The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1917-01-08
DEEP FEELING ON
DRY ISSUE SHOWN
Opposite Mass Meetings Prove
Interest in Question by En-
thuSiaSm at Both.
EACH SIDE is OPTIMISTIC
Thousands Attend Gatherings
For and Against Referen-
dunn on Liquor.

washington's deep interest in the
District prohibition issue, both ways
is proved. Not for many years mas
such spontaneous concern been mani
tested in any issue, leaders of both
sides said today, as that attested oy
the crowds attending the wet ami
dry mass meetings yesterday aItel-
noon at the National and Poll Thea
tiers.
These leaders said today they be-
lieye this interest will have an al
feet upon Congress, and both sides
unite in declaring that it is PROOF
of the Capitals interest in questions
affecting their city.
Thousands Attend.
Thousand attended both meetings.
That at the National was so large
that an overflow meeting was held
in G. A. R. Hall, and an impromptu
open-air meeting also was held In
the park across the street from the
theater. At Polls the as. R. o." sign
was also out.
William F. GUIDE presided at the
Poll meeting, where pleas for the REL
erendum on prohibition were maze
by Senator Underwood Of Alabama
Simon Wolf, Mgr. William T. Russen'
of st. Patrick's Church, and T. L
Moran, president of the Chamber oil
Commerce.
Speakers At National
The Rev. DR.. Samuel Small. Georgia
prohibition orator. and William b.
De Lacey, former judge Of the Ju-
venile Court, were the principal
speakers at the National Theater,
while E. C. Dinwiddie and Cyclone"
Davis, of Texas, talked to the crowd
in G. A. R. Hall.
Both mass meetings passed resolu-
tions; that at Polls Theater for a ref
erendum on the Sheppard prohibition
measure because ito deny this right
to the citizenship of the District OF
Columbia is un-American in principle
and subversive of the tenets laid
down in the foundation Of this re-
public"
Called Impractieable.
The resolutions adopted at the Ma
.tional declared a referendum in the
District impracticable because OF the
lack of standards of qualifications for
voting here and because at would
jeapardize the rights of Government
If they voted here; 1t Is unprecedented
and we see no good reason why the
saloon is more sacred than the inter-
ests directly controlled by Congress
without the referendum"
BY Grace OF Congress.
, Liquor exists in the District OF
Columbia by the grace Of Congress"
declared the Rev. DR.. Samuel Small.
THE men who sit in office upon the
hill are to blame for the rum license.
If they have the power to allow 1t to
live they also have the power to
choke it to the death. Congress need
not ask the people OF the District to
decide upon this momentous question.
ct is up to that august body to
close the saloon door. even as they
opened it"
Wants No AntasOnIsm.
Judge De Lacy said the meeting
was not to stir antagonism against
the liquor drinker or the liquor deal
. er. but to bring both Ito a fuller
realization of the evils and degrade
ton that flow from the foundations
of intoxicating drink"
Speaking at Polls Theater, Senator
Underwood OF Alabama said, in part:
This is the first opportunity l have
had, after living in your midst as q
Representative in Congress for more
than twenty-five years, to address an
audience of the people of Washing
ton.
There is hardly a capital OF a
great city in the United States which
] have not visited. This being so, /
say say without a reservation or a
doubt that there is no place in the
l. a. +
gent, a more high-minded or a more
virtuous people: where there is less
disorder, where you will find more
probity, than in the city of Washing
ton.
yet, il you had listened to the de
bates that took place in the United
States Senate just before the Christ
mas holidays, on the question of
whether the people of Washington
should give voice to some expression
OF their views in the local govern
ment OF this city on the excise ques.
ton, you would have found one of
the princi charges brought against
the propoa- on of giving the city of
Washington a voice is that the citi,
zenship here is composed of an igno,
rant and vicious electorate.
Charges Ignored.
"Your newspapers have ignored
these charges. 1 have seen them
limited at here and there in one OF
your daily papers, but it has not been
proclaimed, and probably the majority
OF your citizens here do not know OF
these charges"
Senator Underwood said the press
and the people OF the District 'are
very unwise If they tamely submit te
such ignominy, if they do not resent
and resent forcefully these state
ments before the bar of American pub
lie opinion"
THE people of the District Of Co
lumbia have held the fair fame OF
the Nations Capital in their keeping
for many years. said Simon Wolf
We have never sullied it nor stained