0 TA E. Volume 30, No. 1 WESTERVILLE, OHIO, JANUARY, 1929 $1.00 Per Year nor Smith complains it could have never destroyed the open saloon. But, rdETHODISTS BACK THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE why should the churches through their organization, the Anti-Saloon The following resolutions were passed unanimously at the recent se;:;­ League, which is the church in action, for the purpose of fighting the liquor sion of the W e;:t Texas Annual Conference of the M. E. Church, South: traffic, be criticised for doing its work when the organized liquor tn.ffic in "Whereas, Since the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment, our dry pre-prohibition days was working 365 days in the year to dominate the poli­ forces have to some extent become disorganized, and hereby have permitted tics and government of the nation and of every state in the Union, while, the enemy of prohibition to sow tares in their social, moral and political since prohibition the outlawed liquor traffic, represented by the Association field, that, in this political crisis, at least, gives great alarm lest thereby the Against the Prohibition Amendment, headed by Curran and Stayton an.::l 'noble experiment' for which our mothers and fathers fought for a hundred John J. Raskob and Pierre S. duPont, all Republicans, are fighting in the years might be suddenly smothered, annulled and destroyed; but nation and in all the states to promote the return of the legalized sale of "Whereas, During all this trying period of indifference and disintegra­ booze and for the Canadian liquor "parlor" substitute for the open saloon? tion, the Anti-Saloon League and the Woman's Christian Temperance It is a matter of common newspaper record and knowledge that this Repub­ Union have not faltered in their programs, but in spite of indifference on the lican Association Against the Prohibition Amendment largely took over part of friends, and opposition on the part of enemies, have held fast the and financed and managed this so-called Democratic campaign to put AI lines for political righteousness, both in the State and the Nation, and at this Smith in the White House. time are using their maximum strength to prevent and divert the national "If it is intolerance for the churches and their organization, the_ Anti­ catastrophe, threatened by the candidacy of Tammany Hall's and the As­ Saloon League, to fight for the election of dry candidates and against the sociation Against Prohibition's candidacy for the presidency; therefore, be it -election of wet candidates, and for dry legislation and against wet legisla­ tion, then, why is it not intolerance for Raskob and AI Smith's Association "Resolve~, by the WeGt Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopd Against the Prohibition Amendment to fight for the election of wet candi­ Church, South, That we gratefully ackn0wledge the loyal service these two dates and against the election of dry candidates and for wet legislation and organizations have rendereci for the cause of prohibition, and heartily en­ against dry legislation?" · dorse and approve their programs of activity, and call upon our people throughout the bounds of this Conference to give to these organizations their unstint-:..-J moral, personal and financial support; and to count it an honor to belong to one or the other and a double honor to belong to both." THE PROHIBITION REFERENDUfVl J. D. Scott, P.resident, For the past five or six years the wets of New York and the East have been clamoring for a national referendum on the prohibition question, and on No­ J. Grady Timmons, Secretary. vember 6 they got it, and they got it where the chicken got the axe-in the neck. Now they will attempt to deny that it was a referendum on t!.:e liquor G.U.A'li.on, but during. the campaign they boldly asserted_t}l§i)t was. Replying to Mr. Hughes' speech, Sir John Raskob said: "The R:)publicans ''UOW IT HAPPENED" l:now, and the Anti-Saloon League knows very well, that this prohibition is a By'SENATOR THOMAs B. LovE, in Times Herald, Da1las real issue ... The matter of prohibition ought to be subjected to the people on a referendum because Smith's election in a large part will be a refer~ndam After the election the "Times-Herald" asked Senator Thomas B. Love in many sections on the prohibition question." . to tell the people "how it happened." He did so in three lengthy ar ides We quote further from the New York Herald-Tribune) in an editorial under too long to quote l:.ere. His reference to the work of the A:'-ti-Salcon t.he title "The Great Referendum." It says: League is C',..uoted as follows: "It was comm.only asserted by the supporters of Governor Smith ·during the campaign that the election would constitute a. great referendum on the liquor "The Aati-Saloon League of Texas, headed by the militant and effi­ issue. 