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The Commoner
OCTOBER, 1018
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wnen that bill passed the House with only a
JTmiful of votes in the negative it included
l,e"r as well as whiskey. When it was reported
wk to the Senate favorably by the agricultural
.nmmittee it still included beer, but the brewers
Int busy They threatened to prolong debate,
in order 'to hasten the passage of the food ad
ministration bill and give the public the im
mediate benefit of it the friends of the amend
ment more patriotic than its enemies, consented
o the elimination of beer and the brewers thus
secured a year's lease of life, but now the
nuestion is under consideration again and we
find that during the past year the brewers have
been using bread stuffs to the value of about
one hundred millions of dollars worth a year,
that they have 1)oen using six million tons of
coal and using our railroads and our trains to
carry the coal to the brewery and to distribute
the beer. The country is aroused. War pro
hibition has passed the Senate and it has gone
far enough in the House to be sure of its pas
sage there. It provides that-on the first day of
next May the manufacture of beer shall cease
during the war and the period of demobilization,
and on the 30th day of Juno the fight of any
body to sell intoxicating liquor in this country
shall cease, and that war prohibition shall con
tinue during the war and during the period of
demobilization. It is only a question of a few
days now before war prohibition will be a mat
ter of statute. The brewers are burning the
candle at both ends. They take bread, stuffs 'that
we can not spare; they take fuel that we need
and they use the fuel to convert the bread stuff
into an intoxicating liquor that lessens the capa
city of men to produce coal and to produce food.
A few months ago the operators in the coal
district about Pittsburg to the number of
twenty-two hundred met and by unanimous vote
sent a petition to Washington asking that dry
zones be made around their mines and they
promisedr that, if the government would free
them from the effect of intoxicating liquor upon
the men who mined the coal, they would pro
duce two thousand tons of coal jier -day more,
or over six hundred thousand tons of coal per
year more than they are now able to produce.
Now, that is the situation that confronts us,
and it is so imperative that 'Senator' KfcHogg re
cently introduced resolution, it went through
the Senate, went to the House, was reported
buck at once and passed without a dissenting
vote, a resolution that authorizes the Presi
dent to draw dry zones around mines, shipping
yards, ammunition factories and other places
where the government has a special interest in
the efficiency of the men. JThe President by un
animous vote is empowered to make districts
dry and zones dry. I propose that he make the
North Temperate zone dry.
SALOON A MENACE TO INDUSTRIAL AND
MILITARY FORCES OP NATION
Not only does intoxicating liquor reduce the
man power of the nation in productive industry
but the saloon menaces the strength of those
who must fight our battles.
A few months ago I had occasion to visit
Rochester, New York, and saw an audience of
some four thousand, by a rising vote, ask that
a dry zone be made around an aviation camp
in the suburbs of Rochester. The petition said
that four saloons had been planted at the gate
of the camp. If there is any time when a man
ought to have his brain clear and his nerves
steady it is when he takes control of a flying
machine. Not long ago Senator Overman of
North Carolina exhibited in the United States
Senate a brace taken from an aeroplane. He
showed that it had been sawed in two in the
center and the ends joined together with lead;
then it was painted over and put back upon the
aeroplane. The purpose was to so weaken the
machine that when it rose in the air and, turn
ing put a strain upon that particular brace, -the
machine would fall apart and an American boy
would be, plunged downward to his death. That
was the work of a German, spy, and if they find
that German spy they will shoot him to death
and they ought to shoot him to death; but, my
"lends, at a time like this- when we are fighting
the most militant power of which history tells,
and when we are straining every nerve, the
liquor dealer who puts a saloon at the gate of
an aviation camp and, for pay, deliberately tries
to put weakness. in American boys where there
ought to. be streng'th is as much an enemy of
"is country as a German spy who tampers with
an aeroplane. The man is more important than
the aeroplane. '
We have only had one boy to die in disgrace
abroad. One million six hundred thousand sol
diers have crossed the ocean and ono boy only
has died in disgrace, and that boy was under
the influence of. liquor. While under the influ
ence of liquor he assaulted and killed a littlo
French girl seven years old, and they hung him.
When the papers came to Washington the gov
ernment said it was right, that wo could not
afford to allow the French people to think that
a crime like that would bo punished with less
than the. severest penalty, and so a boy who went
across the ocean to die a hero died betwixt
earth and heaven, a felon died in disgraco
upon the gallows, but the man who furnished
the liquor was not hung with him.
The time has come when we are not content
to punish only the victim of alcohol, wo are
going higher up and stop the factories that, for
pay, make criminals in this country and through
out the world.
RATIFICATION OF NATIONAL PROHIBITION
A PRACTICAL CERTAINTY
I have tried to show you an easy way of com
ing from the other side to ours. I have tried
to show you how all the old arguments have
been strengthened and how patriotic arguments
compel you to change your position. Now, I
shall bring this home to every voter of this
audience; of this country, of this state. I believe
it is as certain as any future event can' bo that
wo will have ratification by more than thirty-six
states before the first day of next March; I be
licVe we will have at least forty, and that this
amendment will be ratified whether Missouri
helps us or not. If anybody tolls you that you
ought not to ratify I hope you will remember a
story. Two druriken men were going home from
a saloon, leaning on each other for support;
finally one of them stumbled and fell into the
gutter. The other caught hold of a lamp post
and saved himself from falling. The man in the
gutter tried to get up but found ho could not
rise unaided, so he asked the man leaning
against the lamp post to help him; but that
man, drunk as he was, had sense enough to
know that -he was not in position to help any
body else. He lookejl down sympathetically and
answered: "I can't help you up but I will lie
down with you."
