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The Commoner
DECEMBEE, 1916
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Bryan Raises Prohibition Question
Below is special correspondence
to The New York Evening Ppst..
Lincoln, Neb., November 17. Here
In the shadow of Fairview, where the
people know their neighbor Bryan
well, 1916, and the way the west
sideswiped the east, has ceased to be
the main talk. The west has a big
ger joke on the east coming than
that. Under the eaves of Fairview
the past is dead and 1920 is the rage.
This comes because everybody in
these parts attended William . Jen
nings Bryan's election eve meeting
in his home city this year. They
went because they were interested
in what he might say on Wilson and
the prohibition amendment and what
he might not say about certain "wet"
democratic candidates for governor
and other things. They heard these
things, but the thing they now re
member best, though they paid small
heed to it at the time, was something
else. It was like this: "When I
have helped successfully to rid the
democratic party in Nebraska of its
brewery control, I propose to go right
on and help finish the job on a na
tional scale. My greatest work is
still ahead of me."
That did not seem at the time so
very sensational. Mr. Bryan has
fiung himself against many a stone
wall in his time, and his neighbors
took with calmness his intention to
tie Tammany and Roger Sullivan and
Tom Taggart and Colonel Watterson,
to the prohibition chariot. It was a
good lifetime job he had set himself,
and Mr. Bryan could enjoy, for he is
at his best in a battle for what be
considers a moral issue. But as to
its leading to any near political con
sequences that was out of the ques
tion "Bryan has permanently re
tired from politics," said his neigh
bors at this point.
Then came the election, with
Hughes kidnapping the fair Presi
dency on Tuesday night, and the
went dramatically returning it un
harmed to its present owner's arms.
.Meanwhile, Nebraska voted dry in
tbcdienco to Mr. Bryan, and with it
ont Michigan and Montana and
oouth Dakota, and the election of
legislatures in Utah and Florida
pledged to enact prohibition laws.
iSxiterprising newspapers immediately
made two new maps- One was. a
uemocratic map of the United States,
'ihe other was a "dry" map of the
United States. And behold, it re
uu'red an expert to tell them apart.
That is how the "dopesters" here
about decide that for the lately jilted
coat the worst is vet to come.
Woodrow Wilson caried the solid
futh and the solid west. Prohibition
has carried the solid south and the
lid west. We are speaking by ap
proximations, of course. One or two
southern states are not yet "dry."
"ne or two "western states voted for
"ghes. But the generalization holds
l rotically true.
iour years from now Woodrow
' -Icon will be retiring. Anybody in
f ht for his shoes? . Any particular
issue in sight for his party? There
s just William Jennings Bryan, the
f ternal W. J. B , in sight, and he has
ju issue prohibition. Every pres
ent democratic state but eight is
r if her "dry" or has made arrange
ments to go "dry." Every "dry"
f'tatft but six is now democratic. And
William Jennings Bryan has pledged
h'mself to spend his coming years in
making the democratic party and the
nation "dry
Tho Party is "Dry"
The party, wherever it has elect
oral votes, is already "dry." With a
very little help the "dry" states can
elect a president. They have just
done it, but not on that issue. At tho
head of the "drys" in this, at least
for the present "dry" party, is the
still alert, vigorous, and ambitious
leader of throe lost causes. Will he
take the chance? Will a riunV nwim?
Take it from tho post-election issuo
of The Commoner: "Let tho 'dry
democrats begin work at once to se
cure control of tho democratic or
ganization, stato an dnatioual. Nearly
half tho states are now 'dry,' and the
number will bo swelled to nearly if
not quite thirty before 1920. To take
the side of the saloon is to invite dis
astrous defeat. To take tho side of
tho homo is to draw to the party tho
strong young men who are coming
out of the schools and colleges, and
who will, within a few years, bo the
dominant force in politics. Again
in the nation's life the old question
demands an answer, 'Choose ye this
day whom ye will serve.' "
They think they know Mr. Bryan
out here. Six years ago he began
in Nebraska the campaign just an
nounced for the nation. He split his
party and bolted one candidate for
governor in the course of that flcht.
He made the liquor Issue the only
state issue during that period, and
he has ended in seeing his state
"dry," though he has never been able
to control his party on that Issue.
Knowing their neighbor, and study
ing the democratic dry map, tho peo
ple in these parts have no hesitancy
in prophesying that by 1920 the dem
ocratic party of the United States
will! be haying the time of its Jife
"with Mr. Bryan and his liquor issue,
and Lincoln be onco more the storm
source of democratic politics.
That is the surprise the west thiniCB
it has still in store for tho east a.
bigger surprise than this recent big
one. It has already neen pointea out
that the election returns indicate the
prematurity of the reports of Mr.
Bryan's political demise and Inter
ment. This west that went for Wil
son and decided an election without
the help of New York, New Jersey,
Indiana, and Illinois is Bryan's
stamping ground, the section stumped
by 'him for Wilson. And Bryan, it
can be claimed with some plausibil
ity, was the man who gave the Wil
son administration the peace tinge
which made it possible to win the
west and the election for Wilson.
