The Golden age. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1915, December 18, 1913, Page 4, Image 4

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4 The Golden Age Fabliahed Every Thnraday by The Golden Age Febllahing Company (Inc.) OFFICE: IS MO OBE BUILDING, ATLANTA, GA. WILLIAM D. UPSHAW Editor MRS. WM. D. UPSHAW . . . Associate Editor MRB. G. B. LINDSEY .... Managing Editor LEN G. BROUGHTON, London, Eng. . Pulpit Editor Price : $1.50 a Year. Ta eases of Foreign Address, Fifty Cents shonld be Added to Cover Additional Postage. ■sterad In the Pestoffice in Atlanta, Ga., as second-class ATLANTA, GA.: PUBLISHERS' PRESS, PRINTERS HO! FOR NATIONAL PROHIBITION! With this issue of The Golden Age, we renew hostilities on the LIQUOR TRAFFIC. Not that we have ever stopped since Every issue rhe Golden Age had its patri- Will Ring jtic birth February 22nd, With Echoes From the 1906. Our readers can testily Battle. that our warfare has been un- relenting since we announced in that first is sue: Love for the tavern-keeper, but death to the saloon! But we mean this—that reinforced by the facts the force and the righteous fury of the two epoch-making gatherings which met in Co lumbus, 0., November 10‘13, and in Washing 4 ton, D. C., December 10-11, we hereby turn on more steam i 1 spit on our hands,” and take a new start on the final eharge toward nation wide prohibition! Every week The Golden Age will ring and sing with living echoes from the battle-front. We had expected to publish this week the masterful speech of Editor Ernest H. Cherring ton of the American Issue, deliveerd last week at the capitol in Washington, but we will re serve it for Christmas week in order to give it better space. Likewise we expect to publish from week to week the speeches of Senator Morris Sheppard supporting his senate resolution for national prohibition, of Congressman Richmond P. Hob son, supporting the removal of the ‘‘commit tee of one thousand” presented to congress, and—mark the words — every week through the year one of the ringing speeches made either at Columbus or Washington, or some address from some whiskey-fighter of national repu tation who is wrestling with the liquor devil hand to hand and face to face. For instance, Clinton Howard of Rochester, whose “cluster of gems” we publish this week and whom Dr. Chas. F. Askew calls “the most amazing speaker I ever heard,” has promised to send The Golden Age frequent echoes from his own monumental platform work. All aboard for “the water wagon!” And a truceless warfare against the blatant blear eyed, bloated monster until we die—or liquor dies, and the FLAG we love is free forever from the crime of its liquor stain! Send $1.50 for 1 year’s subscription to THE GOL DEN AGE and a “dandy” pair of shears or brass-lined pocket knife free. THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF DEC. 18, 1913 Hobson Did Not “Bitterly Attack’’ Underwood (Letter sent to Birmingham News) On Train Between Washington, D. C., and At lanta, Ga., December 13, 1913. Editor Birmingham News: Believing that The News does not wish to contribute any part toward the misrepresenta tion of any man, and would like, therefore, to help correct any wrong impression made in the public press about anybody, and espec ially a distinguished son of Alabama, I am asking the privilege of telling your readers what I saw “with my own eyes” during Con gressman Hobson’s speech on December 11th in the House of Representatives in Washing ton. First, may I say, I have not seen the story in The News, but I note on the train this morning that some Southern papers carry an unfair story concerning the so-called Hob son-Underwood “battle,” and as The News has always been so fair to me, personally, when I have spoken in Alabama prohibition cam paigns, I believe you will be glad to have me tell exactly what I saw and heard. In discussing the moral and political prin ciple involved in the national guardianship of the liquor tragic, Mr. Hobson said in sub stance: “I have always been taught that De mocracy stands for the greatest governmental good to all the people. The Democratic party that I love —nor any other party, was ever intended to have its interests bound up with the liquor traffic.” And then in a perfectly courteous manner he added: “My distinguish ed colleague (he did not say ‘opponent’) the great Alabamian, who sits before me, is quot ed as saying in a recent speech at Dothan— and if I do not quote him correctly I hope he will correct me —that if this question of prohibition continues to be agitated in the Democratic party, either the >cause of prohibi tion will be ground to powder or the Demo cratic party itself will die.’ I refer to it here because the gentleman referred to, be ing the floor leader of the majority of this house, in a sense became the spokesman of the Demoicratic party.” Then it was that the great thrilling, moun tain-peak moment came when Hobson declar ed with patriotic eloquence and fervor: “My friends, I do not take second place to any man in love of his party; certainly not to any man who thinks that his party’s life lies in the hands of the liquor interests. But let me tell you—for we might as well draw the line —if the Democratic party can only live by joining the liquor interests, to debauch the American people, then in God’s name let it die!” It was then that the house applauded and the crowded galleries went gloriously wild, and I hold that in this statement (which is borne out by the impartial Congressional Rec ord) there is absolutely no “bitter attack” on Mr. Underwood as some of the partisan papers have declared. The quotation referred to by Mr. Hobson was taken from The Montgomery Advertiser (which is supporting Mr. Underwood) and I hold, as an American citizen deeply interest ed in the solution of this great national, civic and economical problem that Mr. Hobson’s de duction) was logical, inevitable and tremen- dously pertinent. Congressman Hobson had been asked to represent on the floor of the house the “Committee of One Thousand” coming from every state in the union and voicing the petition of ninety seven uplift so cieties from all parts of America. He had the parliamentary—the Democratic—the hu* manitarian right to protest in decorus terms against such an undemocratic statement from the Democratic leader of the Democratic house. Up to this time Mr. Hobson had made absolutely no reference to the senatorial cam paign in Alabama—and in this reference to “my distinguished colleague” (not opponent) there was no suggestion of a senatorial fight in his own state. It was Mr. Underwood who “injected the personal issue” and deplored the reference to Alabama. And then Congressman Hobson, in the most gentlemanly manner possible, offered to give the Democratic house leader all the time he wanted to tell what he did say concerning prohibition and Democracy. But Mr. Under wood calmly declined. All the “Alabama per sonalities” that followed grew out of Mr. Un derwood’s protest. When Mr. Underwood de clared he was not the condidate of the liquor interests, Hobson paid a graceful, eloquent tribute to Mr. Underwood’s personal charac ter, saying that he would denounce any man who reflected upon it, and then he declared that it was a pity that any man with such high personal character as Mr. Underwood should find supporting his candidacy “like a solid wall, every straight liquor man and every straight liquor paper in Alabama.” Ladies and gentlemen, these are the facts as I saw them. “For the love of Mike be reasonable” —and fair. These facts are borne out by the Congressional Record, which lies before me — and everybody knows that the Congressional Record plays no favorites —it tells the truth,, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Send for the Record and you will see that Congressman Hobson’s manner every inch of the way was that of the courteous gentleman and able statesman that he is—that his speech, delivered by request, in behalf of the peti tion of practically 55 per cent of the popula tion of the United States, was logical, wonder ful—unanswerable! Yes, and if you could look at a photograph of that historic scene and catch the actual echoes of the wholesome enthusiasm of the sanest army of patriotic petitioners that ever gathered in the Congressional galleries of the capitol that belongs to them, you would see that Alabama’s brilliant young statesman, Richmond P. Hobson, who has never quailed before the threat of danger or the call of duty on land or sea, and for whose political down fall (for some strange (?) reason) the liquor interests in Alabama and all over America are hoping and praying (if they ever pray)—you would see, I say, that Alabama’s famous son was the inspiring storm center of the great est, most far-reaching hour in congress which the conquering forces of righteousness in America have ever seen. WILLIAM D. UPSHAW,