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Show WET AND DRY issjpows Harding and Cox Records on Liquor Are Soon to Be Published By ! UK Sfl.I.TV N Natlonnl PoUtlOAl CXMTMpondetlt of the Evening Post. WASHINGTON. Sept. 10. There, nre two ( ommunlcAtlons on the desk l of Senator Hnrillng and a similar one on the desk of Governor Cox. which noon will have an Important bearing on the Campaign. These communication? communica-tion? den I with prohibition. This "wet" versus "dry" Issue will not down, it will com? up again and i again, .specifically, it will be brought ! to the front again by nn ovent which Will happen on or aout September , 12. The anti-saloon league has made i up a ret ord of the public acts and ' expressions of Harding and of i"ox I on prohibition These two records have been sent to Cox and Hardin I with letters asking each of them if j his record -is made up represents the facts and if ho has anything additional to say. In the loiters transmitting i these documents the two candidates) have been told that the records are to be made publlo September 12. or j soon thereafter. :nd that If the can- dldates have anything to sa) in qualification quali-fication of the reports they should I answer hv September 12. POLITICS in I.l U.t I Your correspondent lias not reen these two records as made up but suspoets that while, of course, they I will bi liteml and accurate transcripts of the records, they will not really show the distinction between Harding and Cox on this "dry" issuo as clearly as is shown x by many things less i official but more convincing The truth is there Is some politics! in the anti-saloon league. The birth i place of the anti-saloon hvigue Is Ohio, and it still cuts a larger figure ; In that state than anywhere else. If It were a mere matter of Ohio alone, there is little doubt that the anti-saloon anti-saloon league would help Harding and I oppose Cox But In the role of a i national Institution, the nntl- aloon league includes a good man leaders from the south who are Democrats. These Democrats want to avoid in , luring their party, and the result hfis been this compromise of merely publishing pub-lishing the records of the two men. Regardless of what these records may say. th fact is that in the eyes of the country Cox Is becoming increasingly increas-ingly Identified with the extreme ' wets." He cannot possibly afford to nllo this to go on unliSS he Is will- ; Ing to avow that position and take Its penalties with its assets. In fact, '.f , he does noT repudiate It soon It may be expected that later on In the cam- j palgn he will openly avow it. s i K.ri i lk ir:u. As things stand now, the liquor (Sealers' association of New Jersey hns Stated officially to its members thit Governor Cox was materially aided In his nomination hj this and other affiliated liquor dealers' associations. It has stated further that ' Governor Cox can be counted on to lead the fight to remove the Eighteenth amendment from the constitution" Governor 'ox must know that tn have a statement of this kind publlcl! made about him and to fall to denj it specifically puts him In the tremo "wet" position. So long as h- Is In the position It is useless for hih v to attempt to carry the west on the league of niMons Issue. When It oomes to voting, t ho west will put the dry" Issue ahead of the league of nations lsue it Governor Cox continues con-tinues In this position his tour through the west is a waste of time. MOW III STANDS. It is the best Judgment of oom-petenl oom-petenl observers In the west that on a "wet" Issue Cox cannot get mor than six electoral votes west of t'.ie Mississippi, aside ,of course from tlu three southern states on that side " l-tho river, it i? sometimes claimed that Cox will carry California on th "Wet" Issue, hut the best Judgment from California denies this. Chaii -I man White, of the Democratic na- tlonal committee his Intimated his j behef that Bryan will be hacking Cox I before the cmipalqn Is over t'halr-I t'halr-I man White may know whereof ho ! speaks, he may have had direct com-I com-I munlcntlon from Mr. Bryan. I havo I had on such direct communication I since the San Francisco convention. I nevertheless I do not hesitate to differ j with Chairman White. I am familiar with what Mr Bryan's friends in Nebraska are doing, friends so intimate that their activities may he regarded as a certain index of Mr. Bryan's sympathies. JudglnR by I this evidence I do not hesitate to ex- press the prediction that Bryan will never support Cox unless Cox can find some way Of freeing himself from tho tag which the liquor dealers' assocla-i assocla-i Hons are too generously putting upon him The question which the antl-lioon antl-lioon league has put up to Governor I Cox, and Which he has until Septem- ber 12 to answer gives him an opportunity op-portunity to set himself right if he regards hlnvelf as misrepresented when tho New .Ier6oy DiquOr Dealers' association qaya, "Cox can be counted on to lead the fight to remove the Eighteenth amendment from the constitution. con-stitution. Your correspondent has reason to believe that the "wet" versus "dry" Issue will cut a much larger figure during the las four weeks of the campaign than it now I does. (Copyright, 1919. by the New York Evening Post ) |