Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society from Brooklyn, New York • Page 8

8 BROOKLYN LIFE As Seen by Herbert Henstaw Dr. Fosdick Misses an Easy One In the course of the first of a series of lectures, before the midsummer conference of ministers and religious workers, under the auspices of the Union Theological Seminary, last Monday, the Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick was asked "Is it wise. for a minister.

to go to a prize fight?" Strange to say he was quite noncommittal, merely asserting that he does not attend them himself, though nothing would seem more obvious than that it would be unwise for most ministers to go to prize fights, unless they were fortunate enough to be presented with free tickets, for there are, needless to say, very few ministers who can afford to attend prize fights at the exorbitant prices demanded by the hold-up men, who have made it practically impossible for anyone of moderate means to get near enough to the ring to see what is going on without a telescope. Considering that ministers" are supposed to set a good example, we are inclined to question whether it is wise even for a rich minister to let himself be gypped in order to see a prize fight. By refusing to pay a cent more than the box office price, he would not only be setting a good example to his wealthy parishioners, who are weak enough to let themselves be robbed by the highbinders who buy up all the best seats, but would be doing a good turn by those members of his congregation who haven't the price df a prize The Betrayal of the Anti-Saloon League Until recently, needless, perhaps, to say, the Hearst papers have been classified by the Anti-Saloon League as emphatically "Dry," and have undoubtedly been among the most valuable mediums it could rely upon for the dissemination of the vast amount of propaganda manufactured by its staff of expert statistic jugglers and truth garblers employed in its Department of Misinformation. Alas for the League, which purports to represent the "moral element" and "the churches," and consists of nineteen professional exponents of righteousness, most of whom, it appears, were prepared for a political career in some school of Methodist morals, and can prefix "Rev." to their names when it may be expedient to do so, Hearst has somehow obtained access to the personal and private records of the League, and, of course, is publishing them. No kind of publicity could be more disastrous for the League, for the people cannot be expected to appreciate the reasoning of professional authorities on righteousness and morals, who as a result of years of thought and experience are able to distinguish accurately between fraud or dishonesty in.

the cause of sin, and mere dissimulation, misrepresentation, or petty graft in the cause, of righteousness. Someone in the confidence of these nineteen if somewhat unprepossessing looking paragons of virtue, must, however, have sinned griev- fight ticket. framed as they want them, administered by men they want, in the way they want and through courts and prosecutors whom they want. They paint a picture of the Anti-Saloon League which is bound, to bring revolt, whether it involves Mr. Wheeler's downfall or not.

The concluding paragraph of this editorial reads What all reasonable peop'e want is something free from the evils of both old and new systems, something that can be attained by a sensible modification of the Volstead act. The tyranny of the Anti-Saloon League stands in the way of that advance. Both it and Mr. Wheeler will have to go before this country is many years older. The Hearst expose is8 aiding the double departure.

The Wane of Wayne B. Wheeler Nothing' is more certain than that if the prohibition law, or any other law, for that matter, cannot be enforced without the advice, consent and active supervision of a self -constituted, self-perpetuating, political like the Anti-Saloon League, responsible only to itself, it cannot be enforced at all, It is the Anti-Saloon League itself which stands in the way of any intelligent solution of the problem of intemperance. It is perfectly obvious that to it, the enforcement of the law is secondary, and subordinate to preserving the integrity of the political machine it has built up and retaining its political power. In the beginning it may have been actuated by singleness of purpose, but like all organizations in the past which have succeeded in entrenching themselves in a position of arbitrary power, the lust for power has taken possession of it. Smash the League; free our legally constituted representatives and civil authorities of their superstitious fear of it, ansgn'd.

Wayne B. Wheeler back to Oberlin, or whatever erk water community he originally came rom, to sober up, and the way will be paved for a common sense reformation of the intolerable conditions brought about by intoxicated bigots, as devoid of political morality as the most un-scruplous ward heeler. It is true that much of the documentary evidence of the turpitude of the Anti-Saloon League published in Hearst's American is merely corroborative of what had previously been inferred by discerning observers; it certainly 'confirms the worst we have ever said about this political clique; but while confiding prohibitionists might have disputed such inferences, the most credulous of them cannot question such indubitable proof of the correctness of such inferences. We have often been asked by readers how we had the nerve to say things we have about the League, or how we managed to get away with it. Now, they know.

