San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-28
REFORMING A PERFORMER"

The American public is eminently fair
minded. 1t is far more prone to sym
pathize with the under dog than witt
the winner. 1t loves fighter and hate.
a gutter and never sneers at misfor
tune. Moreover. it is, taken as a whole
a great lover of abstract and concrete
justice. Whenever it takes it out" or
any person who is either temporarily OF
permanently down and out, there is
something radically wrong with that per-
son.
Several days ago, William H. Ander.
son, for years the head of the Anti
Saloon League in New York state, was
taken to Sing Sing prison to serve 4
sentence after conviction for forgery.
1t is said that as he was passing through
the Grand Central station in New York
City to take the train for the town OF
Ossining, where the penitentiary is To-
Gated, he was loudly ieered by the crowd
gathered in the station. 1t is highly
doubtful if such a demonstration would
have been made against prisoner con-
victed of brutal and cowardly murder.
1t is fair to assume that the jcers were
directed against Anderson chiefly be-
cause of the unpleasant personality he
has shown.
Any person has, of course. the right
to be an advocate of prohibition. Any
person has the right to work for the
establishment of any belief or theory he
or she may hold. provided that belief
or theory is not subversive of public good
or public morals Anderson has been
a militant prohibitionist as he had a
perfect right to be. There could be no
public objection to him on that ground.
There is however intense public con-
tempt for him on the proven fact that
he was reformer who did not himself
keep within the limits of the law. 1t is
Impossible to avoid disdain for a person
of that kind.
Whoever sets out to reform the world
in whole or in part must himself be
clean if he expects to achieve even tenn
porary results. He must use legitimate
methods and must flight fair" without
recourse to lies or subterfuge. Ander-
son did none of these things. In all his
work in behalf of prohibition he was an
arrogant, insulting bully, who never hest
tated to Stretch the truth whenever he
had anything to say against any person
who did not believe as he believed He
was one of those Performers" who claim
the right to think for himself while
denying that right to others. He was
dictatorial and overbearing to the last
degree. On more than one occasion he
sent messages to the legislature of the
state of New York that should have
landed him in jail for contempt. He
openly threatened members of. that body
if they dared to take any action in re-
lation to prohibition or its enforcement
that had not received his sanction. He
was not member of the legislature,
yet asserted the right to tell the legisla-
ture what to do and how to do it.
Then he committed forgery and in the
opinion OF the court and of the Jury
that tried him, committed perjury to
hide his forgery. He was convicted and
sent to prison where he commenced to
serve the state by swishing around with
mop and pail of water.
Such men as Anderson are never real
ly efficient workers for any cause. In
evitably they bring to it more harm than
good. In this particular case, the cause
Of prohibition made a distinct advance
when its high priest in the state of New
York became a convict in the peniten-
tiary and all lovers Of justice everywhere
will be web content that one "reformer"
received at least a part of his deserts.