The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-06-05

! years ago and am out OF It now? And as these
mothers cry cut oh give us remedy for the dread
inl terror that menaces US, shall not reply as best
Lam asked, what remedy can YOU propose to curb
! this liquor evil? l answer; Divorce the govern
ment from the great whisky ring. Break up the
! present internal revenue system, which has increas
Ell the amount OF liquor ten-fold and let the laws
of the country cease TO prots this iniquitous traffic.
verify believe the continuance Of this destructive
traffic more largely indebted TO the protection and
fostering of the federal government than 10
any other agency.
Now, l propose to give you remedy-and in
doug so must refer 10 the abuses of the internal
revenue system.
unit in opposition to the present system Of collecting
taxes on whisky, 50 FAR as know or have been In
f rned 1t was unknown to the United States until
the civil war. II IL essentially q war tax and q
legacy of that unhappy period; and hazard moth
ns in saying it has created more disturbance ami
more suffering in Georgia than any law known to
the statutes since the civil war ended. As soon as
southern men TOOK their seats in the national con
ggess they began appeal by speech and vote for
It's repeal and abolition Our abiest Georgians weut
% the front with an euquence unsurpassed in that
body to prevent tile injustice and the tyranny of Its
IN sthodS and to enlist sympathy for the poor
mountaireoFs of north Georgia who were oyerruu by
federal officials, armed to the teeth and empowered
u arrest and drag suspected man hun 1red miles
without preliminary trial. Milrde were frequent
PoYerty-stri ken families were more impoverished
and the distress injustice and suffering were
freely set forth in all The daily papers that it is yet
fresh in minds The law passed under q
republican administration, ana was executed by re-
publican appontees, and their actions did more 10
bring disrepute and break down the republican
party in Georgia than anything else. 1t was pow
erlul system, because the government lad entered
int partnership with big western distillers and
agreed to cruh out all their little rivals for their
mutusl benefit and proit. You Will bear me wit
ness that the democratic party in Georgia made war
on the system day and night, in season and out Of
Season ana nearly every state legislature passed
resolutions and presented petitions for relief and
am told one of our temperance ex-gOvefnors ap-
proved and forwarded one of the most emphatic
the whole system should be wiped from our statute
| books and the country rescued from such oppres-
sye tyranny. Thus it stood until we elected
democratic president except that s. IDLE republic
cans north and SOUTH became equally determined
to abolish it. for patriotic reasons as well as good
Now what 90 we see? Not only that the great
whisky ring is unit for its continuance but the
free trade party in the union and in Georgia have
turned about and pronounce 1t a very good thing
well conducted and the easiest way for the govern
ment to make its money. Ispeak advsedly when
! say the government has an equal right TO make
money from gambling dens and houses of i'll
repute Free trade in all things else, whisky must
be protect d, that there may be risk to the pro-
ducerS in America who can enlarge their distiler-
les until every OF corn in the vast west may go
into their grasp, and the whole land be flooded
with liquor. Il is the experience of the world that
when You make opportunity for a monopoly of any
business, the greed and avarce of human nature
knows no limit III employing it for pecunnry gain
F0!ogn whisky pays duty OF two dollars gallon
which is Trohibitory, when home producers can
make it ut cost of twenty cents gallon, all eX-
penses paid. and only pay duty of ninety cents to
the government. If either Of these women had
chicken farm near Atlanta, and the city allowed
us to sell all we could raise at fifty cents each
provided we paid five cents on each chicken to the
town council, and the same town council did not
allow other chickens to come in and stationed po-
lice to prevent their coming unless dollar and len
cents paid to the mayors agents, Der chicken,
don't you know our men folks would scour the
country for every old duckeeged hen that could
lay an egg and we would live at home in perpet-
ual cuek and cackle, 70 meet the demands of the
ky is shut out unless il pays two dollars gallon
and the great western dstillers make ten thou
sand millions of gallons and ray only ninety cents
for the privilege. No wonder the whisky ring are
SO CianorCus for the continuance of such law, and
Satan was never better pleased at the opportuntv
But the sraugest part OF 1t is the painful fact that