The League never dared to defend itself against such attacks. It figured on kicking up so much dust with its propaganda that the people would never see through it. Its little game has been to drown "out or dilute criticism in a constant deluge of propaganda, or to conceal its nefarious activities behind the smoke screen sent up by its experts in the art of flimflaming. Nothing is more interesting than Wayne B. Wheeler's "private and confidential" explanations of how he worked the press of the country, supplied Congressmen with ready-made prohibition speeches, and investigators and debaters with ready-made facts testifying to the wonderful benefits of prohibition.

Hereafter it will be impossible to read anything favorable to prohibition without suspecting that it was inspired by the Anti-Saloon League or that the writer obtained his facets from that source. In point of fact we think anybody is a fool to pay the prices these ticket grafters demand, consequently it cannot be wise for a minister to do so or to attend a play, or any kind of a show, as long as he is at the mercy of the gang of swindlers who apparently dominate the entertainment situation in New York. Unhappily here seems to be little hope of any vTemetly because even if all the citizens of the metropolis could be persuaded that it was not only unwise but simply idiotic to go to prize fights or plays under present conditions, the so-called scalpers would still be able to batten on the prodigality of butter and egg men from points west, drummers and salesmen who can charge up the expense to the firm, and transient sojourners who enjoy telling the folks back home how they were rooked in New York. Of course, what creates the enormous demand for tickets to a so-called big fight is not any real desire to see the fight, but to be able to say one was there, and talk about it with an air of real authority, or, as the psychological sharps would perhaps say, the desire to niaximate one's ego. There is no easier way to attract enviable attention to one's self than to be among those present at anything nearly everybody else would have given their boots to be present at.

It is apt, however, to run into money. A House Broken Periodical Asked if he intended to sell the Dearborn Independent, Henry Ford was recently quoted as replying 7 "No, I won't sell it, but I am going to make it a house organ, and I am going to stop absolutely everything that could possibly cause complaint or hurt the feelings of anybody." If he desires to avoid being annoyed by attention callers, he could not adopt a better means escaping their unwelcome attentions, but if this is going to be his policy, the title Independent is an obvious solecism, for it is clearly impossible to be independent and avoid saying anything that could possibly cause complaint or hurt the feelings of anybody. Thoroughly house broken and guaranteed perfectly harmless, he might better call it the Dearborn Inoffensive. But if his main object in publishing a periodical is to avoid offending anybody, we cannot conceive of any reason for publishing one by filthy lucre to expose these secret documents to Mr. Hearst how could he possibly have obtained possession of them? The simple minded people, at all events, are certain to misinterpret them, and in their ignor-ance, condemn the League as a bunch of sanctimonious grafters and flimflammers, devoid of moral sensibilities and bent only upon setting themselves up as a super government, Hearst's About Face Mr.

Hearst cannot take any definite stand without being suspected of having some ulterior When his papers were playing into the hands of the Anti-Saloon League few if any, believed it was pure zeal for enforced total abstinence that actuated him, and now that he has turned savagely ion the prohibition dictatorshipspeculation is more or less rife as to what is behind this change of front. In scoring a big beat on all his newspaper contemporaries, we should think there was enough motive, without looking further for one. There is not one of them that would not have jumped at the chance to publish these revealing documents. Nevertheless the conjecture is rife that he is trying to forestall the nomination of his avowed 'enemy Governor Smith and by showing up the Anti-Saloon League in its true colors is preparing to come out in su port of Senator Reed or Governor Ritchie, both whom are as pronounced in their opposition to ihe prohibition ring as is' Governor Smith. "Wet" 'Papers Disparage Scoop What makes this writer laugh is that the only ne of Hearst's New York a ntemporaries hich has credited him with a "sec op," and has i not attempted to laugh off, or disparage, his exposure of the Anti-Saloon League, as "old stuff," is the only one that up to this time has been consistently "dry," to wit; the Evening Post.

That paper editorially expressed the opinion that The articles in the Nexv York American have revealed a condition that is shocking to any American sense of democracy and representative government They show a small I body of men seeking, through under-cover methods and with amazing success, to have laws.