Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1916-06-07
NATIONAL PROHIBITION
CONVENTION IN ST. PAUL
Drys Meet In QuadrenniaI Session on
July IS. Largest Dry Con-
vention Ever Assembled.

Drys Meet In QuadrennlaI Session on
July IS. Largest Dry Con-
vention Ever Assembled.
St. Paul, Minn., May 29-It must be
an experimenting convention of drys
that would lead the Mayor of st. Paul
to ask the business men of this city
to knock off for half day during the
Prohibition National Convention in
order to show the visitors around over
this little village of around 100000
people. Twenty thousand people is
no Over-estimation Of the number ex-
pected to attend this convention,
which opens July 18, and whose chief
business will be to write the 1916
Prohibition platform, nominate candi-
dates for President and Vice Presi-
dent, and lay plans for the coming
campaign. Delegates and visitors will
be present from every state and terri.
tory. The convention has never be-
fore been held west of Chicago.
St. Paul intends to show the dry
visitors a good time, although it is
not expected, as is the case with some
conventions in some cities, that
the Mayor will find it advisable to
suspend the eleven o'clock lid ordi-
nance for the time being. The hosp1-
tally will take another form; the
Mayor will call for hundreds Of vOlun+
teers to furnish automobiles in which
to give the delegates and visitors a
joy ride over the Capital city, If the
press of convention business will al
low it.
To those who have been accustomed
to thinking that the Prohibitionists
hold their conventions in pianO-bOx,
or a handbook, it will be something Of
a surprise to learn that even the city
Of Minneapolis does not possess an
Auditorium large enough to accom-
modate the expected crowds, and for
this reason had to turn the entertain
ment over to St. Paul. Not only has
the big Auditorium, with a seating
capacity Of ten thousand, been engag-
ed, but arrangements have been made
for overflow meetings in other audi
forums throughout the city.
The big convention is being given
unprecedented publicity. A special
publicity man is already giving his
whole time to furnishing news to the
press concerning the gathering. The
tremendous landslide of prominent
men to the Prohibition party has op-
ened the eyes of the people to the
movement as never before. The fact
that former Governor Sulzer, Of New
York, and former Governor Foss,
three times governor of Massachu-
sets, are avowed candidates for the
Prohibition presidential nomination,
the recent severance of political rela-
tons with the republican party by
former Governor Hanly, of Indiana,
the coming Of such men as Secretary
William Shaw, of the Christian En-
deavor Movement, John R. Mott of the
Y. M. G.. A., DR.. Irving Fisher of Yale,
and many others, are of tremendous
significance.
The other political parties are GER
tain to either ignore or declare
against prohibition, and this will Gre
ate situation fraught with immense
possibilities, which the Prohibition
party, at it's convention almost a
month later than that of the other
parties, will squarely meet.
One of the features of the great
Prohibition convention will be Choir
us of thousand voices, to furnish the
music. This chorus is already being
organized, and is holding regular re-
hearsals.
Another feature will be the great
parade, the greatest demonstration OF
the kind ever held in the northwest,
and perhaps the greatest dry parade
ever held anywhere. Various dry coun-
ties of Minnesota, and prohibition
states of the Union, will furnish spec.
ia1 floats for this parade. The hun
dreds Of auto tourist parties from ev-
cry section of the country will be in
line in this parade, with banners and
pennants. Iowa alone expects to fur
nish not lesJ than 100 such autOmO-
biles, and they are coming from as
far away as Boston.
It will be necessary to arrange for
admissions to the convention by tick.
ct, thing heretofore unhead-of at
Prohibition conventions. These tickets
will be for distribution by the various
state delegations, the delegates and
alternates alone having reserved tick.
cts; for others it will be a case OF
first come, first served, as long as the
tickets last. Reservations are already
being booked