The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1885-03-05
An Active Move Against John Bar
IeyOorn.

An Active Move A6ainst JOnn baf-
leycorn.
For sometime past the Prohibitlonists
have contemplated making n vigorous
and determined effort to rid this city aud
community Of the liquor traffic after the
expiration of existing licenses, aud the
Executive Committee Of the Central Pro-
hibition Club held q meeting last week
and decided that the time was ripe TO
set the ball in motion. In truth, though
many people have not heretofore duly
appreciated the fact, the present liquor
law is prohibltory, and man to be able
to soil liquor without laying himself
liable to the penal code must first obtain
the signatures Of . majority Of the legal
voters Of the corporation Tor supervisors
district, as the case may be-, asking for q
suspension of the general law in his par
ticular case for IL months. (See Camp
bells Code, chapter 49, As still further
evidence of desire ON the part of the
State to protect itself against the evils it
recognizes the liquor business necessarily
brings, it requires the would-be-seller in
o town the size of Brookhaven to pay q
fine of $500 in advance as partial COM
pensation for the evils he will entail
upon the State for the II months during
which he proposes to carry on business,
and gives the Mayor and Board of Al
dermen the authority to levy as much
more as an offset to tho evils TO be
brought upon this immediate community.
The law further requires the said petit
toner shall give $1,000 bond to keep
within certain bounds and limitations,
and also makes him personally amenable
by fine and imprisonment for the viola
ton of q number of its provisions. In
fact, nothing could prove more conclu-
sively than the law itself that the liquor
traffic was regarded by the Legislature
which framed it as outside the pale of
legitimate and necessary business, and
whose chief mission is to debsuch the
manhood and corrupt the morals and
make inroads upon the prosperity of the
States citizens.
Among the other redeemipg features of
the law is the provision for special or
general counter petition, whereby the
legal voters Of corporation or supervi-
sor's district, may appeal to the board
having jurisdiction, protesting against
a suspension of the law, even on the con-
ditions above named. If majority Of
the legal voters of the city of Brookhaven
sign and file a petition with the City
Con neil praying that it do not suspend
the law, they have no authority to sus-
pend it in favor of any applicant whom
soever, for the period of IL months suc-
ceeding such filing. If a contest is made
and the name of any legal voter is found
on the counter petition and also on the
one for whisky, the law requires that it
shall be counted against the applicant to
sell, and the board has no discretion to
do otherwise.
The provision for general counter Pc
tition is the one the friends of temperance
have decided to turn to present account.
III Will UOJ WIN tho ihS
out of any license already granted, and Is
not intended as move against any parti-
cular individual, but against the liquor
traffic in general. In fact, it has been
a part of the policy of the temperance ad-
vocates to avoid contesting the petition
of any individual applicant for license,
thus suddenly cutting him off and sub
jecting him to pecuniary loss, but rather
to give all full time to close out in good
order without any real sacrifice. This
will make the next applicant, if there
shonld be one, doubly the aggressor, in
that he will not only be asking snspen-
sion of the State law for his individual
pecuniary benefit, but do it in the face of
a general protest of citizens of this com
munity that the prohibitory provisions of
that law be no disturbed.
The Prohibitionists mean business and
are resolute. A large subcommittee are
already successfully at work, and many
are signing who have heretofore signed
whisky petitions, including several of our
best and most clear headed business men.
God speed their efforts!