Home and State (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 18, Ed. 1 Monday, January 31, 1916 Page: 4 of 8
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January 31, 1916
HOME AND STATE
4
DEAD
EDITORIAL
A WORD PERSONAL.
This is their confession, not our
It is
Hopkins County.
and shamed,
accusation.
a part of the court record of
it is there for the eyes of the
HOME AND STATE
ARTHUR J. BARTON, Editor
The brewers would rather have paid a million
in fines than to have had this revelation reach the
public. Indeed, since they have confessed to the
raising of over a million a year with which to cor-
rupt this state, it is not to be doubted that they
would have gladly raised and forked over ten
million if it could have saved them from this ex-
posure. The people know. That is the biggest
price that has been forced from these prostituters
of public morals and filchers of political power.
citizens of this state. Every man in Texas may
read as he holds his nose.
The Waco Semi-Weekly Tribune for Wednesday
January 19th, has an editorial headed, ‘‘Another
State-wide contest.’’ We are deeply sensible of
our obligation to the cultured and courteous Edi-
tor of the Tribune for his kind words. We count
it an honor to have such a friend and we are hap-
py that the time is coming when men may disagree
on matters of public policy and may still be the
best of friends. We share fully the Editor’s view
that the support of individuals or the espousal of
causes in political affairs ought not to be deter-
mined by personal relations or friendships.
The Editor is kind enough to say, “We like
Dr. Barton’s way. He is a fighter and makes no
concealment of his principles. If he does not
propose to give quarter neither will he ask quar-
ter.’’
Whether we are much of a fighter or not we
do not know. Of that others must judge. How-
ever, this statement of the Tribune fairly sets our
convictions as to what ought to be the policies
and what will be the policies of the Anti-Saloon
League so far as the present superintendent may
determine them. The Anti-Saloon League is an
organization created for the one sole purpose of
destroying the legalized liquor traffic. In this
matter it neither asks - nor gives quarter. “With
malice toward none and with charity for all,” it
will press forward for the accomplishment of this
one end. The plan of procedure will be clearly
set forth and the people taken into confidence.
The issue will be so clearly defined that nobody
can misunderstand and so sharply drawn that no-
body can play between the lines. Every man and
every paper in Texas will by the very force of
circumstances has to line up for the liquor traffic
and against the best interests of our civilization
or against the liqour traffic and the best interests
of our civilization.
The Tribune further says, “We regret this in-
dication of another state-wide contest over sub-
mission, an issue that has been twice passed on
by the people of Texas during the past five years,
for surely the persistent agitation cannot have
wholesome effects and it seems anything but wise
to interfere with the quietude (as to that issue)
that people and state are now enjoying. It is the
past belief that the conservative voters of the
prohibition element look with favor on the move
and we shall expect to see the effort to renew
The Editor is deeply grateful to be back at his
post after a prolonged and serious illness. For
five weeks he was in the Sanitarium with a severe
attack of typhoid fever. He knows very little
about what happened or what was his condition.
The friends say that for a season it was doubtful
what the issue would be but he is now nearly well,
is gradually gaining strength each day and hopes
to be regularly in the battle against rum. He feels
that he owes his recovery of health to four things:
the skill of the physicians, the care of the nurses,
a good strong constitution unimpaired by drink
or other dissipation and the mercy of God in an-
swer to the prayers of the many friends. He feels
greatly humbled and deeply grateful for the solici-
tude, sympathy and prayers of the dear friends
both in Texas and beyond. He comes back to the
work deeply resolved in his heart to try to do more
for God and humanity. Assistant Superintendent
William J. Herwig and the other members of the
office and field force have kept the work moving
smoothly and well. Indeed the Superintendent is
almost embarrassed by the feeling that things got
along almost or quite as well without him as with
him. Please God we are all now in the fight to
the finish. Every saloon in Texas must be closed
at the earliest moment possible. Every friend of
the League and of this cause will co-operate to
the fullest extent. The work of the League is greatl'
enlarged and we have on hand still larger plans.
Let every friend of the cause who is already a sub-
scriber to the funds make immediate remittance
and let every friend who is not send a generous
contribution.
ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE CONVENTION.
The convention of the Anti-Saloon League of
Texas will be held March 13th, 14th and 15th.
It will begin Monday night, March 13th and close
Wednesday night, March 15th. As shown on the
front page, Mr. Bryan will be with us. As said
a few weeks ago in these columns, Mr. Bryan
has a larger personal influence and following with-
out regard to official position than any other sin-
gle man in America—perhaps in the world. The
common people believe in him and love him. He
is now the greatest single foe of the liquor traffic
and force for prohibition. The throngs will be at
this great Convention both because of him and
the other attractive features of the program. The
place of the Convention will be announced a little
bit later. The Constitution provides the following
basis of representation:
•“Churches, moral, civic and reform organiza-
tions, women’s clubs and all other organizations
in sympathy with the purpose of the League shall
be entitled to two delegates for each 100 members
or less and one additional delegate for each 100
members additional, provided however, that no
organization shall be allowed more than five.”
