The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-07-06
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
To the Editor of The Times:-

To the Editor of The Times:-
 sir:-It was published in Bridge port paper last Sunday, and has not been denied, that those who are out to have Connecticut declare for pro- hibition have retained a manager at a cost of nearly $2o.O00! It was pub lished after a meeting of prohibition ists in Hartford some weeks ago and has not been denied that a thousand stump speakers will be turned loose in the state to make it dry!
 Are these things true? And if true what does it mean?
 Just one thing-that this is going to be poodle campaign in Connecti cut; one that will make the historic poodle campaigns of the sos look like thirty cents. This, too, with a corrupt practice act on the statute booki Does any sane man believe a sum exceed ing $100,000, as 1t must exceed that amount if the prohibition plans are carried out, can be spent legitimately and wholly free from corrupt prac- tices? Doodle and corruption galore while the government is combing OfSIy COLCS1NdOlS dIlu dFdllebDlS SOuA C0 for money to carry on the war which is now the whole and only real con- cern of America! Does any sane man doubt that the squandering of more than $100,000 in corrupt politics is utterly indefensible while the Huns are threatening the very life of the republic? Connecticut had better | wake up, or we may find that while most of us are giving our all to make l the world safe for democracy a coterie Of blind fanatics are working in the rear to make democracy unsafe for Connecticut.
 There are men in our state-and unfortunately some of them are among the clergy-who hold that any expenditure of money no matter how enormous or criminal is justiiable if 1 only it will result in Connecticut de- claring for prohibition. Law means nothing to these men; it is crucified on the cross of their fanaticism. Con science is banished before the fate of their habby; the end justifies the means. They are poodle drunk and fad crazy; just as the fusionists of New York went on a wild corruption spree last fall while they were build ing sacrificial fires about the sacred altars of political purity. Will the prohibition poodle drunk in Connecti- cut end like the fusion purity drunk ended in New York, in the political defeat and the legal conviction of the boodlers?
 It's up to the voters of Connecticut. The -prohibitionists couldn't match poodle with the prohibitionists If they would; and they wouldn't if they could. They are not cut from the holier-than-thou cloth that pat terms these sanctimonious drys. They are not building wood statues to poli- tical purity with one hand and swing ing incense to political corruption with the other. They are not hiring any $20,000 campaign manager to invent schemes of political corruption and they're not scattering a thousand wind hammers through the state to foozle a sane and honest electorate. They know, as everyone knows who is over seven, that no campaign man. ager can honestly earn S20,000 and that a thousand mouth-flingers can't be foisted onto 16S towns without starting an orgy of political debauch- cry and corruption that would arouse the ghost of Mark Hanna to indig- nant protest. The -prohibitionists have faith in the good sense and the civic righteousness of the Connecticut electorate. Shall we disappoint them?
 Every man that stands for the legis- lature this fall must be made to read his title clear. If he favors prohibi- tion he must be forced to make it clear he had not been touched with the prohibition slush fund. If he stands ready to will away the sacred state rights of Connecticut to handle it's own domestic problems he must be driven into the open and made to show that ahe Is surrendering these rights at the call of conscience and not because his palm has been crossed with prohibition poodle. Prohibition ists are making no secret that they are out to win and they are out to spend all the poodle that is needed to win It is a time for men who be- lieve in the purity of the ballot to go 1 be at his post If our democracy is to go down let it be at the hands of the Hun; not at the hands of prohibition ists who would sell all that is dear to democracy if only they can put their fanatical hobby across.
 | Connecticut Voters on Guard!
 WILLIAM H. SEARS. | New Haven, June 24, 1918.