The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-11-12
WET GOVERNOR
is TEACHER IN
SUNDAY SCHOOL
He's for w. G.. T. u. and
Against VOlstead-in Pol
tiles Since He Was II
BY GEORGE BRITT
NEA Sprvice Writer

Jersey City, n. j., Nov. 1.-The
"wettest' governor in America has
been Il Sunday School teacher for 25
years.
He is A. Harry Moore, commissions
er of revenue and finance Of Jersey
City, who was swept into the COVER
norship by a majority OF more than
10000 votes favoring his light wines
and beer" platform.
Leaving school at l3 to become a
| messenger boy and help support the
family, he went back to study law
after he was 40. and now at 46 he is
chosen chief executive of the most
! irreconcilable Of anti-V olstead states.
The big interest in his life all these
years has been boys and the making
of them into men.
ut is because my hobby is boys
rather than in spite of it-that | am
a wet" declares Governor-clect
Moore. "There are hundreds of my
Sunday School boys now grown up
, around here, and they are not drunk
ards"
He explains that he thinks men are
developed by facing dangers and
choosing freely to resist-not by hav-
ing a paternalistic state shove the
dangers beyond reach.
He is "wet," bat he is against the
saloon and for the w. c. T. U. The
idea that the saloon is poor mans
club is all wrong, he believes, and the
system of distribution he favors is
something like that Of Quebec. AS
for the w. c. T. IT,, it was organized
as an educational group to build up
intelligent resistance to temptation.
That is what he advocates.
Governor-elect Moore used to be
plain "Red" Moore when he played
second base on the old Pine Athletic
Club baseball team back in his youth.
Just after he passed II he became
secretary to the mayor, and from then
on his career has been politics. He
was still a youngster when he ran
for office as one Of the city commits
sioners, and was elected.
Young Commissioner Moore wasn't
in harmony with the majority Of the
! administration at that time and they
relegated him into obscurty in the
crty. Before he was through he had
this department radiating more in
fluence than any other in the city
government. He developed athletic
fields and Fairgrounds until there
was recreation space for every fam
| lily.
You know the marble contests!
Where the best kid from each alley
and school yard completes with all the
| other bests, and then the town cham
pion is sent off to Atlantic City for
a grand national championship mar
bles meet! Well, that is A. Harry
Moore's idea, and he staged the first
| marbles championship contest ever
held, right on one of his parks here.
In his office is a large collection of
silver cups and photographs of win
ming teams, trophies of Jersey City
| boys development on the public play
grounds.
But getting over to the new COVER
nor;s other hobby, which is the pro-
hibition question, he calls it "the
Invest issue in American politics to-
day" :,
until it is settled all over again--re-
| moved from national dictatorship and
left to the choice of states says
Moore.
"My election as governor on wet
platform means practically nothing.
I am the third wet in succession to
be elected governor Of New Jersey,
and conditions remain as they were.
can't repeal the eighteenth amend
memt, and ! never promised to.
81 am simply the symbol Of protest.
Our state doesn't like the Volstead
act, and it intends to keep on saying
so.
1--WE have reached this degree of
frankness in New Jersey. We don't
talk dry and drink wet. We don't
evade this issue which is nearest to
the thinking of thousands of voters
and try to stir up smoke on minor
questions. And whether other states
agree with New Jersey on prohibition
or not, think they will agree on onr
method OF regarding it squarely as a
question upon which the people have
right to say yes or no"