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

this inquiry. NHctileI tue same ut
high or low" And again, "we Of
fer no compromise to, aud seek no
terms from a sin of this heinous quail
ityr And what does this startling
position of the Bishop involve! 1t
involves this principle in government;
that il is better to authorize by statu-
tory law the practice fan evil that
has been outlawed by our highest
court on common law principles, and
sell men the privilege under restric-
tons to engage in it as means of
raising a revenue, than it is to let it
remain without any.legal right to ex-
list, and attach penalties by law to the
act of engaging i'll it sufficient to deter
any ordinary man from snch course.
This is exactly the position of Mis-
sissippi, and of every other licensing
local option State; and the one sub
stantially endorsed by Bishop Gallo
way in his late interview, and declar-
ed by him to be chased upon Il correct
principle" and to he ''fair in its pro,
visions
Now if the Bishops position
is right the Bible is wrong,
for there cannot he prece-
dent or model found for it in all of
the laws promulgated through
Moses to the lsraeltes. If it is right
the Romish church was right i'll sell
ing indulgences with restrictions and
Luther was wrong in opposing them.
Further more, if the position of the
Bishop is right on the liquor question,
the policy of our government, both
State and National, is wrong on every
other question: for the liquor evil is
| the only one that is dealt with i'll that
way.
Let It's test the correctness of the
Bishops assertion that license with
restrictions and local option combin-
ed, lis based up on Il correct principle,
and is fair i'll its provisions" by APP
plying the very same principle and
provisions in the treatment of other
evils. Both the court and the church
have said that polygamy is an evil, just
as they have said the liquor traffic Is
an evil. Now substitute license with
restrictions and local option for that
evil and in less than five years, in all
human probability, every State in the
Union will have sparsely settled coun-
ties and possibly densely populated
towns where enough of the vicious
and debauched will collect to estab-
lish the custom and start the diffusion
of the infection. Substitute it for the
practice of open adultery and concu-
binagc and the same result Will fol-
low. Substitute it for Sabbath OBJ
scrvance and the Sabbath is gone. Sub
stitute it for lottery and other forms
of gambling and gambling hells will
soon dot the country like black birds.
And so with almost or quite every
other form of evil provided against by
direct fines and penalties.
Will the Bishop deny that such
would be the result? And if so, will
he advocate the substitution of license
with restrictions and local option for
the prolibitory penalties now attach
ed to the practice of such evils? And
if he will not do that then will he eX-
plain the logic by which he makes it
the correct way to deal with the Ii
quor traffic evil and not the correct
way to deal with other evils placed
by our courts Oh precisely the same
footing? The only difference is one
has been extensively legalized by
special statutory laws while the 9th
ers, with rare exceptions for some of
them, have not. Repeal all liquor Ii
censng laws, and attach legal penal
ties to the acts of manufacturing and
dealing in it for beverage purposes,
and our criminal laws against evil
practices will all harmonic at once,
and one will not be antagonizing, I'M
dermining and weakening others. If
there is any argument that Will hold
good in favor of licensing the bever-
age liquor traffic with any sort or
amount of restrictions it will hold
good with regard to the other evils
named; and our Federal government
did wicked and despotic act when
it suppressed polygamy in Utah. If
there ever was an authorized evil with
restrictions, coupled with local option
pure and simple, and based upon the
will of a local majority, those people
had it. There was just as much use
for it, and more humanity in it than
can possibly attach to the license bev-
eragc liquor traffic; and the local law
authorizing it, secular and ecclesias-
teal, was based upon just as correct a
principle as the Mississippi liquor Ii
censing law that our Bishop endorses.
The law of the church and of custom
in Utah gave a rich man who was able
to do it, the privilege of taking care
of several women and all of their chill
dren. The liquor licensing law of
Mississippi gives both rich and poor
the privilege of intiicting Oh women
and children whenever the good peo
pie happen to be in decided minori
ty, the most damnablc punishment
that ever cursed the inhabitants of
rth-destitution, want, hunger,
rags, fear, alarm, uncertainty, abuse.
and perhaps least of all in many cases,
death itself.
But this brings rs to the considera
ton of the second declaration of our
Bishop,
THAT TIE LAW Is FAIR IN ITS rROyIS-
IONS.
Now let us see how that works. When
it comes to the enactment Oflaws, the
State and not the County is the unit;
and it is just as much the duty of the
collective legislative body that repre-
sents that unit to protect one good
citizen in II county against the evil
practices of others, as far as it can be
done by the power of the State, as 1t