Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-01-30

option. The lesson Of license, and the
encouragement giren the business by such
Legislature acts will always find suffi-
cient response in the cupidity of
enough men to establish the business
somewhere, and to make it center of
infection to spread the poison else
where. To license the business is to
plant it; and the soil that can be made
to yield the license will give the plant
root; and the root will never die in
such soil. And had space just here
| could show that the history of local
option as a means of erddicdtinG the
! traffic has been failure in every State
where it has existed; and the first
Prohibition wave that has followed it's
adoption in any State has generally
been the most widespread and success
full one.
THEN UPON THE BOLD DECLARATION
OF THESE STARTLING HETERO-
DOX PRINCIPLES,
that liquor licensing law with re-
strictions and local option sis based
upon a correct principle, is fair in its
provisions, is we'll calculated to de-
velop and keep alive moral cOnvic-
tions on the great evils of the liquor
traffic, and sooner or later will lead to
the complete emancipation of the
State" the Bishop bases declaration
in favor of the method of non-politi
cal party action in dealing with the
traffic. In this he is consistent with
himself. Faulty methods always fol-
low faulty premises. His premises
are exactly the premises of every Ii
quor manufacturer and dealer in the
Nation; and l challenge investigation
into the truth of this assertion. He
and they only differ in the amount OF
restriction, and the ultimate result OF
license with local option. The biggest
man among them, the same to the Ii
quOr traffic as our College of Bishops
are to Methodism, j. Nj. AthertOn, OF
Louisville, Ky, President of the Lii
quor Dealers Association of the Unit
ed States, says to those who are de-
pending on him for advice and instruc-
tion: "The two most effective weap-
are High License and Local Option.
The true policy for the trade to pur-
sue is to advocate as high a license as
they can in justice to themselves af-
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 in general way"
Now then when Bishops, Brewers,
Distillers and Liquor Dealers AssOci-
alton Presidents are in the main
together in their premises, it is not
strange that they should be found to-
getier in their methods. The diff
Guilty just here grows out of the fact
that thousands of our best men, and
strongest anti-liquor men, erroneous
ly and insensibly impressed from
childhood by the presence and age of
the legalized 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 n citizen of State or of
the United States. And then they
proceed to align themselves polite
ally on the theory of these same false
declarations of liquor men, rather
than on the plain declarations of our
| highest court; and on 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 us 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 on earth that
does express their wish In govern
ment, is u 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
n common level, and popularizes the
church whose ministers aud 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 suffi-
ciently 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 aud con.