Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-03-02
DEFENDS MR.. ANDERSON

James K. Shields, superintendent OF
the Anti-Saloon League, gives the fol-
lowing statement to the press con-
corning William H. Anderson, head of
the New York State A~nti-Saloop
League, and who is now being investi-
gated:
"The writer of this letter has known
William H. Anderson for almost a
quarter of a century. He knew him
when he had just graduated from law
school in his early twenties, and re-
turned to his home in Carlinville, III.
His father is a successful lawyer and
had expected that his son would enter
his office and give his life to the prac-
tice of law. Had he done so there is
little doubt that he would have been
by this time attracting more than or
binary attention.
At that time the possibilities of a
successful fight against the liquor
traffic of America was about as hope
full as the civilizing of Central Africa
when Livingstone entered it, and
young Anderson was not greatly en-
couraged by his closest friends and
relatives to enlist in the conflict, yet
the day that he decided to make it his
darkest days in the history of the
American saloon. From that day to
the present time he has lived, moved
and had his being for but one purpose
Ito crush the liquor traffic.
No hi who has known William H.
Anderson during all these years has
ever known him to do a dishonest act.
The Methodist Church has four times
honored him by electing him a mem
Der of their highest, legislative body,
the General Conference. He has
fought a good fight; he has been able,
shrewd and ~resourceful, but he fought
an able, shrewd and resourceful foe.
He has been one of the outstanding
leaders of the Anti-Saloon League of
America; is the author of the phrase,
The Church in Action Against the
Saloon,' and the author of the book
of instructions for the workers of the
League in the early years of it's or
~ganization.
Anderson's personal methods of
dealing with politicians have not been
the methods of many other superin-
t%endents, but they have been those
that he has believed to be most prac-
teal and effective. We have known
many wet politicians who have de-
clared that these methods were abso-
lutely 'indiscreet,' and we have even
known wet newspapers to call them
imprudent.' If they are ever sin
cerely proven to be such (and we are
confident they will never be proven
anything more) it would not be the
when reformers have been accused of
possessing some of these qualities.
John Brown, for instance, was called
'indiscreet,' and Lovejoy ~'imprudent'
in their fight against the slave traffic.
The fight that is being waged at the
present time to crush Anderson is
more than a fight against an individ-
ual. Back of the attack upon Ander-
son is the attack upon the organiza-
ton that Anderson represents; the
state and federal laws for the enforce
ment of Prohibition, and lastly, upon
the Eighteenth Amendment itself.
1t is only necessary to take an in
ventory of the hounds that are yelping
on Anderson's trail, not one sincere
but practically every one of them Bit
ter antagonists of the whole idea. The
New York World, that throws a fit
every time it thinks of the Eighteenth
Amendment and the Volstead law, is
likely to die of pure joy if Anderson
should be convicted by a jury, or even
indicted by a grand jury. The rest
of the wet newspapers and politicians
would be almost in danger of a SINH
lar fate.
For twenty-five years this crowd
has had their magnifying glasses
turned upon the Anti-Saloon League
men of the nation looking for spots.
They have been unsuccessful to a
most remarkable degree, and VIZ are
confident that when they are through
with Anderson they will have dis
covered that as a result of their at
tacks they will have made for him a
name that will go down in history as
one of the outstanding characters in
the great war of civilization against
the drink trafic-a name that will
be remembered with gratitude by fu-
ture generations long after his enc
mics and the enemies of the cause are
dead and forgotten"
JAMES K. SHIELDS.