Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1916-10-20
OLD GENERAL
APATHY MUST
Be AVOIDED
Dry Voters Must Not be toe
Sure of Victory, Says
Joseph Pope.
ORGANIZATION e
BE MADE THOROUGH
Booze Interests Have Much
AT Stake in Keeping
Montana Wet

Great Falls, Mont, Aug.-If Mon"
tana at the next general election votes
to remain a license state rather than
enter the prohibition list, it will not be
because of lack of organization, ac.
cording to a statement made here
recently by Joseph Pope of Billings.
Mr.. Pope Is the head of the Montana
Anti-Saloon League, and is probably
mora closely in touch with the senti-
mept on the wet aud dry issue than
any other man in the state, visiting as
he does every town in the state, many
OF them several times a year. He has
had several years experience in poll
teal organizations and is planning with
his leutenants and helpers to show the
old political leaders a few things in the
way of buildin. effective organizations.
In fact he refers to his campaign or
ga~nization as a machine and says 1t
will be in constant running order.
Our greatest danger" said the Anti
Saloon League leader, lis from old
General Apathy He has lost many a
battle for a good cause And just now
there is a tendency to take it for grant
ed hat this state will go dry without
an effort. Nothing is farther from the
facts than that idea. The temperance
people are fed up with their successes,
which have been very remarkable of
late, and so some of them think that
about all that is necessary to make the
entire state dry is to call an election,
and the votes will, in some way find
their way into the ballot box. auto
matically.
Nothing to it! Elections are not Won
Il kI,,A ,,,nx, ,-1 thn MAN nhn tnEc that
way simply does not know what he is
talking about, and he is doing the
ausec as much harm as tho he were
working for the vets. Such statements
do not come from men familiar with
the conditions in the state outside of
their own towns. Take it from me, the
liquor interests are not going to allow
Montana to go dry without the strong
est protests on their part. Think what
1t means to them! The Canadian pro-
vinces on the north, Washington and
Oregon on the west, Idaho on the south,
and North Dakota on the east are al
ready dry; South Dakota votes at the
same time we do, and all indications
are that it will return a heavy majority
In favor of prohibition.
State in Strategic Position
do you see the strategic position
Montana occupies as al oasis in the
great prohibition desert? The state is
Ideally located from the standpoint of
shipping facilities as well as for other
reasons for a distributing center for
booze, for from Montana it is possible
to lake care of the wants of tie spirit
uously inclined in all tie adjacent
states. That's why they hope to keep
Montana wet, and they will DO it, too,
unless the dry voters stop this nonsense
about it being a deal sure thing that
the state will go dry by $4,000 to 10000
AMI that no especially aggressive cam
paign need be conducted, and get out
and hustle for votes.
'In 1895, when prohibition was sub
mitted in South Dakota, the state voted
wet by about 5000 majority and there
were 5000 voters who went to the
polls and voted for some state officer
who did not vote on prohibition at all,
And most Of them, as shown by an eX-
animation of the returns, were in the
sections of state where it was reason
able to expect the largest dry major
tiles. The temperance people thought
then, as many of them do now, that the
state could not be made wet, but they
mara m iStalEapp