National Affairs: Oratory

The closing sessions of the meeting of the Anti-Saloon League in Chicago were brilliant with oratory. Examples:

Dr. L. C. Branscomb of Anniston, Ala., regarding the possibility of the Democrats’ nominating a wet for the Presidency: “My grandfather and my father were Democrats, and if I should vote the Republican ticket they might turn in their graves, but I would do it if the northern Democrats should betray the cause for which we have suffered!”

Edwin H. Hughes, Methodist Bishop of Chicago: “My great-grandfather was taught alcohol was a food, my grandfather was taught it was a beverage, my father was taught it was a stimulant, but I was taught alcohol was a poison. It is time we taught our children that intoxicating liquor was born in Hell and we mean to keep it there.”

William David Upshaw, Congressman from Georgia, sitting on a piano stool, holding his crutches: “Mr. Chairman and fellow booze fighters—I am opposed to a campaign of law enforcement.

“I am in favor of a campaign of law observance on the part of officialdom.

“The press of America—every publisher, editor and reporter, must be put on the water wagon. I have a high respect for these men and their mission, and I speak not in bitterness but in sorrow. If the newspapers of this country were all on the water wagon we would be grandly on our way to accomplish our goal.

“The second great step is to put all politicians on the water wagon. The personnel of Congress is overwhelmingly dry, both in practice and in precept. But I am in favor of a vigorous policy from the White House down that will break every bottle in official America and send unpatriotic and dangerous politicians to the scrap heap.”