The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-05-14
WHAT'S BEHIND
DRY LEAGUERS
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NUN 1FSd5 hG lObDSS
That thereafter the league found
no difficulty in financing it's cam
paigns and its lobby;
That the league leaders. having
disco vered a new and highly remun-
erative profession that paid preach
ers better than preaching did,
branched out from Ohio and gradu-
ally took in the entire country;
That the league leaders found it
easy to get for themselves and their
salaried propagandists access to
church pulpits. where they preached
prohibition as a moral crusade;
Shrewd Propaganda
That they sherwdly prepared very
interesting Statistics purporting to
prove that there were more accidents
in factories on Mondays than on
other days of the week, and more
workmen failed to show up for work
on Mondays than on other days;
That the reason for this was that
the workers got drunk on Saturday
night and Sunday, and were nervous
and not fit for work on Monday:
That saloons were a place where
workmen met labor agitators and
got disturbing notions in their heads;
That If the saloon could be abol-
ished nationally through prohibition.
labor would sober up and become
more efficient; and that the millions
then spent in saloons would be spent
for goods that would profit manufac.
turers and retail merchants;
That, ia the language of modern
business, they sold this idea to the
big business world, and that the
Garys, Rockefellers and other cap
tains Of industry and large employ
ers Of labor, then got back of the
Anti-Saloon League with campaign
funds running into millions;
That the hold on the so.called
church vote was held by keeping up
the propaganda in the pulpits and
even putting more preachers on the
pay roll;
That the fiction was carefully
nursed for public consumption and
its influence on the churches-that
prohibition was still moral
crusade, when in fact 1t had become
an economic policy financed and
directed by big business.
Power Grows
That having a vast war chest to
drow upon, and the church vote to
throw as 1t saw fit, the Anti-Saloon
League went deeper and deeper into
the political game, with constantly
increasing influence and power. p
That after putting preachers on
It's pay roll in every State in the Ma
ton, it began to put State legis.
lators, Governors, judges, Congress.
men and even United States
Senators on the same pay roll by
paying them to deliver lectures on
prohibition.
That 1t finally got such a. grip on
both old political parties that It felt
strong enough to put over the
Eighteenth Amendment.
That 1t got such a firm grip on
the Democratic party that Wayne
3. Wheeler. chief lobbyist Of the
Anti-Saloon League, had more in.
huence with a Democratic Congress.
during President Wilson's Admins.
tration, than the Democratic Presi-
dent himself had.
Club Over Wilson
That after we got into the World
War and President Wilson was
urging Congress to pass his food
administration bill as a war measure
the Anti Saloon League lobby held
Up the President Of the United
States and forced him to appeal to
them in writing to let his food bill
go through.
That the Anti-Saloon League lob.
by selected the time when every
body else was working and sacri-
ficing selfinterest in order to win the
war, to submit the Eighteenth
Amendment to the country and put
it over as a war measure-when
about 100000 of our boys were in
France or southern camps.
That while the Anti-Saloon League
and Big Business lobby controlled
Congress. it didn't control President
Wilson.
Congress Whipped
That though President Wilson We
toed the Volstead act, the League
lobby whipped Congress into pass
ing it over his veto.
That the league lobby drunk
with power, determined to control
the executive as we'll as the legis-
lative branch of government.