The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1926-06-02
DRYS READY TO
FIGHT VETS TO
LAST DITCH
Prohibition Here Because PeO-
pie Have Said They Want
Ii, Says Mcbride

''rhe drys are ready to meet the
last ditch in defense Of the ronsti-
tuition as regularly amended BY II
governing people to outlaw Ii
quor forever" said f. Scott Mcbride.
general superintendent Of the Anti
saloon league. at mass meeting at
the city auditorium last night. Mr..
McBride's speech was preliminary to
the formation here of the Anti saloon
league of North Dakota. This is the
last state in the union to be organiz-
ed by the league, organizations hav-
ing been formed in all the other
states years ago.
"The fight of the vets for a ref
ercndum awakens some vivid mem
cries Of the days gone by" said
Mcbride. ''The vets opposed every
right to vote by any unit whatever
They bitterly fought local option, city
option, county option, statewide and
every option. They even fought
woman suffrage because that would
give women the right to vote on the
liquor question.
Vets Given Death Sentence
"TwentysiX states fought for the
right to vote and then voted the
saloon out. Six others, where dry
sentiment was overwhelming, pass
ed the prohibition measure by an act
Of the legislature. Then the fight
shifted to Congress in order that the
people might be freed from the liquor
traffic where local and statewide
referendums were refused because of
the power of the vets. A constitu-
tional resolution was submitted by
more than the necessary two-thirds
vote in both houses-G5 to 90 in the
Senate and 282 as against 12S in the
House. This gave tho states the
right to vote on national prohibition.
The 18th Amendment was ratified in
the state legislatures following cam
paigns in which prohibition was the
dominant issue, and As of the 48
states and 93 of the SO legislative
bodies declared themselves in favor
of prohibition. The vets have been
called before the bar of public
opinion and have received their death
sentence.
"The contest has been a referen-
dunn from the beginning. The drys
have won. The vets have lost.
"The wet complex Of certain Sec
tions can be accounted for today
largely because the vets refused the
people the chance to eliminate the
saloons by local option in these wet
centers and thereby carry on the edu-
cational campaign in behalf of the
prohibition movement. New York.
New Jersey. Pennsylvania, Illinois,
Wisconsin and other states dominated
by wet influence prevented local and
county option and state wide refer
endum.
No State Has Voted for Beer and
Wine
"The beer and wine issue along
with the saloon has had it's day in
the referendum court. In Ohio while
the state went dry by $4,000 in 1918,
in 1922 it defeated a beer and wine
resolution by nearly 100000. In
Michigan the saloons were voted out
by $4,000 and beer and wine in:
structed at the following election to
stay out of the state of Michigan by
20s,O0O. OF the SO dry states not one
has voted for beer and wine.
"The time is we'll here when we
should say to these old time vets
that are now clamoring for straw
ballot referendums and sham battles
that we have fought this thing
through: that we do not believe
in running for a train after
we are on it; that we know victory
when we have fought hard to obtain
It; that prohibition is here because
the people have said theN want it !;
and that we will meet them in every
real election at the ballot box, in the
legislatures and the Congress. ".
I'm spite of their overwhelming
defeat by the expressed will Of the
Continued on page three.)