Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-05-17

three largest liquor associations in
America. | am now one of the speak
ers for the Anti-Saloon League of
America. 1 changed sides because L
discovered that the liquor interests
were paying me to advocate the pas
sage of a model license law and pay
ing their political henchmen to see
that the law did not pass"
They authorized me to advocate
voting wet upon the promise of the
passage of this model license law that
the liquor interests insisted would les
sen drunkenness, eliminate the dive,
prevent minors procuring drinks and
In general so regulate the liquor bust
ness as to do away with its evils of
which the public justly complained
but when h public of Colorado, Ore
gon, Washington, Alabama, Virginia
and West Virginia had upon this
promise of reformation by the passage
of this law, voted wet. the same liquor
interests permitted me to draft the
law, but forbade their supporters in
the legislature to introduce it.
after another, there States re-
senting thus being fooled, took a new
vote. and voted dry.
-Four years of promises without a
model license law being enacted in any
city or State in the Union, convinced
me that the liquor interests promised
regulation before election, but thwart-
ed regulation after election.
AS to personal Liberty
IF the adjustment of liquor de-
prives the individual of his personal
liberty" continued Major Smith, such
deprivation preserves the liberty of
his family, for while he has the right
to drink-maybe-his wife certainly
has the right to associate with a sober
husband.
He has a right to spend his own
money, but she has the right to her
own happiness; the price of a drink
ranges from a dime to damnation-
drinker pays the dime and family
pays the damnation.
zones family have the right to ex-
pect of him his best efforts and his
highest possible achievements, but
one canno climb the ladder of sue
cess with n foot OF a bar rail.
The poor man should eschew
drinking, not so much on account of
the expenditures of actual money, as
because of the lessened efficiency, the
loss of half days and days of work,
the loss of his position, the destroy
ing of his ambition, the blighting of
his hopes and the deprivation of his
wife and children of that tender care
that is not given by one who is intoxi-
Gated.
THE workman canno give to his
children the advantages thai can the
rich, but by remaining sober, he can
at least prevent the possibility of faith
ering the child that is mentally def
cient; If he can't give his child wealth,
he can at least prevent its coming into
the world unfit to fight life's battles
because of its father when he was
sired.
Liquor never mot a workingman a
Il -
job; liquor never increased his daily
pay, nor helped him advance to a bet
ter position. 1t may make him forget
his sorrows for the moment, but it in
creases his sorrows of tomorrow.
Maybe if the bosses quit drinking
champagne, they would be better
employers, maybe they would pay bet
ter wages, maybe they would require
shorter hours, for sobriety is as bene-
fetal to The boss as it is to the work.
man, and while the railroa ddirectors
are insisting that the train crews
should remain away rom the saloon.
they should insist that the railroad
president remain wayafrom the wine
bottle; / am unwilling TO risk my life
behind a drinking train crew, and I'M
willing to risk my none in the hands
OF a drunken railroad president.
Twill prohibition increase taxes &?
At present, we collect the tax from
the sale of liquor and then use that
tax in the vain endeavor to prevent
the crimes that the liquor causes
will it deprive the school fund of
such sums as to make the education
of our children impossible? At the
present time, we tax liquor, for the
school fund to educate the brains Of
our children and later sell these same
children liquor to destroy the brains
that the liquor tax educated-talk
about a cat chasing It's tail!
'If you are convinced that neither
local option nor Statewide prohibition
really prohibits, get out and work for
constitutional prohibition. When
Uncle Sam gets on the job, he will
make this country so dry that a rat
tlesnake bite won't dig up a drink be-
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific.
LAS special assistant United States
attorney at Chicago in 1918 and 1914,
/ a many concrete examples of how
Uncle Sam %enforces the law-look at
what Uncle Sam has done to opium
and cocaine. He can do that to whis-
ky. If Uncle Sam has a right to make
the obtaining of opium and cocaine
practically impossible in order to save
the Chinese, surely he has the right
to do the same thing to whisky 10
save American believe an Ameri-
can is Just as good as a Chinaman, if
he behaves HIMSELF