New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-03-25
4 SANE VIEW or THE CUES
TION.

The wave of prohibition frenzy
which is sweeping the South, and
which bids fair within two years to
add Texas to the list of legally "dry"
States, was initiated by the Ohio
Anti Saloon League, which John d:
Rockefeller financed As means OF
crushing Frank Monnett many years
ago. Monnett, as Attorney General
If Ohio, prosecuted the Standard Oil
Company under the antitrust law Of
that State, and procured its expui~
sion. Then Monnett ran for COVER
nor, and Rockefeller launched the
Anti-Saloon League to create a d.
version. Monnett was beaten: The
political value of the new tool was
proven. 1t has since been used in
Southern States when and where pub
lie servants attempted honestly to
enforce the antitrust laws against
Illegal combinations. 1t is the head
and front of the prohibition campaign
IN Texas. The South is old-fashion-
ed; as in early New England its Pro-
testant preachers are prone to exert
large influence in politics. In this
campaign to change human nature
and human habits by law, clear across
the South, the churches have been
turned into political forums; the
preachers, a very large percentage OF
them, have become political parti-
sans. They exhibit the fiery intol-
ance, the ruthless disregard for es-
sablished rights and customs, that
were exhibited by. the early abolition
lists at the North: We now know
that negro slavery would have beer
voluntarily Abandoned, as economical
" improbable to the slave owners
within four or five decades after il
was abolished by war. Similarly
the farseeing are aware that the
slow, steady pressure Of education
and public opinion will abolish the
open saloon and expunge the abuse:
- the liquor traffic within a few de-
IS, without legal interference. Blu
prohibitionists of the South, lik'
abolitionists of the North in tn
les and tifties, are hot to force
will upon those in disagree
t with them, They are not con
:; to wait on social evolution. The,
not hesitated to compromise AM
" into alliance with Oppressive
ionic factors forces far NOR
JUS and burdensome than tn
ses OF the liquor trade ever were)
rider to procure majority witt
oh to abridge the natural freedom
The minority. Among their lead
- are notorious lobbyists for tn
railroads, the sctoolbook trust an
other special interests. These scala
wags gain dissolution and the odor 0
sanctity-without abandoning thei
Anti-democratic practices-merely b.
affiHating with the preachers VIII
seek to impose their version of &c
tIesiastical law upon a secular State
and with the paid agents of the or
ganization which owes it's birth t.
Rockefeller's need of weapon wit
which to punish an honest attorne,
general. These political preachers, il
Texas, have no word of censure TO
tie starvation of the rural publ
schools; for the agencies Of exploita
ton which have rendered $4,000
white farm families landless an,
homeless wandering tenants AM
renters within less than fifty years
for the ruthless plundering of tn
State school lands by political favor
Stes of past administrations; for tn
virtual enslavement Of thousands O
white families in the lumber district
of the State; for the fragrant viola
zion Of State laws by the great lum
Ger companies, nor for the withhold
u1g from use or sale, to take the IN
erned increment, of thousands O
square miles Of fertile land owned b,
these same lumber companies. The;
aave no time nor thought for any
thing but the "drink evil" They ar
the victims Of q fixed idea, an obses
sion. 1t is not. iii human nature TO
such frenzy to last very long. l
will wear out in due time as all sue
frenzies have worn out, by the ex
cess Of its own violence. While tn
frenzy Is On, under the guidance O