'Vote for Governor Smith and stand up with the wets; vote for 1\ir. cient Dr. At icus Vvebb, seconded ably and faithfully by Mrs. Atticus Hoover and be counted as a dry,' ran the formula. Webb, rendered service throughout the campaign wrich was indispensable "Vlell, when the electors from seven or eight states vote for Governor Smith next January, they will constitute one of the dryest batches of electors that to success. It was under Dr. \Vebb's auspices that Dr. John Roach Strat::m, were ever assembled in behalf of a candidate. The overwhelming majority of whom Governor Smith very foolishly challenged to meet in joint debate in them wm hail from that great American desert, the heart of the solid South, which is bone dry and which remained true to Democracy on Tuesday." Dr. Straton's own church in New York City, came to Texas and addressed The November election will go down in history as a referendum, and prob­ a number of mee ings in various portions of the state, remarkable for their ably the last, on the question of prohibition. There were probably more dry numbers and their enthusiasm. These demonstrations came at the psycho­ Democrats who, out of the feeling of loyalty to their party, either voted for Al Smith or stayed away from the polls, than there were wet Republicans who did logical moment and had a powerful psychological effect. The Texas Anti­ the same for their party. Every test as to party sentiment that we have had Saloon's new~paper, "Home and State," originally founded by the revered · that was of a nature to be depended upon as indicating that the sentiment Methodist preacher and pioneer prohibitionist, Dr. George C. Rankin, supporting prohibition in America is about two to one. Eight years of propa­ ganda filling the wet press and endeavoring to prove to the people that the law whose fearless slogan, in the days of the open Ealoon, was "On with the &hould be "modified," doubtless influenced many voters. It was easier to put Ba tle/' with its 40,000 circulation reaching into every county and nearly over a claim for "modification" than for the repeal of the law. Most of these every community in Texas, was an important influence in inducing Demo­ who complain at the lack of enforcement of the law, lent a willing ear to the plea for "modification," but would not have had any sympathy whatever for a crats not ·only to vote for Hoover but to work for him. demand for repeal. · "There is nothing more remarkabk in politics than the attitude of the And yet, they did not take the pains to learn just what the ''modification" \Vet forces of the nation toward the Anti-Saioon League. I heard Governor demanded would mean. Any investigation would have revealed to them that it 1i1eant one of two things; either to repeal the Eighteenth .1\mendment, or to AI Smith, in a speech at Baltimore, denounce that organization as intoler­ nullify it. Probably 2,500,000 voters cast their vote for Al Smith under the de­ ant and un-American. Yet, in all of his speeches he was c~reful to declare lusion that a "modification" of the Volstead act was wise, and yet who would his unconditional oppositien to the return of the open saloon which he said have shrunk from any demand for repeal or for nullification. THE MEANING OF THE REFERENDUM he had long declared was and ought to be a defunct institution. The Anti­ The overwhelming vote cast for Herbert Hoover and the overwhelming de­ Saloon League destroyed the open saloon. It rendered to the American feat inflicted upon Alfred Smith, the worst defeat in history, carries but one home and to American life and business and industry this great service, the meaning, and that is that the people approve the law and that ultimately, when value of which was conceded by Governor Smith. He pointed out that this stirred, they will demand the honest and vigorous enforcement of the law. It serves a warning to every sheriff, every prosecuting attorney, every judge, every organization had headquarters in the national capital and keeps its eye on governor, even the President himself, that there is danger in further trifling Senators and Congressmen arid, likewise, has headquarters in the capitals with this l9,W. Neither President Harding nor President Coolidge went into of the various states and keeps hs eye on members of the State Legislature, office with such a mandate from the people on this question. This explains their half-hearted enforcement of the law. There will be no such excuse for and the Anti-Saloon League does and has done these things all expressly Herbert Hoover.