New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-01
Church Folk Pray
To Win Senators
To Dry Majority
Divine Intervention
Sought for Victory
at Albany
[Staf Co2vespoudcnce1

ALBANY, March 31.-Prayers we're
offered in Rochester churches and in
those in Oneida and Livingston coun-
ties to-day for the conversion of Sen
ators George F. Argetsinger, Charles
W. Wicks and Charles d. Newton.
And if the prayers and personal APP
peals Of Thu constituents Of these three
legislators prevail there will be q suf-
ticient detection in the ranks of the
posed bone dry amendment to the Fed
cral Constitution by a majority of two,
the dry.s declare.
And the drys do not regard this q
hard task, in view of their rescue of
Senator James A. Emerson from the
wiles and snares Of the demon rum.
Senator Emerson was the stanchest
advocate Of personal liberty" the
shibboleth of the vets. He had a per-
sonal interest in the cause of the vets.
being owner of one Of the bigge St
summer hotels in the state, where the
sale of liquors figures largely in the
annual turnover.
There are no such OBSTACLES in the
case of Senators Newton, Wicks or
Argetslnger, and their conversion
would not be regarded as a miracle,
as was the winning over of Senator
Emerson, but merely as additional
proof of the efficacy of prayer-and
the personal appeals of constituents.
Word reached here tonight that Sen.
ator Newton had been converted. If
this is true the drss are still one short
of majority. No confirmation could
be had of the reported conversion, for
Senator Newto lives IN Livingston
County. and efforts to reach him by
long distance telephone were unavail-
ing.
But whether or not the appeals and
prayers are successful, Senator George
+. Thompson, Of Niagara, who last
week assumed leadership of the drys in
the upper house. will move to relieve
the committee of the whole from fur
Their consideration of the amended Hill
McNab resolution. This measure now
provides for an advisory referendum,
and the programme of the drys, if they
succeed IN wrestling it from the Senate
graveyard, IS to restore it to its orig
NAL form OF q resolution, calling upon
the Legislature to ratify the proposed
amendment, adopt it in the Senate and
send it 20 the Assembly for its adop-
ton.
Legislative leaders believe this will
not happen. They reason that even
should the Senate flop to the drys the
Assembly will stand firm. BY an over
whelmng vote the lower house post
poned indefinitely action on the rati-
tication resolution, which, shorn of its
parliamentary phraseology, means that
the Assembly committed itself to a
hands-of policy on ratification for the
session.
But there is a possibility that the
Assembly will reverse itself. The drvs
are certain that it will if the Legis-
lature is in session on April II. On
that day returns from the thirty-nine
upstate cities in which the local option
elections will be held on the 10Th will
have reached Albany, and the drys ex-
pect victory in at least thirty-scven.
Syracuse, the biggest of the cities in
which the vets and drys are fighting,
has been conceded to the cause of pro-
hihiton.
But there is little likelihood of the
Legislature sitting after April II. The
upstate vets do not want to be in
they advance for not voting for ratif-
cation is that they do not know how
their constituencies want them to
vote
The drys cannot count on the Gov
ernor calling an extra session, as he
is said to be opposed to this because
/ OF the expense
And similar motives actuate his I'M
Willingness to call special elections in
the 9th and A1st Senatorial districts
where vacancies exist. The drys
claim the 4lst would return a dry Re
publican. The Governors friends say
he feels that ratification can wait an
other year, as Congress gave the states
seven years in which to act, and that
even if New York ratified the propose ed
Federal amendment this year, the
cause of prohibition would not be ma
| terially advanced.