Wilson Takes Stand Against Prohibition.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 12, 1912:
Declares for Local Option in Reply to Queries from Maine.
FOR A VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN
Senator Gore Advises the Candidate Not to Underestimate His Opponents' Strength.
Special to The New York Times.
    SEA GIRT, N. J., Aug. 11.—Whether or not Gov. Woodrow Wilson decides to take a personal hand in the Maine campaign, it cannot be charged against him from now on that he avoided going into that State on account of the fear of taking firm ground on the question of prohibition there involved.
    Gov. Wilson has received many inquiries as to where he stands on the liquor question. To inquiries now pouring in from Maine the Governor's secretaries are sending copies of a letter sent to the Rev. Thomas B. Shannon of 15 Clinton Street, Newark, N. J., declaring in favor of local option as against absolute prohibition, and declaring still further against fighting out the liquor question along party lines as a factional and party issue.
    Besides making clear exactly where he stands on the liquor question, Gov. Wilson held an hour's conference with Senator Gore, the Chairman of the Committee on Organization of the Campaign Committee, this afternoon.
    Gov. Wilson's secretary went over at length a campaign document written by Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, which it is expected will be the chief document relied on by the Democrats to win women voters in the suffrage States. It became known that Mrs. Harriman, who is President of the National Woman's Wilson and Marshall Club, will have a very large part to play in managing Gov. Wilson's campaign in these States. She will conduct the same kind of campaign for women's votes that Jane Addams is expected to conduct on behalf of the Bull Moose party, emphasizing the tariff issue as one of overshadowing importance to women voters.
    Senator Gore's visit was one of great importance to the campaign policies to he conducted hereafter. Senator Gore came to sound a warning against an easy campaign and to talk over plans to make the fight a spirited one right from the start. He discussed these plans in detail with Gov. Wilson and it is expected that they will be put into practice under the management of the Oklahoma Senator at once.

Gore for Vigorous Campaign.
    At the Ardsley Hotel in Asbury Park, where he is spending the Summer, Senator Gore dictated this statement following his visit to Gov. Wilson:
    "There are two blunders it is always easy to make. One is to overestimate your own strength and the other is to underestimate the strength of your opponent. We propose to avoid making either. While the conditions of the campaign are very gratifying, I feel that it is never safe to feel too safe. We propose to carry on a vigorous campaign, and while it will be carried on with every assurance of success it will not be less forcefully handled on that account."
    Gov. Wilson, when asked what was the reason for Senator Gore's Sunday visit to him, said:
    "It was entirely a social call, but we naturally wandered off into a discussion of a number of questions of organization and campaigning. Absolutely nothing new came up."
    Senator Gore was referred to by Gov. Wilson just before the deciding ballot was cast at Baltimore as a field general so capable that it would be mere impertinence on his own part to intervene in the situation instead of trusting all to the Senator.
    It is known that Gov. Wilson holds the blind Senator from Oklahoma in the highest esteem, and it is expected here that the Governor will allow the character of his campaign to be very largely mapped out by him. Senator Gore already has charge of the formation of all Wilson clubs and campaign organizations throughout the country, and he will decide on the character of the literature that is to be sent to them.
    In the campaign so far there have been constant rumors that Gov. Wilson wished to avoid going to Maine on account of his fear that a decision to take firm ground on the liquor question, which the issues there demanded, would tangle him up in a general "wet" and "dry" imbroglio throughout the country.

His Views on Liquor Question.
    Here is the letter in which he removed all doubt as to his exact stand on the question:

    I am in favor of local option; I am a thorough believer in local self-government and believe that every self-governing community which constitutes a social unit should have the right to control the matter of the regulation or the withholding of licenses.
    But the questions involved are social and moral and are not susceptible of being made part of a party programme. Whenever they have been made the subject matter of party contests they have cut the lines of party organization and party action athwart, to the utter confusion of political action in every other field. They have thrown every other question, however important, into the background and have made constructive party action impossible for long years together.
    So far as I am myself concerned, therefore, I can never consent to have the question of local option made an issue between political parties in this State."
    My judgment is very clear in this matter. I do not believe party programmes, of the highest consequence to the political life of the State and of the Nation, ought to be thrust on one side and hopelessly embarrassed for long periods together by making a political issue of a great question which is essentially non-political, non-partisan, moral, and social in its nature.

    A political conference which it is thought will have an important bearing on the Far Western programme of the Wilson campaign is scheduled to be held here tomorrow between Gov. Wilson and F. B. Schutz, State Chairman of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin. Mr. Schutz, who called here Saturday to arrange for the conference, was much delighted to learn that Mrs. Harriman was taking an aggressive interest in the campaign. He pointed out that in Wisconsin a lively Democratic campaign would no doubt carry the State, as the La Follette men's sympathy was with Wilson.
    The campaign document which Mrs. Harriman has prepared consists of a review of Gov. Wilson's administration in New Jersey, with special reference to all laws having to do with women's welfare and the hours of women employed as laborers in industrial concerns.
    Jerseymen will have their "Old Home Day" at Sea Girt on Saturday, Aug. 17, and the feature of the day will be an address by Gov. Wilson to his friends and neighbors at noon.
    State Chairman Edward E. Grosscup expects 10,000 Jerseymen to crowd upon the Governor's lawns on Jersey Day, and to bring with them a large number of guests representing the New York Democratic organization. Many Tammany men have Summer homes along the Jersey Coast, and all have been invited.
    To handle the crowds a reception committee of 500 members has been appointed, the committee consisting of the National Campaign Committee, the New Jersey State Committee, Senator Martine, all of the New Jersey Democratic Congressmen, and the Democratic State Senators, Assemblymen, Sheriffs, Mayors, Surrogates, County Clerks, and County Chairmen. Ten special trains will bring the crowds to Sea Girt from every section of the State.