The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-06-04
Temperance in Georgia.

No State of the South has equalled
Georgia in recuperative power and en-
ergy since the era of reconstruction. In
moral, political and industrial develop
ment she leads. While other states have
been magnifying the evils and wasting
their energies in fostering adherence tc
the lost cause, and efforts to disparage re-
publican government, Georgia addressed
herself at once to the full appreciation
of her industrial interests and advan-
tages, and in agriculture, manufacturing
and commercial development her march
has been steadily onward. She has been
foremost in suppressing violence and
lawlessness, and in removing the evils
generated by whisky, and the use of
deadly weapons. In regard to the sale of
Intoxicating liquors, the people of 9S
counties have deliberately voted for pro-
hibition, in relation to which Petroleum
V. Nasby writes:
'The experiment of prohibition has
been tried and found to work admirably.
The law enacted few years ago pro-
vided that the counties might vote upon
the question as to whether the sale of
liquor should be prohibited or licensed.
The license law was very strict, but
here was demand for something more
than license.
Whisky was running Georgia, as it is all
other states where it is given free course.
The State was infested with little cross
roads doggeries, each one q breeder of
pauperism and crime. The laborer re-
ceiving his months wages was sure to be
enticed into one of these places and rob-
bed of it. Drunkenness made labor un-
reliable, and, as the evil was increasing,
something had to be done to check it.
An attempt to prohibit the sale of liquor
i'll the state was defeated, but the coun-
ties were given the power to prohibit it
within their own borders by popular
vote.
One by one they fell into line, and
to-day 95 OF the 137 counties are WELL
nigh free from the curse. Every land
owner has an interest in the enforcement
/ nis olSlE proSection, and eyery1Sody
wants it, but the liquor retailers in the
state, whose business has been killed,
and the wholesalers Of the commercial
centers, who find Georgia no longer a
field on which to browse.
The effect in the prohibiting counties
has been startling. Labor has been
improved 100 per cent. and the condition
of the laborers 1000 per cent. Men who
never worked but a part of week now
put in six good days; and those who
spent their entire wages at the doggeries
leaving their wives and children to shift
for themselves, are now saving money,
and are looking forward hopefully to the
time when they shall own land them
selves-something very easy to accom-
plish in almost any part of Georgia.
In one little village in county south
of Atlanta prohibition was most bitterly
opposed. The village was at the juno
tion of two railroads, and very large
force of men was employed by the COM
panies. There was a half-dozen grog-
shops in hourishing condition before
prohibition, but the railroad managers
for their own protection, enforced the
law and closed them.
Up to this time payday was the be-
ginning of satumalia that lasted half
the month, and such thing as saving a
dollar never occurred to but very few OF
the laborers.
After the grog-shops were shut up and
the proprietors thereof compelled to
seek pastures new, it was found that the
business OF the solitary dry goods and
grocery store was more than doubled,
anu UrdCc Ill lcSltlLlitC SOOuo DON"AAAO
so brisk that another was added, and
still another. 1t will be observed in this
connection, that rum kills every busi-
ness except those of jails and poorhouses.
Nothing legitimate can thrive where it
| reigns.
And another novelty developed itself.
| One by one the men employed by the
railroads dropped into the store, the pro-
prietors of which they knew, and pull
ing out a portion OF their wages, re-
marked:
'Look here, ant got no use for this
just now, and don't want to cart 1t
about. Keep it for me-"
Certainly will, and as l can use it
in my business, will pay you interest
for it."
In six months from the commence
ment of the prohibition the merchants
had established a regular savings bank,
with very handsome amount OF de-
posits.
There was a wonderful change in the
men, but more striking one in the
women and children. What had beer
spent in the abomnable whisky shops
| appeared upon their backs and feet.
Their homes took another appearance
altogether, and the village was trans
formed from one of the most shabby
and disorderly into one of the most pros
porous and orderly in the state.
1t is the same thing all over the world