The Little River news., 1923-05-23
ASKS TEMPERANCE OF PRESBYTERIANS
William Jennings Bryan Urges Churchmen to Sign Pledge of
 Total Abstinence.

Indianapolis, Ind, May 2O-Presby terlans in popular meeting" today unanimously endorsed resolution presented by William Jennings Bryan calling on the General Assembly of the church, in session here, to pass q resolution asking every Presbyterian minister and church member, and the presidents, teachers and pupils in all of the denomination schools and col leges to sign a pledge of total abstin- ence.
 AS outlined by the commoner, "he proposed that every minister first sign the pledge, then every church officer, and finally every church member. In the denominational colleges he would start with the presidents, then the faculty and finally put the pledge be- fore every student
 The Bryan resolution, which he will present tomorrow to the assembly, of which he is a member, came as the climax of a mass meeting under the auspices of the Committees on Sab bath Observance and Prohibition and Public Morals.
 Prohlbltlon violation, Sunday golf, baseball and Saturday night theater going, and the size Of Sunday news papers were attacked by MT. Bryan and other speakers, representing the Lords Day Alliance.
 This morning and tonight the ad- vocates of modernism and liberalism in religion and the opponents of fun damentalism aired their conflicting views in a score of the city's pupits. MT. Bryan did not return from Kansas City in time to preach this morning, but tonight at Westminster church he delivered an attack on the believers in the Darwinian theory of evolution and on the liberals who question the virgin birth of Christ and other doc trines.
 Bryan a, Busy Man.
 MT. Bryan covered everything from Sunday golf to the whiskey fleet on rum row in his address. 'I don't believe there is a buster man in this country" he whimsically observed.
 Just to think of lines. I've got to keep the Democratic party straight Then I've got to get prohibition en- forced, and that's no small task. And I've got to defend religion, and that takes all my powers.
 II can promise you this, though: There will be nothing done in this as- sembly that'll hurt Christianity, with out my protest being heard" That was his only reference to the fight be- tween the liberals and conservatives.
 On the subject of Sabbath observ- ance, he said: You cant legislate morality into a man3 no, but you can legislate to prevent others from crush ing out the opportunity for him to acquire morality. We have no diff culty with anybody on this Sabbath question except the man who wants to make money on the Sabbath. It's greed, not human good. They talk about our wanting blue Sunday. They want a yellow Sunday, yellow with gold"
 The next step in enforcing prohibi- tion, MT. Bryan said, lis to get rid of this fake robbery business, with trucks driving up to distilleries in broad light, "overpowering the guards and priving away with load of booze"
 "The next thing is to get rid of the vets who are entrusted with enforc- ing prohibition. It's absurd. It's unconstitutional to appoint a wet off, cial to enforce dry law. Doesn't the constitution say we shall not inflict any cruel and unusual form of pun ishment, and what can be more cruel and unusual than to require wet official to cut off his own source of supply"