The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1897-01-21
THELIOUOR TRAFFIC.
rlr. I. r. Hicks Discusses the Subject
in Strong and Vigorous Manner.

i'm Strong and Vigorous Manner.
EDITOR GOLD IEAF:-Fuliy three hun
dred and twenty thousand dollars have
been expended for strong drink in Vance
county in the 16 years since the county
was formed Not dollar has been re-
ceiyed in return for this outlay. Not a
single human being III or out ol the
county is or has been made any better
physically, intellectually or morally by
this immense investment. With one pos
sible exception none of the hundred or
more men who have been engaged In the
traffic in that time has saved any mon
ey: and most likely the scale will turn
against him ii he follows the business five
years more. Is there any one so foolish
as to say the men who have drunk the
liquor have been benefited by it? Al
most every one of them has been I'M ured
by it. Many have destroyed their bod
les and their minds and wasted their es
tat"s; have thoroughly implanted iii
their offs Ering a disease almost lnerndI-
cable: have rendered themselves unfit to
discharge the ordinary duties OF life or
to provide for their families; have made
themselves dishonest by becoming una
BILE to pay their debts: have destroyed
their credit; have lost them positions.
And this money in nearly every case
came from the pockets OF those who
We're least able to spare 1t. Many say:
ct hasn't hurt me. and | am not going
to have any thing to DO with this liquor
question: But really, am | not my
brothers keeper? Is it not the duty OF
those who can resist this evil, to help
others to resist it? | think SO. Many
people can see nothing IN the question
but a great wrong done to s bar-keepers
i'll closing their places OF business and
depriving them Of the means OF making
a living. But they forget that these
men in less than ten years clerklnS IN
bar room destroy their own bOdles-that
they ordinarily destroy the lives OF
about 10 Others every year who leave
dependent and helpless families, and
that these same ar-kcepers if they could
get no easier employment would fare lar
better physically, intellectually and NOR
ally blowing and mauling than by drink
ing in the contagiOn that hangs around
a bar room. The Christian religion is
part of The law OF this land. Where is
liquor man that takes any stock i'll the
Christian religion?
The men who control in Vance county;
who dictate its politics, whose views go
with the public, take no stock in liquor,
nor in the men who sell, nor in the men
who drink it. Neither do they endeavOr
to suppress it. They assume that whls-
KEY has Il strong hold on the people, one
that cannot be easily be broken. But
they as we'll as the drinkers know that
we would be better without it. Try to
wean n calf and at first he will bleat
nightly and try to break in the cow
pen and will make the night hideons but
soon he will cease to strive against the
inevitable and go on off to grass and II
calves can think he will soon be ashamed
that he ever did suck Now man who
is addicted to strong drink has about as
little right to say whether liquor shall
be sold here az a calf has to say whether
he shall be weancd; and | may add,
about Its little capacity t. break himself
as Il calf has to wean himself. They
need help to quit. II furnished this help
they first complain OF being deprivedof. "a
natural right and make = great noise
$50 does the cAlf) but # the law is strict
" enforced they will soon be loudest in
praise of those who weaned them. The
brain, he intellect of II county OrcOuntry
in the main, governs it no matter what
may be said about popular suffrage; and
the brain of the country does not sup
press liquOr because OF an erroneous I'M
preston of the strong hold it has on the
hearts Ct the people. | was told by a
gentleman that it was generally supposed
the burning of the court house in Moore
county with all the public records would
involve the people i'll endless litigation
and ruin them; but that contrary to the
general expectation every thing went on
as before and not IL single law suit re-
suited. We all know that the stock or
no fence law went into operation in this
county | | years ago against the Will OF
6 out of every S voters, and that peO-
pie expected the price OF beef and butter
to be doubled, and that the immense OPP
posing public sentiment would soon re-
peal it. But the result was that the
quality Of beef and butter improved; the
price did not increase; all the people
soon saw how silly they had been for
years, fencing in Il 10 acre field and
turning out Il one acre COW, and the
change met with universal approval.
We wore out our bodies, our purses and
our estates for ages fencing. But we quit
it and are glad. We have at much
greater expense degraded our pOpula-
ton and lesscned the general wealth by
the use of liquor. Ii we quit it a few will
fuss because they cannot allow their APP
petites (cattle) to run at large; a few will
say the trade will leave the town; q lew
complain at having to (kill their year
IingS for beef) close their bar rooms; but
oh the good that will result to the COM
;nOnwealth, the Joy it would soon bring
to those who have been afflicted by the
curse. Two OBI ectiOns will be noticed,
l, Closing the bar rooms will not sup
press the use OF liquor. say it will.
The State is strong enough to enforce
its laws. Ii the anti-liquor sentiment
cares to, it can suppress It's illegal sale as
easily as a calf about to be Weaned can
be kept from the COW. Some law keeping
officers and a aW-Nceplng sentiment be-
hind them, Il few examples OF wounded
heads (of calves trying to break into the
cow-pen) will stop the effort. No law ever
entirely prevented any crimes, but it
nearly does it in every case. People Kill
and steal and rob and forge papers.
Shall we for that reason repeal the law
against those crimes? Are not the boys
who are on the road to ruin i'll the town;
the men who have died here from drink;
the farms that have been drank up in the
last 1G years in the county enough to
,
even if we should fail? Ii the law can
now almost suppress its sale on Sunday
and election days and to minors, it can
almost suppress it the other six days.
,. The other objection is that it will
injure the town. This is untrue in fact.
Does the money spent here for liquor help
the town or anybody in it or those who
spend it? Where is the house or fortune
that has been made here in liquor? | am
told the United States tax on liquor Is
s1.1O per gallon, and that liquor can be
bought for that or Il few cents more.
Then don't the business force its vOta-
ries to violate the law, And if so is it
safe to them or the community to suS-
tain a business that demands law break
ing? Does whskey raise the price Of to-
bucco or lower the price of merchants
goods? Certainly not. Then as We have
Il larger and better trade than our sur
rounding towns. buy in larger quanti-
ties and have better freight rates, we can
undersell them and pay more for tobac-
co. That will hold TIE trade, besides We
will have that additional twenty thOus-