Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-02-06

quor Dealers Association of the Unit
ed States, says to those who are de-
! pending on him for advice and instruc-
! ton: "The two most effective weap-
ons with which to fight Prohibition
are High License and Local Option.
| The true policy for the trade to pur-
sue is to advocate as high license as
I they can in justice to themselves at
ford to pay. Until Prohibition is de-
stroyed, or its political efforts broken,
/ | repeat that our best weapons to fight
it with are High License and Local
/ Option by townships. If local option
can be defeated without encouraging
/ Prohibition, it should be done. These
are my views i'll il general way.
/ Now then when Bishops, Brewers,
Distillers and Liquor Dealers Assoc
alton Presidents are in the main
4 together in their premises. it is not
strange that they should be found to-
getier in their methods. The diff
Guilty just here grows ont of the fact
that thousands of our best men, and
strongest anti-liquor men, erroneous
" and inscnsibly impressed from
childhood by the presence and age of
the lcgalized beverage liquor traffic,
| continue to think and act as though
the claims OF the liquor men to carry
on the business in some sort of way
were true; and loose sight Of the fact
that our Federal Supreme Court has
emphatically declared that there is no
such right in Il citizen of Il State or of
the United States. And then they
proceed to align themselves polite
ally OH the theory of these same false
declarations OF liquor men, rather
than on the plain declarations of orr
highest court: and Oh that same theo-
ry they can and do vote for the friends
of the liquor traffic to make and exc
cute laws for them Just as readily as
they vote for its enemies; and then
they go into their Church Conferences
and declare before God and the whole
world that this thing that they have
thus encouraged and helped by their
vote, the only thing OH earth that
does express their wish Ill govern
ment. is a worse evil than all of the
other evils against which the man
they voted for can possibly legislate.
And then this false theory is very
palatable to some, because it enables
them to continue to act with old po-
litical party friends, brings the digni-
taries of Church and State together on
a common level, and popularizes the
church whose ministers and members
do it with the politicians of the domi-
nant political party in the State. Here
again, this may all do very well in
Mississippi where the Democratic par
ty has succeeded in DISTINGUISHING the
Republican party, until some other Ii
quor licensing party builds up sutfi-
GENTLY to give the few liquor men who
do vote the balance of power in the
State. And if the intellectually and
morally dominant party in every 9TH
er State could disfranchise and con-
tinue to disfranchiSe every minority
party, so as to prevent any competi-
ton between political parties, the
non partisan plan of dealing with the
liquor traffic might do pretty well. If
the Republicans of Iowa had distran-
cliSed the Democrats Of Iowa, and
the latter had acquiesccd in it, every
thing there would have been going on
lovely; and their Bishops might have
been saying as Bishop Galloway said
in his late published interview, eve
are not afraid of the qualified cleo
tors" But for the want of this dis
finnchising process, or something else.
Iowa is in stew. But few years
ago designing politicians passed an
act under which the people voted
thirty thousand majority tor Constitu-
tional Prohibition; but the courts de-
cided that the politicians had played
ii trick, as they nearly always try to
do in such legislation, and the act au
thoriZing the vote WAS declared inva-
lid. The people then came together
and in Il partisan way and elected
Legislature that gave them Statutory
Prohibition. The Republican party
was then tie dominant party in the
State and pledged itself to the faith
| ful execution of the Prohibition law.
Everything went well for season.
But there was a good large cOntin
gent of liquor men III the Republican
party, and they began at once to I'M
dermine both the law, and their party
for upholding the law. These liquor
Republicans said to the Democrats,
espouse the cause of liquor license
with local option and any sort of re-
strictions and we will vote with you,
and the Democrats did it. Then fol-
lowed, side by side, significant test.
in two classes of people. of loyalty to
principle and loyalty to party. The
liquor Republicans would desert their
party and so over and vote for the
Democrat because he represented
their principles; but the Prohibition
Democrats, and there are many of
them, would not desert their party
and vote for the Republican even for
the sake of their principles. Here,
''the children of this world" showed
that, Sin their generation, they are
wiser than the children of light" and
the result was the election, twice, of n
straight-out liquor lieens ng Demo-
cratic Governor in II strong Republi-
can State, and in % strong Prohibition
State; aud as result of all this. the
Republicans incorporated a restric-
tive license and local option plank in
their last State platform, the liquor
Republicans returned to their old