The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-02-14
"WET~ LAY STRESS ON
DISTRICT REFERENDUM
Two AdN coates of Proposal Appeared
Yesterday Before District
Committee,
"REFERENDJM ASSOCIATION"
LARGELY IN NGIN SRN
H. Representative FINAL, Ndmits
That There Was Only Mas Meet
ing and Thar No Real Organization
Was Formed.

Sp+ ial ia The Richmond NlrgIusan,)
Washington, -. g.. Feb. 3.-At the
hearing on the prohibition hllE be
fore The conmittee on the District of
columbia ON TUESDAY morning there
were only two speeches made ono
by w r. GUIDE. who stated that he
was The president u -A@--A+etriCt ~
Columbia Referendum association,
and the orhcr by Mr.. Henry +. Davis.
wh" was one time city attorney Of
the District - Columbia 1t seems
that Mr Gude had appeared before
the District committee two or three
Years before and had made state
,nents Aftarward concerning what had
happened at the meeting Of the COM
mit1ee, which tho committee claimed
misrepresented them. and there was
evidently \ strained relation between
him and several mem bers OF the com
mittee. which may have accounted
somewhat for his embarrassment He
was not n very helpful witness or
advocate,
Il is evident that the liuuor forces
have decided tina, obey will not at
te0p' to oppose the Sheppard Bark
ley bin on the ground that prohihi-
tiuu b. uuWise and likely 10 prove
failure They haze decided to con
centratc all their efforts 10 secure a
referendum amendment to the bill.
OF course they believe that any
amendment 10 the bill will greatly en-
DANCE its passage al this late stage
~ the session They also realize that
the referendum amendment is the
only. amendment for which they can
plead With any sort Of Justification
His Fellow sufferers
MI Gude described the ace. 200
10 trio re
as fellow sufferers lie said that
tie people OF the District We're the
peers in intelligence of any people in
any state: that he had been put at
the head of the referendum associa-
tisn. and that 1t was perhaps un
fortunate that the first measure upon
which 4 referendum is being asked is
prohibition.
Mr. GUIDE was closely questioned by
several members of the committee az
to he organization or the trftretr-
dunn association and was entangled
several times in the net, which was
skillfullv handled by the dry men
on the committee 1t finally develop
ed that there was no referendum as
sociatioD In the ordinary acceptatioh
of the word assoc 'ation,' There Is
no reet lar organization with bylaws
or stated meetings There was a mass
meeting at pom fNeI ter IN Ndshins-
ton on the Eth OF January, a which
meeting a chairman and secretary
were elected and resolutions adopted
by vive voce vote, and that Is the
only form ol organization the body
has ever had.
The members OF the committee next
questioned Mr.. GUIDE as TO what per-
soas the people he represented
thought should be allowed to vote, to
which Mr.. GUIDE replied that he was
not a lawyer or legislator or a.
politician. and was not prepared TO
answer that question. When pressed
10y the committee as TO whether no
would permit women to vote. he said
he pre- ha bly," would. and that per
sonally he would favor voting by PEG
Pile who live in the District. but vote
in other states. He thought. however.
that such voting would he Illegal.
When asked il he favored the Under
wood referendum amendment. he said
ne was not familiar with that amend
ment
The net proceeds Of Mr.. GUIDES
statement were that he thought the
people of the District should be al
lowed to vote. but he was not pre-
pared to say who should be allowed to
vote.