The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-14
PRoHrBIrIoN ARGumENTs.l
They Are Advanced by savannah
ProhihitIonisl.


the following connection with your eci-
torial Of the 18th inst stand by Local
option While you do not agree with
US. we are sure that you desire that the
best thing for our common country shan
be done. and to this end are willing that
both sides have a hearing. You say:
Those who are urging the adoption of
q prohibition law, or Glspensary law, do
not undertake TO show that the evils thaI
now from lntOXicants would be abated II
their views in respect TO liquor were
adopted In their arguments recently be
fore committees Of the legislature, they
uld not snow that n there were antl-baf-
room legislation there would be any
abatement of drunkenness, or crimes
traceable to intOxicants.
In this you are mistaken or misin-
formed; We insist that the evils would be
abated; first, the chief and underlying
licenses this alone among the many
forms of debauchery which tend to de-
stroy the material, mental and moral well
fare of her citizens.
Principle must precede practice, and it
is too much to expect the citizens OF
state TO rise as a class higher than the
standard set up by the state.
The lottery, the gaming house, the house
of I'll fame are instances Of these evils,
but 10 none Of them does the state occupy
the unfortunate relation of allowing them
to pay money and ply their trade.
Evil principle is the most dangerous form
Of evil and in urging the state to abolish
Nor do we seek to commit the state to
the dispensary as your editorial would
seem to imply.
The chief evil of the dispensary is that
it commits the state TO the business of IL
quor seliing-the Bush bill simply allows
one man in a county TO sell for, necessary
purposes only, such liquor as the state
chemist has pronounced pure and at
place whore it must be bought openly in
sealed packages and taken away from the
This Will abate the FIRST and great evil
of having in every community an OBJECT
lesson of the states legalizlng what all
admit to be a corrupting influence ana a
sore upon the body polite.
Second. The evils which are the nat
ural result of the saloon would be abated.
You mention 'drunkanness;' this evil
would abate, and has abated in communi-
ties where the saloon has been outlawed.
An intelligent and observant young man,
who recently came TO Savannah from
Georgia town, says that when prohibition
went into effect about twelve years ago,
there were but about three boys or young
men in the town who did not drink, but
now the great majority of the boys and
young men are free from this habit
The evil has abated, for, whereas the
citizens We're being educated 10 be drink
erS and drunkards, now they are being
taught by precept and example that the
state condemns the business and to be
sober citizens.
The reform-for such it isis one of
nature that cannot come to perfection in
year or two years any more than
mans habits can be formed in year or
two years.
am not aware that prohibitionists adj
nit that It don't prohibit, for there are
hundreds in Georgia to-day who will tell
you that it does prohibit
When we remember that in commu-
nifty where prohibition is tried there is
always a large number of men who OF
pose it, and hence seek to keep it from
being success, others whose habits are
so fixed that they think that they must
have strong drink, numbers who are eager
to call it a failure and hence try to mag
nifty the violations in order to prove their
contention, and wide-awake sentiment
which seeks to enforce the law, we can
see at once that it viii not do to arrive
at conclusions from comparative statis-
tics.
For instance. in Maine, I am told, that
If man gets drunk, he is arrested and If
this be true the statistics as to the ar
rests for drunkenness VIII not do to rely
upon as compared with Savannah, for
arrested.
one great fact remains as to Maine
the state remains prohibition state after
| almost a half century" of trial Of pro-
| hibitory law without any prospect of re-
turning to the license system, so far as
Surely there Will sbe drunkenness in
| cities. so is there the violation of all
laws made to protect the personal habits
| and morals of young citizens, but that is
| no proof that the law is a failure.
| Doubtless men can find dark holes where
1 strong drink can be surreptitiously OBJ
| tanned in the cities of Maine, but so
men who seek themecan find places where
/ they can gamble and violate other laws
| of the state and of the decalogue.
Mr. Hill, in his speech before the com
! mittee, APPLY likened the status of the
/ saloonkeeper to that of the negro specu-
/ lator in 1861 man who is ostracised
socially by the majority of the communi-
! ty which buys his goods-why should one
! class be perpetuated in Georgia more than
| the other?
! one reason why the national prohibition
4 party has not grown more is because it Is
/ largely a question of the police power
1 which has been left to the states, ana
| many citizens believe it to be out of the
| realm of national politics.
| Who among us would now seek to re-
! turn to the slave system, that but a few
/ years ago many thought sacred institu-
| tion2
Those who sought to destroy it were
In this we but see the evolution of an
| idea or principle. A look through the
| negro building at Atlanta will convince
| the most skeptical of the wisdom of Mr..
| LincOln's proclamation.
| All reforms cause more or less incon-
| venienee, but the law of life is DEATH
| death to the shell in which the acorn and
the egg are encased; death to the ideas
that fetter the highest development OF
men and citizens
| Can any citizen show any real distinc-
| ton between the principle of local option,
| as applied to the state and to the county
! Is not the state unit, and is not the prin-
| ciple of democracy the rule of the will of
| the majority of the state?
! Is it not the will of the majority of the
state of Georgia that the saloon be
/ qlOSpl9 w Sfnhbc