Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-05-02
WOMENS, CHRISTIAN
Temperance Union Column
EDITED BY THE W. G. I. UNION.
The ProhIbItory Amendment.
Nashville t.broniela


Both branches OF the Legislature
having passed Senate joint resolution
No .. proposing to amend the Con-
stitution OF Tennessee so as to prohib-
it the sale and manufacture of liquors.
including ale. wine and beer, futter
OF excitement was exhibited among
the dealers in these deadly beverages
and their allies and sympathizers
Upon the passage OF the resolution in
the House. OF representative Ruhm
IAN appropriate name minus the third
letter for one entertaining the view he
expresses entered vigorous protest.
lie assumed thasSthe law was null and
void, as the Senate Journal did not
show that it had passed that body in a
constitutional way. But, as we under
stand the matter, that difficulty has
been adjusted and the resolution is a
legal enactment of the Legislature.
In the closing paragraphs OF the pro-
test, in which the oil threadbare,
hackneyed arguments of the liquor
tr,,ffickers and whiaky rings are
brought against prohibitory laws
against their internal business, Mr..
Ruhm says:
On the merits, voted against the
proposition without hesitation. The
promoters OF temperate habits and
good morals Is, in our opinion, not
served by so called temperance laws,
and much less by discussion on the
stump and heated agitation in polit-
ical agitation of question which be-
longs exclusively to the forum of So
ciety, the school and the family where
alone, aided by the courts and the
police, radiate healthy influence in
the direction of the desired reform.
1t thinks that existing laws, if carried
out, and the rules OF polite society, if
enforced, are amply sufficient to keep
in proper check the habitual, the ill
hammered the pestIierous as well as
the dangerous drunkard. 1t is not the
use of liquors, but the abuse of them
that ought to be suppressed.
| close by calling attention to the
fact that the manufacture OF pure ar
ucles of, and legitimate and orderly
trade i'll wine. beer, ale, and all kinds
of liquors, are now and have been coli
sidered FOR thousands oil years among
the vocations of life, and they are,
moreover, sources of wealth in and |
revenue for the State and communities |
which it would be hard, indeed, to
supply. In my opinion it would be |
no more absurd to suppress the re-
publication and reading of all books |
and newspapers because the publicsi- |
ton and reading OF the Police Gazette |
and other immoral literature and |
@yellow covered" novels are con-
tributed TO corrupt the morals of our
youth than it would be to suppress the |
sale, Use and manufacture of liquors |
entirely, because some people intern |
perately use liquors and thus render
themselves nuisances to the commu
nifty. 1 ask that our protest be spread
on the journal of the House.
Bah! Mr.. Ruhm may as well ar
que against laws to suppress theft,
murder, or any other criminal prac-
tees, that they may be left to be settled
by society, the school and the fam
ily." He must know, by observation
at least, the evils which grow out of
the manufacture and sale of intoxica-
ting liquors, and that their influence
upon our people in instigating every
species Of crime, renders them the
greatest curse of our State and nation,
and as such should place them under
the ban of criminal laws. 1t is sheer
non-sence to talk about "the rules of
polite society" keeping in "check the
habitual, the ill-mannered, the pesti-
ferrous as well as the dangerous drunk
ard" Nothing but laws to suppress
the liquor traffic and prevent men
from becoming such drunkards will
DO it.
Too much OF the legislation, how
ever, ostensibly i'll the interest OF
is not manipulated and
with by the liquor sellers
md their aiders and abettors as to
make the enactments null, inopera-
i've and illegal, as it was hoped by
many Of the whisky ring was the case
n the passage of the resolution which
,alled forth Mr.. Ruhm's protest.