It is a doleful pmjspect. Hero in
the west they know full well there is
nothing like the liquor issue to muss
un nolitics. But it is coming. The
cloud is already several times the size
of a man's hand, and the biggest
wind William Jennings Bryan knows
how to raise is puffing it this way.
W. L. L.
PROHIBITION MAP OF THE UNITED STATES ,
fen H W&k?& JRL
BRYAN AND PROHIBITION
Mr. W. J. Bryan did Trojan ser
vice for the democratic party In the
campaign just closed, and went far
to redeem himself from his absurd
and undignified conduct as a member
of the cabinet and from the pranks
he attempted to play with the ad
ministration during the most critical
period of our foreign relations. But
the Nebraskan has suffered no grass
to grow under his feet in the attempt
to improve on the success of the party
hy undertaking to lay down and
force the lines it shall follow in the
next presidential compaign of 1920.
He has promptly jumped into the
arena with the proposition that the
democrats shall adopt a nation-wide
prohibition Plank In their national
platform in 1920 and make this their
Twenty-five of the forty-eight states in the United States will bo dry as
the result of tho election. Nineteen already had voted out liquor while lx
went over to the prohibition causo Nov. 7, Utah and Florida electing legis
latures which are expected to vote against the saloons when they meet.
Of the twenty-throe wet states left, plx have local option in more than
half their counties, nine have more than a quarter of their counties dry,
and the remaining eight have less than 25 per cent of their counties against
tho saloons. Tho lineup:
More than 50 per cent.
sota, Indiana.
-Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, Minne-
Moro than 25 per cent. California, Wyoming, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Ohio, Maryland, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire.
Less than 25 per cent. Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Now Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. Kansas City Star,
chief issue- In that campaign. Pro
hibition as a state-to-state movement
on non-partisan lines is doing mighty
well and Is progressing with wonder
ful rapidity. -It seems a pity that
Mr. Bryan can not let well enough
alone. Prohibition is a moral issue
that should be dealt with by all the
people without the injection of po
litical bias. It appeals to all the peo
ple alike, if it is left on its sole mer
its as a principle. What difference,
then, should it -make to a sincere
prohibitionist what the brand of a
man's politics may do, so long as he
votes for tho principle? But to bring
party into it is lo mix politics and
whisky, than which there Is no moro
vicious combination.
Neither national party adopted
prohibition as an issue between them
in the late campaign, and yet state
elections on. November 7, held inde
pendently but simultaneously with
the presidential election, added at
least five states to the "dry" column.
Michigan gave prohibition 75,000
majority; Nebraska went "dry" by
p9,442, Montana by 20,000, and
South "Dakota by 25,000. Idaho has
adopted a prohibition constitutional
amendment by a majority fit three
to one; Utah and. Florida have elect
ed legislatures pledged to a prohibi
tion law, and Washington, Iowa, Col
orado, Arizona and Arkansas stood
adamant against recent attempts to
revive liquor traffic in those states.
Twenty-four of the forty-eight
states of the Union are now "dry."
It is estimated that sixty per cent of
the population and eighty-five per
cent of the area of the United States
is now subjected to prohibition. The
movement is progressing favorably
and with a minimum friction as a
non-political moral measure. It
seems to us that it were better con
tinued so.
It Is President Wilson's view, as
we understand It, that prohibition Is
a moral and not a political issue, and
that It is one for the states to deal
with and legislate upon. The prin
ciple of prohibition is democratic in
Its nature, enuring to tho benefit of
tho masses, as It docs, and It is sig
nificant that the prohibition wave
originated and has moved sid'o by
sido along with democracy, although
independent of it politically, from
the south and west which in coalition
has just elected a President. This de
velopment in itself, of course, fur
nishes a strong temptation to play
politics with and wo may fully ex
pect tho most will be made pf it by
politicians on the lookout for issues
and tho drift of the tide. As a writer
says: ,
"Tho fear hitherto has been-that
no national convention would dare to
embarrass an eastern nominee by a
prohibition plank, since the candidato
would be sure to lose the heavily
populated states of New York, New
Jersey, Illinois and Indiana. But the
prohibition strength in each of these
states is growing every day. The
fact also that a president can be
elected without those four states
makes it almost certain that from
now until 1920 the agitation against
high-balls and beers will be relent
lessly carried on." Knoxville
(Tenn.) Sentinel.
DISTRICT PROHIBITION FIRST
AIM OF CONGRESS
Tho first effort of prohibition lead
ers In congress at this session? ifto '
bo directed toward enactment of tho
bill to abolish liquer in the District
of Columbia. William J. Bryan's
declaration for national prohibition
and his presence In Washington have
served to arouse interest In the sub
ject, and the initial move will be .
made in the senate, where Senator
Morris Sheppard of Texas plans to
push the District prohibition pill in
the near future. Ho will be aided
by Senator Kenyan of Iowa, who will
champion the measure from the re
publican side. Washington Star.
A