The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-27

AIEk y ALLY ubtldfeQ HdE against
the hquor traffic and prohibition has
won the victory. Thus one by one they
/ declare for, "God and Home and Native
Land
MISSISSIPPI CITY, together with the
/ Supervisors District of which it forms a
part, refused to give another saloon
| keeper a license TO make wives widows
/ children orphans; and all of them pau
pers and beggars." We hope the move
/ thus inaugurated on the Gulf Coast may
never abate until all Southern Mississippi
shall have peace and sobriety in the
extinguishment of the dram shops.
FOREST wants no more saloons. A
majority counter petition to whisky
has been filed with the corporate au-
thorities. of Forest. The applicant for
license failed to have his prayer granted,
! and when the licenses Of those who had
already procured them expire Forest
will be prohibition town.
IT Is manifestiy the duty of the board
of mayor and aldermen to verify all the
names signed to whiskey petitions. The
law requires Il majority OF the bona fde
voters, and if the board should accept a
petition which contains bogus or un-
! authorized names, it would be recreant
| to the trust repOsed in it. The fact is
well known that whiskey petitioners are
| unScrupulous IN their methods OF pro-
curing signatures. More than one per-
son have said that their names had been
put to whiskey petitions without their
| knowledge or consent. One gentleman
was so indignant at such want on outrage
that he threatened to report the guilty
party TO the grand jury Tor forgery, but
was dissuaded from it. He had a
weightier reason Tor reporting than if
his name had been forged to bank
! check. He might be able to pay the
check without much inconvenience, but
it would be exceedingly difficult to REM
edy the injury done TO his fair name by
appending it to so iniquitous document
and it might be altogether impossible to
calculate the evil resulting from a saloon
established by the influence of his name.
The names of dead men have been
known to be signed to liquor petitions,
! and even of fictitious parties. City
| rulers, then, are evidently proclaiming
their inexcusable unfaithfulness if they
do not use all due diligence to know that
every name signed to a petition repre-
sents an actual voter. 1t does not mat
| ter if the individual members composing
the board should be whiskey men and
| should themselves have signed the petit
ton; they are not acting for themselves,
! but are acting as custodians OF the cor
poration, and they must see that the laws
are complied with.
CHE insolence and criminality of the
| whiskey rings and their wealth and
political influence are increasing so rap
idly, that, unless a powerful political
party outlaws the liquor traffic, there Is
reason TO fear that municipal misrule
may imperil republican institutions in
all the larger American cities and in the
States under the control of such cities,
and become so virulent as to be capable
of being put down ut last only by mill
tary force.
81 travel much; | have opportunity to
consult with many leaders of public SEN
timent. Twelve of the twenty-four
aldermen of New York are, or lately
were, liquor dealers. In Boston there Is
one licensed saloon to $50 persons; in
Chicago, one to 40; in New York, one
to 135; in Buffalo and Albany, one to
100. The annual drink-bill of the
United States is not far from 81 900, 900,
900. The annual sum raised by taxes oi
all kinds. national, state, county, town
and school district, is only about 500,
900, 900. (See Bishop Ireland's address
at Buffalo, March 10, l8S4.) The expen
diture of the nation for liquor is every
year greater than that for meat or bread
or public education, or for all three oi
! these together. The liquor traffic is
already as great and as powerful an evi
as slavery was. / confess that the more
| study the topic of municipal misrule
and of the whiskey rings as connected
with such nnisgovernment, the more
fear that the wealth and insolence of tn,
rum traffic will lead at last, under fret
government, to street barricade war
Slavery went down in blood. So, per
, haps, will the liquor traffic, with tn,
municipal misruIe resulting from it
J Thomas Carlyle predicted that all grea
modern cities will come finally to tn,
position in which Paris was under tn,
Commune, unless the reputable side o
society organizes itself aggressively t.
counteraet the dangers which make uni
yersal suffrage peril. / stood latel,
among the ruins of the public building
I burned by the mob in Cincinnati.
remember the railway riots of 1877. w
are performing an experiment, not onl,
] in the face of the whole world, but 70
| the benefit of the entire earth. 1t is 70
!, Americans, who believe in government
of the people, for the people and by tn
= people, to see that such government
made so wise and strong as not to peris
: from the earth. There is growing up i
: the liquor traffic power that alread
| has its clutches ON our throats; and
: loss of time in organizing national re
!, form may be the loss forever of q
, opportunity to save our nation fror
: being wrecked by municipal misrult
? Therefore, for one, pray God to sen
!, US such a recrystaGzation of politics 8
: shall throw all the best elements c
society into a National Reform party.
"Mental suasion for the man VIII
u thinks;
II Moral suasion for the man VIII
= drinks;
III Legal suasion for the drunkart
= maker;
II Prison suasion for the statut'
breaker"
Joseph Cook.