People of,, 'Missouri, you cannot savo the
saloon. It Is gone and the brewery and distillery
with it. If you can't help us, 1f you can't share
in the glory of the emancipation of our nation
from the saloon, your only alternative is to lie
down inthe gutter with the saloon and give it
what consolation you can during its closing
hours. That's all.
That is the way It looks. But, my friends,
I have missed my guess several times on what
was going to happen on election day, and I
don't want to be over confident. It is barely pos
sible that we may need Missouri. It may bo that
. Missouri will be the thirty-sixth state and that
without Missouri we can not ratify, and it may
bo that Missouri will ratify by one majority in
one branch of her legislature. That was the
case in Louisiana, 21 to 20 in the Senate, and
so it may be that you will have just one major
ity in one branch of your legislature. It may
be that that one man will be elected where some
of you can vote, and It may be that he will be
elected by one vote. I mention this to show how
your vote may possibly have a tremendous
influence. I envy the people of Missouri. You
can do what I cannot do. My vote is not as
valuable as yours may be. I can come and talk
to .you but when I am through you vote as you
please, and I do not know whether I shall be
able to make a change of a vote. I could not
prevent ratification in Nebraska 1f I wanted to.
We have already gone dry by twenty-nine thou
sand majority. We have had our primary and
the House is overwhelmingly dry. Out of thirty
three senatorial districts there are twenty-two
in which there is no wet candidate; both parties
have nominated drys. If all the democrats win
we shall have at least ten majority n the
Senate and if all the republicans win it will
bo unanimous, for all their candidates are dry.
Now I am interested In the democratic party
but I am more interested in Nebraska than I
am in the democratic party, and I would rather
see my stale take her place on the roll of- honor
with an unanimous vote than see any wet de
mocrat elected to any place where he could dis
grace his party and Nebraska by voting against
ratification. '
Yes, you may have it in your power to io
great things, and I ask every voter in this coun
ty and stSte to vote just as be would If ho
know that result depended on his vote, and I'
ask him to register so that he cart Vote. Every
one should register, and then every one ahottUl
vote. If tho night beforo election there Is one
man In this audience who Is intending to vote
on tho wet side, either against state prohibition
or against ratification, if there Is orio, lot him
test his courage in tho way I suggest. Let him
got pen and iilk and paper and write like this:
"I" and then put in his full name "intend
to vote tomorrow on tho sldo of the saloon.
I do It, knowing that no saloon can live without
doing harm. I do not know who will conduct
tho saloons that my vote may help to continue
In Missouri or in tho United States, but without
knftwing who my partners In the liquor business
will be, I hereby declare my willingness to sharo
with them moral responsibility for all the harm
that their saloons may do." Then sign your
name; read it over in black and white and if
you aro not ashamed of it have It framed in a
gilt frame and hang it on the walls of your
homo that your children and your neighbors
may know what moral responsibility you are
willing to assume in order to continue saloons.
Then, if you succeed If your vote does what
you want it to do if it helps to continue
saloons, read the paper and when you read that
some young man in whom a mother has invested
a life, and in whom tho community has Invested
enough money to educate him, has gone down
to a drunkard's grave, write: "I am tho partnor
of the man who sold tho liquor and I knew when
I voted for the saloon that that was what the
saloon would do." If you read in the paper that
a husband, under the influence of drink, has
broken every vow that ho made at the marriage
altar and brought his wife to her grave with a
broken heart, write: "I am tho partner of the
man who sold the liquor and I knew when I
voted for tho saloon that that was what tho
saloon, would do." If you read in the paper that
a father has, by drink, been converted into a
drunkard and then has gone down to death by
tho delirium tremens route, leaving his children
fatherless, write: "I am the partner of thejnan
who sold tho liquor and I know when I voted for
the saloon that that was what the saloon would
do;" and if, perchance, you read that some
young woman, when under tho Influence of in
toxicating liquor, was led astray and then
covered "with shame, has gone down and down
and down until she ends her life with her j)wn
hand, write: "I am the partner of the man
who sold tho liquor and I know when I voted
for the saloon that that was what the saloon
would do." I have told you what have read
every day. There is not a man in Missouri with
intelligence enough to mark his ballot on elec
tion day who does not know that the saloon will
sell tho virtue of every woman, undermine the
valor of every man, is a menace to every homo
and to everything high and holy, and that It
will be while it Is permitted to curse the earth.
That is the saloon. Who will take moral re
sponsibility for continuing the saloon today?
Will you of Missouri? Is Missouri going to wait
until virtue Is forced upon her from without?
The day of tho passing of tho saloon is near.
When that day comes will this great common
wealth rise and complain that a virtue from
without has cleansed and purified your state
against the protest of its own people? I cannot
believe it my friends. You must adopt this
amendment. You must bo dry- when tho wave
reaches you and not be overwhelmed -by it.
STATES THAT WILL RATIFY NATIONAL
PROHIBITION AMENDMENT
And do you know what the states about you
aro going to do on ratification? Arkansas on
the south will ratify. On tho west Oklahoma1
and Kansas and Nebraska" will ratify. On the
north Iowa will ratify -of these states you
have no doubt. Do you know what Illinois fs
-going to 3o? They have had their primary over
there. We have thirteen majority In the Illinois
State Senate and we have a clear majority ini
the House. Illinois will ratify this amendment.'
Will Missouri be tho black spot on this west
ern map? No. Missouri, you must share in the
glory of this crusade. Here is the greatest moral,
reform of the generation and it Is sweeping on
to victory. Missouri, you must have your part
in this victory and, then, when our fight Is won
wo will raise that standard so high that It Can.
be seen around the world, and having cleansed
our, own house, we will take the place to which.
we are entitled at the head of the. moral forces
of all this -world and lead the movement that
will drive intoxicating liquor frojn this glob.
I thank you. . " ' j
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