor of the First Pres 1 byterian church. Mayor Wilson made an address of welcome and congratu- lated the members of the Pastors as- sociation for their successful effort to give Bridgeport something really worth while and of much educational value
 Rev. George M. Brown, pastor of the First Methodist church and father of the Chautauqua idea locally. out lined the various details of the pro- gram. He referred to the represen- tative character of the Chautauqua as- semb1y audiences and then expressed the wish that all would come out to
 church Sunday, adding that this was for the benefit of Rev. Dr. John R. Brown, pastor of the First Baptist church, who sat just behind him.
 pr. Brown referred to the excellent example and that the Bridgeport idea has been patternedFs after in other places. notalb1y in Waterbury where the first Chautauaua assembly opened last night with several of those scheduled to appear in Bridgeport appearing on duced Governor Patterson, one of the brilliant orators of the South. The top1c-taken was Two Sides of 8 Great Issue.
 He told the audience that while he was governor he advocated a system of local option and in a message veto ing the prohibition law he had pre- sented arguments which had been circulated by the millions by support CTS of the liquor interests.
 eff had my way he said, tsI would now consume that message in fire and erase it from the memory of mankind went recently to the Ma tiona1 Anti-Saloon League convention at Columbus. It was the only conven- tion Lever went to where every dele gate arrived sober and remained sober
 until the end of the convention. The convention was opened with a pray CT. If it had been local option con vention it would have been opened with corkscrew.
 sDrunkenness is a physical torture The best punishment for a drunk is to tell him to go and get drunk again It is a thing without reason, a crime
 without recomQ Qense. You can't regulate the liquor traffic-as we'll try to regulate Satan. Saloons are as crooked as the streets of Boston.
 CT am glad" he continued, 'sthat there is not one man in this country today with the chains of slavery on his limbs, bus there is another rebel lion coming in which we will be vic torfous and help you to release your selves from a greater slavery than
 that imposed by the slave mart 9
 T once opposed prohibition in my state and would never have thought that 1 would see things differently I took the position of favoring local
 option while I was governor of the state, and vetoed the prohibition law which the legislature passed over my veto. But now I would erase thoughts | Of the liquor traffic from the minds 1 of men.
 T thought myself strong when I took the first local option attitude but l soon found my mental resources use less 1 Under the strain I bowed to God and asked for strength. and strength came. came as 8 servant in my own house ana set II III OrQef. some call me inconsistent I mean and want to be called inconsistent in this. Some
 one said that my attitude was not in accordance with that of a good Demo- crat, but am a good Democrat to- day, nevertheless
 The launching of this movement
 for prohibition marks the greatest re- l form in my time. I would not hurt or cripple the liquor traffic; would kill l it. We expect that Congress will sub init the proposed amendment for rati- 1 hcation and the movement is bound l to be successful You must wake up here and understand what it all means
 The South and West will force pro- hibition on you if you do not. look | to tI1e~day when there will be no sa- I loon and no poison shop beneath the l Stars and Stripes The United States 1 has no right to commercialize the Ii- l quor business and ought not to put the brand and seal of approval on Hell l fire.
 '-In regard to my own case wish
 to say that have never been drunk
 ard. some people have supposed.
 but I have never before my tconver- | sion, taken the attitude that do now l on the subject of the traffic in spir- 1 ituous liquors. favor prohibition in l any form that will either reduce or l destroy the liquor traffic. favor it person wide. town wide, state wide, I nation W1Qe ana @WOTlu fWiue. aIfl neither ashamed nor abashed to stand l before you and acknowledge the
 wrong I did when I once advocated policies which would have made legal 1 this traffic I have come to look upon l it as having no rightfu1 place in the
 scheme and economy of Christian civil l 1fzation.''
 l He told of how the sforked light
 ming of liquor' had struck his own
 first born and how he himself had felt 1 it's foul and steaIthy blow as it l turned upon him in it's deadly wrath, upon me who had pleaded before the
 people for it's very existence.