Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-01-22
MIR. MCARE.s INTERVIEW.

ze a valued personal friend who is
seeking to crafty worthy ambition,
and if The LEADERS editor we're to de-
fer in this instance to his personal
feelings and impulses rather than con-
suit what he conceives to be for the
common veal, this article would never
be written.
In the first place we remark it is to
be regretted that in the very outset
Mr.. McCabe should bury the patriot
in the partisan by proclaiming that
the success or continued domination
of the Democratic party in Mississippi
is paramount to every other consider
alton. The Democratic party has had
supreme control in Mississippi for
twenty years. Yet the assessments
show that the aggregate value of prop
erty is depreciating in the State mil
lions annually; within the past twelve
months State taxes have been
raised 20 per cent, besides 100000
in State warrants issued, and, &C
cording to Mr.. McCabe's own admis-
sions, the development of the mate
rial resources of the State is not keep
ing step with public expenditures,
while crime is alarmingly prevalent.
In the face of these and other equally
stubborn facts surely no one would as
sert that the continued success of the
Democratic party in Mississippi is of
first concern, who was not blinded by
elf-interest or the most hopeless par
tisan idolatry. When we consider the
national affiliations of the Mississippi
Democracy and the stupendous failure
the party has made in trying to run
the general government during two
years of full control, the proposition
becomes almost ludicrous.
What is said about the Importance
of suppressing lawlessness is timely
and praiseworthy, and will meet with
hearty response from all good citizens,
of party predictions.
And Mr.. McCabe expresses a becom-
ing solicitude for the success of the
farms How strange, that
in referring to these two subjects he
should omit all reference to the muir
derous traffic, carried on under sane
ton of Mississippi law, by grace of his
party, which inspires so much crime
and furnishes the convicts to man
these farms Read what two chaplains
of the Penitentiary say about the ire
mendous proportion of young white
men sent to the State prison as the
result of the liquor traffic. No less an
than the Supreme Court of
the United States itself says: 'The sta
tistics of every State show greater
of crime and misery attribute
BILE to the use of ardent spirits obtained
at these retail liquor saloons than to
any other source" (See U. S. Supreme
Court decisions, California VS.. Chris
tiansen.l
And yet Mr.. McCabe, aspiring to be
the Governor of great State, ignores
all reference to this crime and pauper
producing traffic, and actually has the
presumption to suggest that the pull
pit and press should exert their influ-
ence to secure better enforcement of
law! Was it inadvertence, or the re-
Of lo1ibarofn Iaciop iytnnIaI t0
conciliate the saloon power and insure
that party harmony and success which
he appears to regard more important
than all else? May be Mr.. McCabe
thinks the best way to insure the sue
cess of the penitentiary farms is to fos-
ter the liquor traffic and thus insure a
large and never-failing prison popula-
ton.
The truth is, Mr.. McCabe, otherwise
a good and well-meaning man, is hand
icapped by the saloon affiliations of his
party, State and National, and blinded
by his own partisan zeal and personal
ambition He knows the Democratic
party is pledged to the perpetuation of
the liquor traffic, and that he would be
disloyal to the party platform to pro-
claim different policy. How pitt
able indeed the spectacle he and
hundreds of others like him pre-
sent, who dare not publicly assert
their real convictions and indie
pendence on a public issue of this
magnitude, and, in the exercise of that
wider freedom vouchsafed by our new
constitution, step out of a party which
compels them to stifle their moral con-
victions and patriotism!
Whatever else may be said, one thing
is certain: The man who can discover
the widespread decentralization and
necessity for law and order referred to
by Mr. McCabe, and yet hasn't the
moral backbone and political indie
pendence to point out one of the chief
sources of this state of affairs and sug-
gest the remedy, is not the kind of man
Mississippi needs for Governor at this
important crisis in her affairs.
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