Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-02-27

the wrong contained in the bill; and
the stronger they appear the palmer
they demonstrate Il deep consciousness
of that wrong. If the restrictive fea-
lures in the bill justified the wrong of
legalizing the traffic, what wrong is
there that could not be justified in the
same way? For ministers of the Cos
pei to argue this is to place themselves
along side of those who insist on lc-
galized prostitution under restrictions.
And indeed the analogy might be run
through the whole catalogue of
crimes.
1t is no excuse to say that the bust
ness had been licensed in Mississippi
before; that does not justify lot of
eminent divincs in working for bill
to re-license it under new constitu-
ton simply because there were re-
strictions in the licensing bill. The
icensing feature is there all the same,
above which Brother Blacks church,
in its highest official capacity, has
said, "the prayers of Gods people for
its suppression will rise" and beneath
which 1.-THE shricks of the souls lost
through its agency will descend" Like
Baalam in his misguided zeal, the ad-
vOcates of the bill seem to seek to con-
suit the will of the Deity in their re-
strictive measures; and then to indi-
rectly teach the political Balaks of the
State how to cast n stumbling block
before the people by encouraging with
license the very thing they had just
admitted before God to he Il great
wrong. And then like the army of
Amalek, for those whose cOwardly
murders of the weaker ones of the Is
raelites in the wilderness his whole
race were afterwards exterminated;
this bill simply favOrs the strong and
Expresses the weak. 1t is the help
less minorties in liquor cursed COM
munities who are to suffer 10y this Ii
quor-licensing bill provided as it is
with its high and holy moral restric-
tions for moral communities. o, that
there could have been Moses found
on that occasion, with an Aaron and
Hur to stay up his hands while he
held up the emblem ofjustice; and
Joshua had sprang mp in the legisla-
tnre to go forth and battle for the pro-
lection of these weaker ones! Broth
er Black, Sin as much as We did it not
unto one of these, We did it not unto
me-" The license feature is in your
bill to curse somebody, and the curse
will fall heaviest on those who most
need protection. 1t is il poison that
no restriction can control, and that
can never work out its own dcstruc-
tion. Like all other poisons it con-
Eliminates and destroys whatever it
comes in contact with, and it is never
transformed into anything better than
itself
Yes, this license feature in your
bill, Brother Black, is the wIndshake
in the building timber of it, that is to
sink the whole craft. 1t is the fly in
the ointment that is to set the whole
thing to sinking. 1t is the fatal de-
feet that makes rotten the whole su-
perstructure. If to license the liquor
traffic sis sin," which | presume
you will not deny, then to license it
with amy sort of restrictions is to sub
scribe to that abOminable doctrine
''that we are to do evil that good may
come of it, If the licensing of the
liquor traffic is the beginning of the
end of the traffic in Mississippi, when
and how is that end to Gomez By
continuing the licensing process until
it destroys ITSELF Where aud when
did vicious legislation ever correct the
vicious thing brought forth aud pro-
tected by it? Then if this is an inn
possibility, how is the licensing of the
liquor traffic in Mississippi under any