Georgians, who have known the abuses of the law,
have made their legislatures demand its repeal
from the federal government, who almost booted
Marshal Smythe cut of the state because of the
duct of his deputy marshals and who have seen
| Atlanta iails filled to overlooking with men ar
| rested on suspicion; who have seen white men,
good men, handcutiei and dragged to trial for sell
| ing band of tobacco. and who know that north
Georgia is filled with revenue officers ut this time,
armed with rifles, their pockets full of handouts,
who peepng behind old soap barrels and roost-
ing in Old cribs to spy upon arrest and shoot
down every little dstiller of whisky, while the
great whisky ring can do its own will in the high
| est legislative circle Of the government. /
| repeat, the strangest fact is that Georgans
so well acquainted with all these things
| should now commission twentytour of her citizens
to go to St. Louis in few days, and tell the nation
! al convention that Georgia has changed her mind,
itPS my" '--'' amen - '1' -'''-' cas- u
| In the whirligfg of time, there was never such
| Lllri over anu TURN usOuL CurOnlclcQ before be-
cause democratic administration has the power to
change these federal officials and pay its heuchnen
the money and salaries hitherto paid to its oppo-
nents the state of Georgia thus condones this foul
wrong on her people and her prosperity What
difference when your OK and mine is gored? and
1t is not denied. Senator Brown told
the United states senate that the whisky
producer in America enjoys three times more tariff
than the blanket maker gets. but Mr.. Cleveland
moved upon by Mr.. Carlisle the chosen pet of the
great Kentucky whisky ring, and Mr.. Mills, who
cut loose from all religion to fight temperance and
of the Christian church. has issued pronuneia-
mento to the country that the blanket maker must
be driven out Of business while the whisky maker
must be protected. defy contradiction when
say that such high-handed measure, inch setting
up of one and putting down of another business was
never known in q republic before.
There Is no argument for the whisky tariff but
the money there is in it, and granting profit on
blanket making there are scores of wives and
mothers in Georgia who would gladly foreso the
comfort of blanket forever if they could turn aside
this freshet of whisky, which is overlooking their
homes their children their property and their hap
piness.
Not only does the government protect the whisky
TO the exclusion of every other industry, but 1t
allows the dstillers to place their whisky in ware
houses for three years without paying q duty on It.
Around each warehouse the government stations
pire.
1t pays enormous wages to every employee of the
system, which consumes thousands of the peoples
money every year. AT the end of three years. they
deduct the tax on seven gallons from every barrel
for pretended leakage. That whisky, which | am
told is slled excessively stoug at first to make tn
tax cover great deal, is then prepared for market
making two or more gallons ont of one. Strych-
nine and other poisous are added until the stuff is
well qualified in strength 10 kill the poor drunkard
as well as steal away his reason and rob his family
of all the money. The drink bill Of the nation has
been placed at 5000 10000 for several years. with no
deCielse or d,minution; and yet there are men in
Georgia throwing up Their hats and screaming
themselves hoerse for the Internal revenue system
controlled by the great whisky ring and add insult
To injury by Callingit tempe measure!
The proof Of the pudding is said 10 be chewing the
bag aud the proof that the whole land is filled with
liquor under the hypocritica pre;ense of checking
II, is found in the quantity consumed and the
amount OF revenue that the government obtains
its pro rata share of the profits of this unrgheous
unholy combine" with whiskyiproducers Tho
man who would rise in n Georgia audience and
claim the internal revenue system as a prohibition
measure is either ignorant worse As well expect
to check Niagara with broom straw, or stay the
lava-tide of Nesuyius with baby's hand as 10 seek
relief from the liquor curse with ten thousand dis
ullerieS running night and day around which the
strong arm of the government is placed to keep off
competition and TO open smooth pathway from the
liquor saloons where II may reach your home and
my home, your child en- and my children
Free trade doctrinaIs rushed this
country into secession twenty odd
years ago. They no wiser now For twenty
years they denounced the internal revenue system
while IL in the hands of the republican party
but It passed into their party control.
without a ChaDop NJ methods WeapOnS COurts