You'd think, nowadays, to hear some of the things that
are said about conditions in the old times, that every man in this State
picked up his rum-bottle and pipe and threw 'em to Tophet and got onto
the wagon. You weren't born then. Let me tell you how it really
happened. It was mostly politics. The disorganized mob of
prohibitionists didn't do it--it was our party. We needed the cranks to
swing the balance of power. They were all herded, ready to follow the
bell. Needed a shepherd. Didn't know which one of the old parties to run
to. It's a crime in politics not to grab in a bunch of the unbranded
when it's that size. We put prohibition into the platform and carried
the election. Then the boys went to the Governor and told him,
privately, that they really didn't mean it, and framed it up that they'd
pass the bill in the legislature all right and then he'd veto it--and
the party would be saved, and he wouldn't be hurt, because every one
knew that he couldn't be accused of acting in the interests of the
rumsellers, but only stood on the constitutional law ground--and there
was great talk those days, son, of personal liberty and inherent rights.
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