The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1921-10-06
Public Backing Necessary
to Keep the State Dry
r. P. HUTTON SAYS PUBLIC
SENTIMENT NECESSARY
Says Leagues Must Be Organic
ed in Every County in the
State to Back up Officials in
Their Sworn Duty.

Wisconsin did not go dry; it was
put dry.
Wisconsin will not stay dry; it
must be kept dry" said r. P. Hutton
in opening his address to the State
Convention of the Congregational
churches at Eau Claire on Wednesday
afternoon, Oct 5, (Mr Hutton is
the state superintendent of the Wis
consin Anti-Saloon League.)
Neither Uncle Sam nor the state
of Wisconsin expects to police your
city for moonshiners, rum-runners
and bootleggers. Neither do you
expect them to, and anyone who
wants them to ought to be ashamed
of himself. Local self-government
is the foundation stone of this gov
ernment of the people by themselves.
Every time that the federal pTohibi-
tion officers or the state prohibition
officers are called upon to make
cleanup in your community it ad-
vertises to the world that the voters
of the community have such poor
judgment or so little interest as to
elect officials who either cannot or do
not enforce the law.
ct does not take brilliant lawyer
to prosecute successfully, provided
he is backed by open popular SYM
Ln To- I, do
to begin with. There remains only
the question of the. jury. The jury
is chosen from among average citi-
zens of that community. In order
to convict their decision must be
unanimous, IL out of y. So the
task of law. enforcement is to so
thoroughly educate the public at
large that any II men, in the fact of
valid evidence, will not commit per-
jury under the jurors oath. I'm
consciously jurymen are influenced
by the manifestation Of public senti-
ment.
Enforcement in Eau Claire will
depend upon the Eau Claire city chief
of police and the Eau Claire county
sheriff and district attorney, and
those officers are going to do all that
the citizens of this city and. county
demand they shall do; just that
much and no more. And when you
demand law enforcement they are
going to demand of you that you back
them in the doing of that which you
demand that they shall do, as they
have right TO do and would be fools
not to do.
Further, il. those officers are like
the average officers they would pre-
fer to have you demand that they do
8 mans job in enforcement, and
back them in the mans job rather
than to compel them to do a baby
job because the. private citizen pussy
foots' and side-steps the responsible
lity which is his under the Declara-
ton of independence and the Con-
stitution of the U. s., and the state,
and which he himself announces
many times year when he says,
The people rule
Organized Enforcement
'sThe Anti-Saloon League is plan
ming for county dry law enforcement
leagues, with county executive
committee of seven members and a
county central committee of one
from each town, village and city
ward. The county central cimmit-
tee is to act as clearing house for
evidence. The greatest service that
the private citizen can render to
the public official is to pass or every
scrap of information regarding law
violations which comes into his pos
session. Report blanks will be pro-
vided for that purpose. Presently
the executive committee will discover
that they have reports by half doz.
en- or more citizens on the same
person.
"WitA this information in hand the
District Attorney can either issue
search warrants Immediately, or ht
can summon the parties who were
overheard tellin CHOW they secured
liquor and by a John Doe investiga
tion sweat the truth out of them; or
he may station an officer to searcl
the automobile reported on the rex
time that it is parked in the accus
toned place, for no search warrant il
needed 10 search az automobile; an'