The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-09-15
SPEAKERS TELL LIQUOR DEALERS ORGANIZATION IS BEST WEAPON
 AGAINST PROHIBITION CAMPAIGN

communities to decide for themselves, believing that prohibition not backed by 8 strong majority of sentiment can never be enforced; believing that pro- hibition does not mean temperance, I voted against the. Hobson amend n1ent and would so again had I the opportunity
 Mayor Clifford B. Wilson spoke a few words, mainly of welcome to the visitors. He dwe1t facetiousIy on the remarks made by other speakers H
 Loren Delbridge, the premier tenor, spread his fame by a, few selections and James Mahoney also sang several lively songs.
 MT. Carroll of New Jersey was in troduced and as a starter he apolo- gized, saying he is not speaker. Any illusion he might have created by his apology was destroyed when he issued a rapid fire line of novel and intensely interesting comments on the liquor situation.
 MT. CarrolFs idea is unique. He advocates taking the black sheep in to the fold for the purpose of mak- ling them be good. The so-ca1led 'bad men" of the profession, those who sell to intoxicated men, those who keep open after hours and Sun days and those whose business is curse to their communities, had been Ia topic of discussion throughout the, evening.
 Make 'em join,'' said MT. Carroll. Take them into the organization. Then if they don't be good, put them out When the liquor commission Iers learn that they have been thrown out of the liquor dealers association, will they get a license? They will not.''
 MT. Carroll told of the fight that had been waged in Jersey. He said $300,0OO had been spent in fighting the liquor dealers. Organization is winning for them down. there, he lsaid. and the up1ift of the profes- sion is going on apace.
 hFIe advocated getting in touch with the State Federation of Labor. They're. different from the church people, he said. When a church. man goes before the legislature and says he represents 100000 parishion- CTS, he isn't really their representa- tive because he isn't representing 100000 votes. When a labor man. tgets up there, and says he's got 1o0,- 900 men behind him, he's got 100000 votes behind him.
 Former Representative Lynn w. Wilson treated the liquor question from a moral and scientific point of view. He agreed with MT. Reilly that prohibition would result in speak easy and blind tiger abuses and he
 
 is no club,s' where liquor abuses four fish, illegally, and under no restriction His speech follows:
 IN Nobody knows when mem began. to use strong4 drink The earliest poets sang of wine. The earliest monu- ments show men joyful over the cups The liquor dealer represents a very ancient calling. the origin of which is in the iTnmemoria1 past.
 You have asked me tp say a few words te you. the dealers of Connec- tfcut. I avail myself of your invi- tation, hoping may be of aid to you, in the eIucidation of the great prob lem your occupation presents.
 Almost as old as the grape, is the movement against it. which seems to be coming to a climax just now. Some of our own states are voting prohibi- ton. Europe, being in war; has var I.ious1y banned strong drinks as in Russia, or Ngreafly restricted their use. as in France and England.
 Germany alone appears to have maintained her attitude toward Iiquor as it was before the war, so that l nothing conclusive may be derived from these sources.
 fsOne would say. approaching the problem. with a desire simply to know the future, that the trade is to be some day prohi ibited, everywhere, but,
 
 ment may be the swinging of the pen dulum in one direction. It may swing back.
 We of Connecticut have the traffic with us. Our people drink. Our ] laws authorize the business you, are 1 in; make it as legitimate as any other business.
 You sell a. commodity the people \ want, and in doing so you are no more to blame, if the traffic be wrong, EFthan the society which grants you a license and authorizes you to sell. =
 t.If the traffic be evil, if the social values and uses are going out of it. las seems to be the case, yet you are no more to blame than any man who buys your wares; than any gentle man who drinks in his home or in his club; than any dainty lady, who sips a glass of wine at dinner with I her friends.
 l "AH who use; all who rent; who tsell things for the traffic, who take I a profit from it in any conscious way; who accept money from the trade for support of government are just as I much a part of the wrong. as you lare. If you cling to yesterday, so do they. If you are against prog lress. so are they
 I "I have known many men in your q business. The men in your business are, for the most part honorable men. Men like William Thomas, who sefv- ed the city efficiently as town I clerk; like Col. McMurray with
 whom I served in the General As lsembly, whose record there was one that might put to shame those also there who pretended an exceeding l. hoiness.
 T want to say flew words, as sincerely as I can, about the square deal. The square deal that you arc to give the state and your fellow citi- zens. And then, the square deal that the state and your fellow citizens Fl ought to render to you; I am con-
 vinced, after abundant observation that the men in the liquor business give a squarer deal than they get T am in favor of any legislation that will promote temperance, that