The Penn's Grove record., 1915-02-05
VIEWS ON LOCAL
OPTION GIVEN
Heavy Artillery Of Both Sides
Turned Loose at Hearing
SYNOPSIS OF THE SPEECHES
Friends and Opponents Of Gaunt Meas
ure Appear Before committee-Le-
gaIity Is Questioned - Local
o~ptionists in Strong Array.

Optionists in Strong Array.
Especial Trenton Correspondence
Trenton.-In a burst of eloquence
Rev. Harry j. Iobst, the only minister
who is a member of the House, brought
the hearing on the Gaunt Local OPP
ton bill before the Senate Committee
on Municipal Corporations, to a close
when he threatened that, if the Legis-
lature did not give the anti-liquor peo-
pie what they wanted the would bring
BILLY" Sunday to the State and then
everything would be all right. The
hearing brought together an array of
speakers that made the Senate cham
Der ring. Former Governor John w.
Griggs, one of the old foes Of local
option, again was the principal speak
er against the bill.
He said that he believed that the
good people who appeared for the bill
thought that the drinking of intoxi-
eating liquor was a sin and that the
sin could be legislated out by the Leg
oAcAO0 II OAlCAJy ACCOUNTING ~
the former Governor, was to legislate
so as to diminish the abuse, but he
held that the passage of the local OPP
ton bill was not the right method.
Rev. Edward A. WATSON, an Episco-
palian clergyman, spoke against the
bill, saying that prohibition Maine,
with so years of dryness, was forty
sixth on the list of States in the mat
ter of divorce, and that there were
only two States that had more di-
vorces in proportion to population.
Former Speaker McCran, of Passais,
speaking for the defeat of the meas
ure, said that by its provisions the
drinking of liquor in homes would not
be prohibited, so that the local option
lists would take what they believed to
be a h~elldestroying institution from
public places and place it in the homes
of the rich and fairly well-to-do.
Labor Against the Measure.
Henry Hilfers, secretary of the State
Federation of Labor, claimed that la
Dor was against local option almost
to a man. He argued that the bill
would drive Deer-drinkers to whisky,
and said that. if the great moral forces
behind the a%nti-liquor movement would
ally themselves behind a movement to
improve the condition of working girls
and get more wages for them, they
would stop the immortality they now
blame On thn saloons
James X. Shields, Of Newark, State
superintendent of the AntilSaloon
League, said that the bill was strictly
a majority rule proposition, simple in
It's provisions and providing that any
city, township, town, village or Dor
ough that decided to hold a special
election on license could settle the
matter for itself of so per sent. of the
voters who voter the year before
should petition for such an election.
He said the charge Always was made
that local option was not what the
anti-saloon people wanted; that they
really desired prohibition, and, there
fore. were hypocritical. AS a matter
of fact, he said, the conflict was be
tween two ideals-total eventual pro-
hibition on the one side and liberal,
plentiful license on the other.
Rev. J.. E. Curry, pastor of the Gran
bury Presbyterian Church, said that
fully 80 per cent. of the residents of
Cranbury were against the granting of
licenses there. Two hotels finally
closed down, and no native could be
found to run the other place, so a
Trenton brewing company bought it
and imported a hotelkeeper, who re-
ceived a license from the Court. A
remonstrance was made, and it was
pointed out that the owner was q
stranger, and that foreign capital was
used for the purchase Of the business.
The Judge, said the minister, admit
ted that fully so per cent. of the peo-
pie wanted local option, but that, I'M
der the law as it stood, the Court had
no alternative but to grant the license.
Hotel Man for the Law.
A.. T. Bell, one of the proprietors of
the Chalfonte Hotel at Atlantic City,
sent a message to the committee, be-
cause he was unable to attend, urging
strongly the passage of the Gaunt bill
and pleading the enforcement of the
Sunday selling law. Ee said that a
licensed bar was not at all necessary
for the successful conduct of a first
class hotel.
Ellwood H~ollingshead, a Moorestown
merchant, spoke Of the strong local
option sentiment throughout Burling-
ton county and told of the hard strug-
gle Moorestown had to rid herself of
saloons.