Let pastors, Sunday School Superin:endents,
Young People’s Society leaders, and the leaders in
all other organizations which are opposed to the
liquor traffic and in sympathy with our cause take
the matter to heart and get ready for the appoint-
ment of their delegates. It is confidently believed
that it will be in every way the largest and most
enthusiastic meeting of the prohibition and moral
forces ever held in the state. The Convention will
consider and decide whether we are to have sub-
mission on the ballot in the Democratic primary
next July and if not whether we are to take other
steps to secure State-wide election on the Sonsti-
tutional Amendment in 1917. This is a matter of
far-reaching importance and should be acted upon
by a large and thoroughly representative body
of our prohibition forces. Every man in the state
who loves the cause should make his plans now to
be on hand to give the benefit of his judgment
and counsel.
There is a fearful stench arising these days
from the vacinity of Sulphur Springs in Hopkins
County. The inhabitants of that most respectable
part of the State are not responsible. The fact is
n corpse has been digged up and is now being aired
in the court house of that county seat. No exca-
vation heretofore has ever brought to men’s sense
of smell so loud a corpse. Texas citizens have
stuffed bed quilts, mufflers and auto rugs into
their nostrils and are engaged in viewing the
corpse. To say that the corpse is decayed, de-
composed, rotten, defunct, ransid and otherwise
deceased is to tell a lie by stating only one-tenth
of the truth.
Indeed, every loyal citizen of Texas, who has
one drop of the blood of his Revolutionary sire left
in his veins, one particle of the old “Rebel” nerve
left in his system, one grain of the spirit of the
“Alamo heroes’’ left in his nature may find cause
for shining up his armor and getting ready for
battle, for if he will but sniff the air in the direc-
tion of the county seat aforesaid. What is the
trouble? you ask. The only reason you ask that
question is the fact that our liberty-loving news-
papers in Texas have failed to print the news for
the past few days. You can guess why and we’ll
bet a month’s wages that you win. The fact
is the Attorney General’s Department has been
reading some letters and producing some other
evidence that convicts and damns the liquor ma-
chine in Texas out of their own mouths.
What is the revelation? What do they con-
fess? We are not making charges, remember, but
only recounting confessions. Listen: That they
contributed a million and a half dollars to defeat
Statewide prohibition a few years ago; that they
have furnished the money and bought poll tax
receipts by the thousands, locked them in safes
and dished them out in local option elections or
wherever needed; that they have used every la-
bor organization that would serve them, every
farmer’s union, commercial organization and ev-
ery other organization that they could lay their
hands on in Texas, with which to protect their
dirty business; that they have become so bold as
to even call certain tate administrations in the
past their own and refer to them in their letters
as “My administration”; that they have systemat-
ically sought to elect their tools and servants to
office in this state and, having succeeded, have
demanded in return their absolute allegiance;
that they have sought to pull prohibitionists, who
save been elected to the legislature, across to their
standards and have in a few instances been suc-
cessful; that their whole state program and their
every activity has been one of corruption, one of
bribing and fostering dishonest returns, one of
such vileness as to make every Texan blush at the
thought of our state having been thus prostituted
There we have the record of the activities of
the liquor machine in Texas in every local op-
tion election during the past several years. That
record is a revelation. Get the facts, gentlemen.
Do not rest until you find out the amount of money
expended with your commissioners’ court, raised
to corrupt the ballot box of your county, poured
into your courts in contests, etc. Find where it
came from. Then ask yourselves the question:
Where did it go? Who got it? Then get out and
defeat some of the lovely grafters who have been
assisting the brewers in holding your county in the
black line. Facts are out in the open at last and
no man is excusable for not konwing them. The
liquor machine has been caught with the goods on.
Never more will an anti orator dare raise his head
in Texas and declare that this state has not been
a very hotbed of political filth and scum, thanks to
the boodle of the brewers.
It will cost the brewers of Texas a quarter of
a million dollars and the forfeiture of their char-
ters to extricate themselves from that delightful
tangle in which they find themselves, they hav-
ing accepted the invitation of the Attorney Gen-
eral to come into his parlor. And that will be
but the beginning of the price. They will find
themselves enjoined and thus prohibited from sub-
scribing to political contests in the future in Tex-
as. This does not mean that they will quit. We
know that they will not. But they will have to
■wild-cat their gifts and will be in constant fear
of the sharp axe of the law. That brazen boldness
with which they have bought up the offices of Tex-
as for the past several years is a thing of the
past.
These and other lesser calamities are the pen-
alties imposed so far as the courts are concerned.
But there is a more bitter dose than is mentioned
above. Exposure faces these culprits. The cor-
rupters of the ballot box of Texas have their pic-
tures in the rogues’ gallery of public contempt.
Their crimes are upon the lips of the people and
will be handed by mouth of men and printers’ ink
to the gasping public for the next few years. The
fact that they have bought poll tax: receipts by the
tens of thousands have driven negroes and
Mexicans, foreigners and gutter-snipes to the polls
to vote their bidding is now the open confession,
wrung from their own bloated lips.
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Barton, Arthur J. Home and State (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 18, Ed. 1 Monday, January 31, 1916, newspaper, January 31, 1916; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1586007/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Library and Archives Commission.