The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1916-08-22
LIQUOR CAMP PAIGN
TACTICS EXPOSED
Brilliant Speech byI. ". Wells
Given Sunday Night
NEED FOR ACTION RELATIVE TO
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
Organization Effected to Prevent
Floaters From Voting and to
Arouse Prohibition People.

That the liquor trust is flooding Ida
no with bootleggers, floaters and mis-
leading literature with a view of de-
feating the prohibitory constitutional
amendment at the election this fall
and securing the repeal of the present
statutory prohibition law by the next
Legislature, was asserted Sunday night
at the Idaho theatre by L. w. Wells,
state organizer of the anti-saloon lea
que, at an overflow meeting. Mr..
Wells announced that an organization
with James w. Beauchamp at its head,
had been perfected, and that a cam
paign of education and of law enforce
ment would be inaugurated. The meet
ing was called to order by Rev. An
dersOn of the Baptist church, who
later turned the chairmanship over to
Mr.. Beauchamp. The prayer was Of
fered by DR.. j. F. Shepherd of the
Presbyterian church.
Mr.. Wells said that the dry forces Of
Idaho We're largely unaware of the
fact that a constitutional amendment
had been submitted to the people The
wet counties were laboring under no
such misrepresentation. They were we'll
organized, literature misrepresenting
facts was being sent out and a paper
called "The Other Side" was being cir
culated. The idea was to lull the dry
forces into a fancied security and
make them overlook the amendment,
while the vets would vote and defeat
it This would mean repeal of the
present law, because no legislature
would maintain a prohibitory law on
the statute books in the face of an
adverse decision by the voters. He
said that a Twin Falls man, who when
the local option fight was on here had
declared that he was opposed to that
but would support statewide prohibi-
tion, said that he opposed statewide
prohibition but would favor national
prohibition. Mr.. Wells predicted that
when the country was being voted dry
in 1920, this man would oppose that
unless all nations were in the prohi-
bitiOn ranks, and when that was ac-
cOmplished he would oppose world
wide prohibition unless the whole uni
verse were put in the dry column.
That local option proved unsatisfac-
tory with wet territory around it, and
that statewide prohibition was not all
that could be desired, Mr.. Wells ad-
mitted But he argued that as nc
state ever went from the wet column
into the dry until local option had
been tried in many places and proven
relatively unsatisfactory, so the nation
would not go dry until a number OF
states had been placed in the dry col
umn and kept there in order to pr c
national prohibition necessary. First
local option, then statewide prohiDi-
tion and then national prohibition was
the natural process.
The speaker went into detail in re-
gard to the campaign now being car
ried on by the liquor forces. He sale
that he had the picture of a man sem
out with 100000 to put Idaho back il
the wet column The wet counties
were already flooded with literature
Bootleggers with liquor were shipped
in from Cincinnati with supplies O
liquor and not only paid for the time
spent in selling it, but were given thu
proceeds of the sale as pure "velvet.
When in Jail they received regular
wages. The idea was to convince th'
people that as much liquor was solt
under prohibition as without it ant
that the law was worthless. Not onl.
that but thousands of men were beinl
colonized for the purpose of voting we
on election day. In the last prohibition
election in Vermont $4,000 men wer
colonized and sworn in on election
day. In the prohibition election il
Minneapolis 5000 men we're sworn il
and voted who were colonized by tn
liquor element. There had not, h
, said, been a state election carried b
the vets for the past five years tina
had not been carried by colonize
voters
Mr.. Wells said that the economi
| side of the prohibitory movemen
should not be forgotten. He said tina
he dreamed that he died and went t
! heaven. While there he asked for
= celestial choir to bring it back
1 earth and sing for prohibition. Afte
= the choir had sung to an immense au
>. dience, he asked all who would vot
[ I for prohibition to arise Nobody di
= so, although they had all been enraI
e tured with the songs. He permittte
q tn choir to return to its empyrea
[ home and went to see John d. Rocke
! feller The oil magnate said he woul
furnish a choir that would convinc
4 the voters, so he sent motely lookin
n crew which made a noise like two sill