Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-09-15
BEN |. griffin
SPEAKS BEHALF (
Of act No. 2
Former Assemblyman Ar
raigns Ministers Who Dis
agree with Him.

Ben l.. Griffin, former member of
thhe state legislature from Pulaski
county, delivered an address on "The
People, the Press and the Preachers, "
at the courthouse last night, to q
crowd Of something like 200 persons,
among them several local preachers
and some women.
The talk by Mr.. Griffin was not
started until after o'clock, due to
the fact that an address on Socialism,
by Miss Anna e. Maley, held quite
crowd interested on he courthouse
steps from 8 o'clock until Just after
9. Miss Maley has been here before,
and her remarks last night apparent
ly were well received by her audience,
as she was frequently applauded.
The talk by Mr.. Griffin was enliv-
ened, toward its close, by an ex-
change of questions and answers by
Mr.. Griffin and Rev. Marion Nelson
Waldrip, pastor of the Lakeside
Methodist church, and one of the
states best known prohibition lead
ers. The, exchanges evoked consider
able laughter from the crowd, and
while some rather tart expressions
were used, the best of feeling and
good nature was apparent. After Mr.
Griffin concluded, Dr.. Waldrip read
the act upon which the voters of the
state will ballot at the approa ching
elections, and severely criticised the
measure.
Mr.. Griffin spoke about an hour.
He charged the Anti-Saloon league
and the ministers with having lobbied
thru the last legislature the state
wide prohibition law, which the pro-
posed local option law would repeal.
He said that in doing this they had
Observation-Disclosures every voter in the
state. white or black
"This government was founded up
on the principles expressed in Thorn
as Jefferson's axioms," he said, "the
people, the only source of power, no
favored classes, no special privileges,
no moncpolies, representatives bound
by instructions of their constituents
and the absolute severance of the
church and state. The local option
bill, act No. 2, to be voted upon in
pie thru the initiative and referend-
UNI.
"The preachers of the state who
have converted their pu]pits into
political forums are standing direct
ly in the face Of the people and
denying their right to be heard on
his or any other question.
"Thru the passage of the Going
act in 1913 the legislature disanfran-
1hised the negro and kept him from
petitioning the state, in spite of the
fact that the people four months earl
er had voted against a statewide
law by $4,000 majority.
The Anti-Saloon league and the min
sters lobbied for the passage of this
Jill. After it had been in operation
;wo years they lobbied thru the next {
legislature a bill which dsfranchised|
he white and negro voters as far as
he liquor question was concerned,
because no man outside the legisla-
ure could vote on it's adoption.' j
Mr. Griffin referred to "prohibition
lay in the churches August q as
an occasion when politics was made
paramount to religious principles"
"The ministers Of Arkansas should
top and think before converting {
heir pulpits into prohibition-political <
lgencies," he said. ''They deny that
is political question, ;
tut it is political question of the
most aggravated type. Let the peo-
lie vote on the question. If they will
lssert their right at the polls they
'an destroy the whiskey Hobbies, the
league Hobbies or any
'thers that they choose"