The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-02-21
Commissioner of Prohibition


lature II was taken. at any rate. ono
step further away from current popu-
lar politics.
There had been also many mislead-
ing statements concerning the prob
able expensiveness OF this new govern
mental department. One newspaper
sc altered far and wide the statement
that ii would cost 100000 a year
to maintain 1t. A telegram from Com
missioner Blue. of West Virginia.
brought out the fact that the cost or
his department, constructed in exact
~ the same way and charged with
the same duties. is only $4,000 a
year, and that the upward limit of the
cost in Virginia would he s2b 900:
hal this amount would he in all
probability restored to the State In
fines provided for in the legislation,
these fines to go into the educational
fund. and that, moreover, the law
provided for a special tax on affidavits.
which would go far toward defraying
the expense OF the department,
Another ground Of attack on the
measure was that it would build up in
Virginia a sort of machine that this
commissioner would have a deputy in
every county at his nod and beck, aud
state small army OF men who could
he used for the accomplishment OF
any particular political purpose which
the leaders had In mind. There liz
not, Of course. the slightest ground for
any such intimation. The law is bet
ter enforced, as all the world knows.
in West Virginia and Kansas than i'm
any prohibition State of which We
have knowledge. In both of these
al hat N4.,aE. -1,4..
and the proposed law for Virginia is
practically identical on this subject
with the West Virginia law In West
Virginia Commissioner Blue, according
TO his own telegram read 10 the COM
mittee, employs one chief deputy and
four field deputies for all the time, and
two or three secret service men for
part of the time Sensible men, of
course, realize that there is no danger
OF building up political machine with
four or five men.
Temperance people through the
State must not suffer themselves to be
swept off their feet by partisan mis-
representations. Past experiences in
this matter are sufficiently abundant
and various to teach them to take.
not with grain of salt but with a
whole saCkful, the statements and al
legged arguments put out by the people
who have fought this legislation bit
terly at every step
Let the friends of prohibition laRe
this warning. The liquor interests are
not dead nor are they asleep. They
have one hope in the present situa-
ton. If they can work any sort of
confusion among the temperance peo-
Pile; If they can SOW suspicion of the
leaders and create dissatisfaction with
details of legislation, and II in this
process they can render the law un-
satisfactory and ineffective; they will
move heaven and earth to do so. An
occasional temperance advocate, with
more zeal than discretion, will play
into their hands. A few are giving
them aid and comfort now. But the
great mass of our people know that
the men on whom they have put the
responsibility of influencing as far as
Is righteous and proper this leg's'a-
ton are earnestly seeking to get the
most effeetive and practicable law
possible. So far as this writer Knows
and he has peculiar opportunities
for knowing-every suggestion OF per-
sonal political ambition and every i'll
timation OF Interior political motives
Is not only utterly without founda-
ton, but is cruelty unjust to men who
have borne unmurmuringiy the bur
den and heat of this conflict, who have
given their time. their money. their
labor, and some of whom have pledged
their private credit almost to the limit
in the interest of this great conten-
ton This Is a critical time in the
history of our long-suffering and now
partially triumphant cause. United
we stand, and we are simply blind and
foolish to yield In any way TO the at
tempts of our enemies to divide us"