The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-15
BATTLE OF SONG. BET WIEN "WETS"
 AND "DRY" FORGE.
Ballads of Booze's Baneful Uses Met By Lyrics of
 Liquors Joys

Hartford. March 15-The prohibit tionists and the representatives of the liquor interests, before parrying strikes in the hall of the House yester- day afternoon sang their chants de guerre." Long before the House com mittee on constitutional amendments settled down to hear the opposing sides on House resolution for an amendment for statewide prohibition, the supporters of the measure and those against it challenged each other in song. For several minutes the hall of the House rang with such songs as How Dry I Am." Brown October Ale" and parodies entitled "It's a Long Way to Prohibition" and "Con. necticut's Going Dry" The prohibi. tionists were the. first to begin the singing and they were answered by Fred w. Orr of New Haven, represent ing the brewing interests who sang "Tfpperary," in deep bass voice.
 Representative A. B. Bowers of Manchester, the first speaker, ex- plained bill which gave the liquor dealers five years to withdraw from the state and invest their capital 'in some useful business.
 H. H. Spooner, secretary and trea- surer of the Connecticut Temperance Federation followed. He said the prohibition movement was not a par tisan movement.
 Frederick H. Sykes of New Lon don, president of the Connecticut Col lege for Women, said alcohol de- creased efficiency. E[e said 'it makes you think you do better and it makes you do worse.''
 MT. Spooner introduced F. E. Duff fly, representing the Connecticut state grange who told the committee that the grange was absolutely unanimous in it's stand for prohibition. The grange, he said, represented 1,500,000 people of the country.
 F. B. Griffith of Tariffville, a to- bacco. grower, said he was in favor of the measure. He pointed out that tobacco growers were losing many men because liquor struck at the ef- ficiency of labor.
 Dr. Joseph B. Root of the staff of St. Francis Hospital told the commit tee that the time had come to pass when alcohol was not needed in the profession. Furthermore, he said, al- cohol was used to a very small extent in the medical profession. Whiskey was very rarely prescribed by hospi- tai surgeons.
 Mrs Caroline B. Buell., representing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,t urged the committee to report favorably on the measure to put the license question to the vote of the people. She read poem cut from a temperance paper entitled "Goodby, Old Booze, Goodby."
 y Mayor A. l.. Brown of Norwich, next scheduled to speak, was not in the room and Rev. J. F. Finch of Stamford took his place. He urged a direct approach to the solution of the liquor question by referendum.
 Former Judge Edward P. C'Meara of New Haven, opening the discus sion for the opposition, said he look ed at the question from cold1y legal propositin. He admitted that the trend at the present time was toward proposition. He admitted that the "dry'' states. more liquor is being distilled, he said. He believed the att tempt to thrust prohibition on Con- necticut wais unfair. He made a strong plea for the rejection of the bill
 c. J. Danaher of Meriden, the next speaker for the opposition, took exception to the statement of Mr. Dowers, that the men engaged in the liquor traffic were ashamed of their business. He urged his hearers to "get rid of this hysteria."
 He was interrupted by applause which kept him from speaking for several minutes.
 MT. Danaher, nettled by the inter-. ruption, ridiculed the crowd on the "dry'' side for singing songs and "car- ,rying on to send old man booze to the mat"
 You'll never see national prohibi- tion in this country" stormed Mr. Danaher. He was loudly missed by the rdry" side and he rebuked the prohi.. bitionists for using '-their geeue-like proclivities.'
 Fred w. Orr of New Haven, rep- Eresenting the brewery interests of the state, deplored the fact that so many unfair attacks had been made against liquor dealers.
 He denied that the liquor inter- ests were lined up with the anti-suf- fragists in a recent committee meeting at the Capitol. He resented the ar- ticles referring to fred noses and red roses" and denounced this method of attack. He pointed out that there are men and women who have gone wrong without tOJIchinv. Ona dron of Hr,,or