Omaha daily bee., 1916-11-02
WEBSTER ACTS AS REFEREE
Contest Carried on Under
Strict Rules and Opponents
Give Each Other Close
Attention.
LOWE OPENS, MEEKER ENDS
Each Has Two Cracks at
Other, Which Are Fully En-
joyed by Huge Crowd.
AUDITORIUM is PACKED


time of his death, fought prohibition
from an economic standpoint, but
later admitted that the moral better
ment and influences in Washington
were tremendous, according to DR..
Lowe.
DR.. Lowe read figures on the value
Of Nebraska's crops and live stock.
"Are the business men OF Omaha
less in girth than those in other pros
porous cities where prohibition is in
effect!'
Reduces Efficiency.
1.-THE entrenched brewers are OPP
posed to democratic government.
They want an oligarchy. The saloon
is bipartisan and is ruled by avarice
and greed. Liquor is the enemy OF
labor. Ii reduces the efficiency OF
the working man and robs him OF the
fruits Of his toll"
That the brcweries could be turned
into tanneries, shoe factories and
other lines OF manufacture was sug-
gested by DR.. Lowe.
The large sum derived from saloon
taxation each year for the Omaha
school fund was termed blood
money He avcrred that he would
rather pay ten times as much in taxes
each year than to have the school
system kept up by the money de-
rived from taxing saloons.
The forty-fiye minute talk of the
speaker for the negative came to a
close with scathing denunciation of
the brewers and saloon keepers. He
declared that the attitude OF the brew
ers is to be regarded as challenge
TO the sovereignty Of the state, adj
ding that the voters had 1t within
their power to crush the octopus Of
liquor"
Law Won't Prohibit.
Congressman Meeker started his
forty-five-minute argument with ref
erence to his opponents opening
words, in which the latter told
Of his early life and school days.
After a couple Of hot shots at the
speaker for the negative, accusing him
Of Cry baby talk the defender of
the affirmative stronghold opened up
with what Is the good Of an amend
incnt that doesn't prohibit"
The St. Louisan said that the de-
bate was not upon drink or the evil Of
drinking, and that the state wasn't
going to vote on that qucstion--it
was going to vote upon all amend
nient that Wouldn't prohibit and that
wouldn't keep people from buying all
the liquor they wanted to.
He quoted Nebraska law that
forbids anyone from selling rotten
meat, but which stipulates that the
owner himself can eat II il he wishes,
likcning this to the proposed
amendment as far as the prohibiting
part is concerned. He remarked that
the proposed amendment does not at
tempt to deal with the habits or APP
petites Of the people
Don't Stop Drinking.
Congressman Meeker mentioned
the fact that DIR, Lowe in his talk
didn't say anything about liquor be-
ing brought into the,state in case pro-
hibition was in effect here, ITS no
more OF sii, to make booze than to
buy and sell it," was one OF his state
ments.
If the brewery is menace, what
about the trusts and big corporationsi
Also we don't know anything about
entrenched sweatshops' or the en-
trenched' employers OF scab labor.
III a man received his income from
rk1rir e, e...aatskaH .1ttas .,,sn Il
is God bless him, if he gets II from
stock in brewery or owns saloon
it's blood money
That the advocates Of prohibition
are more concerned with looking out
for the welfare Of the $l.8S-a-day
working men and seeing how they
spend their money than they are in
trying to get for them $3.50 day
was one Of Congressman Meeker's
points.
Challenges loves Figures.
He defiedsthe speaker for the mega
tive to prove his figures on the per
cent Of people in the insane asylums
caused BY liquor, declaring that the
SIS per cent was the invention of the
dry crowd in Ohio.
Figures were then presented as to
the number of insane in Kansas and
other prohibition states and in Me-
brasIxa, there being fewer in this state,
according TO Congressman Meeker.
The St Louis congressman declared
that DR.. Loves statement that a man
couldn't drink and see God was an
insult to millions of men in this coun-
try. The speaker for the affirmative
scoffed at the preachers remarks as
% how prohibition was good for
business, giving comparative indus
trial figures of Kansas and Iowa. He
read a letter to an Omaha hotel man
from l.. G. Sweetland OF the New
Perkins hotel, Portland. Ore, in
which the Oregon landlord spoke OF
the crimp prohibition had put in
business in the Pacific-coast city.
Figures were submitted purportine
& to show the real estate situation in
NJ Denver as the result Of the closing ur
\ 81 the. saloons. Congressman Meekei
said that there are hundreds OF store
rooms and buildings vacant there al
he present time.
He quoted from the Denver Post in
reference to the police court figures
( Tor the Colorado capital during the
first six months Of 1916 and the cor.
4 responding period Of 1915. The figures
were 1856 cases for the first six months
"A of 1915; SOB cases for the first sis
months Of 1916, with prohibition IL
effect
The speaker stated that prohibition