Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-05-05

Righteousness cxatcth nation bat sin is a
! reproach to any people. PROV II: 81.
LOCAL OPTION.
But, say some of our friends, We be-
leve in and insist upon further trial
of local option, because it requires no
one to give up his old party affilia-
tions. Just as we'll insist on having
Il church through which to save the
world that requires none of its mem
bers to give up their meanness !.
Were it not for the devil and his en-
missaries no church would be neces-
sary, and were it not for the old Ii
Quor licensing parties and their leSis-
latioD. no local option laws would be
necessary. Don't forget, my local
option brother, that the United States
Supreme Court has Outlawed the sa-
loon under our common law-based
upon the law of humanity and the law
of God-and declared that it has no
right to exist except such right as
Congressional and State legislation
may give it. Now why not stop such
legislation by superceding the pOliti-
cal parties that enact and perpetuate
it, and thereby do away with the un-
necessary nonsense of local option
measures altogether? ga house di-
vided against itself cannot stand"
Hence liquor licensing parties must go
down, or the liquor licensing policy
must universally prevail. 1t is absurd
to talk about preserving a party and
at the same time destroying its~dis-
tinctive policy.
THE LIQUOR MEN HAVE STUDIED THIS
QUESTION CLOSELY"
And hence it may be said of them,
"They are wiser in their generation
than the children of light" Having
studied the interest of their business,
they are to man, for local option and
high license to promote it,.
J. NJ. Atherton, of Louisville, Pres
ident of the Liquor Dealers Associa-
alton of the United States, with Il
large estate invested in the liquor
business, and with the responsibilities
of chief officer of the association rest
ing upon him. wrote to his friend, e.
O. Cox, of Michigan, on March 2, 1889,
as follows:
"The two most efficient weapons
with which to fight Prohibition are
high license and local option"
Further on he says:
"Until Prohibition is destroyed, or
its political efforts broken, / repeat
that our best weapons to fight it with
are high license and local option by
townships"
Here then we see that the president
of the liquor dealers association of the
United States proposes to use local
option as a means of destroying Pro =
hibition, and says it is one of the best
weapons with which to fight it, while
local optionists propose to use 1T as
means of securing Prohibition. Some
of the reasons Mr.. Atherton gives for
his position are that the fees resulting
from the license measure that must
ever precede the local option measure
will satisfy the consciences of many
voters, and that the wet counties can
be made to supply the dry counties
until the opposition of enough others
can be broken down to secure the
universal acceptance of aud submis-
sion to the license traffic. Here Pres
ident Atherton shows that his intense
dread of political Prohibition-which
can only be had through a Prohibition
party-not only makes him indifferent
to local option, but one of its warmest
advocates. Now why does he advo-
cate the very thing that our local OPP
tion friends advocate-local option
and oppose the very thing they oppose
party Prohibition-when the OBJ
jects intended to be reached by the
two are just the opposite 1t is be-
cause he has thoroughly studied the
subject, and knows that
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC COULD NOT EXIST A
SINGLE DAY IN ANY STATE
did not the whole State in its legisla-