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Show dry hop started by murray "Alfalfa Bill" Astounds An-ti An-ti - Saloon League With Semi-wet Speech; Officials Ignore Suggestion. WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (U.R) Officials of the Anti-Saloon Anti-Saloon League decided today to-day to ignore the startling speech of Gov. William H. (Alfalfa Bill) Murray, who went before the dry organization's organ-ization's convention ...last night with the suggestion that a retreat re-treat from prohibition might be - necessary. Murray's plan for regional liquor control among the states was described de-scribed by F. Scott McBride, superintendent super-intendent of the league, as an old wet argument with no new phase except the method of controlling the liquor within states. McBride said the Oklahoma governor, introduced intro-duced as a dry cadert had repudiated repu-diated his own convictions by deviating from his prepared speech. No Official Comment Chairman A. J. Barton of the executive committee said he could see no reason why the league should comment officially on Mur- ray's' speech. It will be answered amply, Barton and McBride said, in resolutions and a declaration of policy which will climax the league's five-day convention. Murray's speech was a ttal surprise sur-prise to the delegates, but apparently appar-ently not to the dry leaders. There was evidence they knew in advance ad-vance what Murray was going to say, since virtually every speaker preceding him denounced the general gen-eral ideas he put forward later. |