Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1874-03-07


most stringent The State In
which the sO-called '.Alair Law''
had proved inefficient seemed TO
have reached the end OF the tether
All the ordinary means had been
tried. Nothing remained but ex-
traordinary means.
The real sufferers from intem-
perance are undoubtedly the wives.
mothers, sisters and daughters of
drunkards. They have been as
sured for nearly fifty years that in
tOxication and the traffic in intox-
icating liquors should be put an
end to. Instead Of these promises
being kept, drunkenness has been
on the increase throughout the
country, and the women who suf-
fer from it have been as badly off
as ever. There is nothing very
strange, under these circumstances,
that the women of Ohio and other
Western States should, under the
influence of strong religious and
moral excitement, take the law
into their own hands, and move
en- ntdSse on the headquarters of the
traffic-the saloons themselves
and, having received cogent
proof that laws and constitutions
were of no use, should resort to
more primitive means of attack.
They do not seem to have used, or
to have melted others to use, vio-
lence. They have merely des-
cended upon notorious places of
sale, and by means of making
them publicly odious have sue
ceeded, in most cases, in Inducing
the seller to give up the business,
for the time being at least There
are, no doubt, questions connected
with the law Of tresspass which
may arise out of such proceedings;
but it seems to us that the princi-
pal point of interest in connection
with the movement is that it is
the remedy of a really oppressed
class, who feel that they have been
trified with and imposed upon long
enough.
That the liquor traffic is going
to be put an end to in this way,
no one imagines. Even
that the women are likely to form
a permanent organization for its
suppression seems highly improb-
able. But what cannot be doubted
is that, for a time, at least, the
women have succeeded in con-
vincing the men that, if the latter
cannot manage certain functions
of government, these must be
managed by some one else. This
crusade" as it is called, is
more than the women's
way of convincing men who have
been deceiving them, that they
will be deceived no longer.
1t is interesting to observe the
way in which this crusade of the
women has been received by the
other sex. The press all over the
country is presumably in the hands
of men, and of men too for the
most part who have been for the
last fifty years or so laughing
week in and week out at the alb
surdity of the attempt to regu late
drinking by law but now it main
tains respectful silence on the
subject or else encourages the wo-
men. In private, too, we suppose
it is within everybody's knowl-
edge that there has been among
men much amusement over the
crusade, and when it began there
was probably in most mems minds
a feeling that it waslittle but noise;
now, however, the case is differ
ent. 1t is an interesting spectacle
to see the State Grange of Ohio, or
ganized and principally controlled
by men, holding solemn meet
ing and resolving that whereas,
there has been and is almostan en-
tire failure by laws and municipal
enactments to diminish the curse
of intemperance and whereas, we,
as patrons and masters of $50 sub
ordinate Oranges of Ohio, who
have families liable at all times to
danger from the insidious wiles of
those whose moral standing and
do not elevate them to
higher calling than the sale of in
toxicating liquors, thereby endan-
gering the future character and use
fitness of the rising generation,
that inasmuch as law
and ordinances have almost sig
nally failed to accomplish the de-
sired end, we, the State Grange of
Ohio, heartily endorse the move
ment inaugurated by the noble
women of Ohio for the suppress
sion of intemperance in our State,
and that we extend to them our
sympathy and moral support In
their noble and Christian work.
One would certainly imagine, on
these resolutions, that the
claws and municipal enactmentsn
referred to had not been passed by
men at all or that the natro,,s