The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1898-02-04
THE "PEEPuL,sn BOARD.


That was a severe arraignment
Alderman Mechanism made of the
present Board of Mayor and Alder
men, when he said they had voted
themselves a "board of liars" 1t
grew out of the effort upon the part
of a majority of them to amend the
early closing law to death; that is,
the law requiring whiskey sellers TO
close their places of business at 10
O'Clock. Alderman McClanahan
contends that "they'-the Board
promised the people that they would
not Interfere with the 10 O'clock law,
and that by their effort to do so,
they voted themselves "liars."
Now the HERALD does not propose
to &C, 81 pearl before swine" by Civ
ing to this Board any good advice.
They are under no obligations to the
HERALD for their offices, and have
no respect for the HERALD's advice,
and we shall studiously avoid in
truding upon them. We must dis
cuss public matters as they come up,
however, and now it occurs to us
th9t this Board finds itself in that
unhappy condition of trying to serve
two masters.
1t was said at the time of the cleo
tion, by some of them, and repeated
by some of the friends of all of
them, that "they"-lndividually
and collectively-would not inter-
fere with the ten o'clock closing law.
We never believed the sincerity of
the promise then, any more than we
do now. We knew then, as wei! as
we know now, that the saloon men
and gamblers were not meeting and
organizing and running cOlored pre-
paratory schools, just for their
health or other philanthropic rea-
sons. We knew, and there was light
sufficient for every intelligent man
to have known, that the saloon men
knew that it was to their interest to
defeat the old Board and elect this
new one. II Aldermen McClana-
han, White and Davis didn't know
this, it was their fault; they could
have known and should have known
it. But instead, refusing to listen
to the advice of their friends they
allowed themselves to be duped and
deceived, and now whose fault is it?
Have they anybody to blame but
themselves? Is it anybody's fault
but theirs that they helped the
whiskey sellers elect this Board? Is
it anybody's fault but theirs that
they helped defeat the Board that
created, fought and went down in
defeat for the 10 o'clock law?
The HERALD of course is opposed
to the repeal of the 10 o'clock law.
At the same time we confess that
we do not know why this Board was
elected and why the old Board was
defeated, if not to get rid of the 1C
O'Clock law and the police who en-
forced that and kindred laws. And
we do not see that the three named
minority members of the Board, OIL
those devout church members who
either voted for them or stayed at
home and did not vote against them
have any kick coming to them il
the majority of this Board is true to
the interests of the whiskey sellers
who elected them.
Eye cannot serve two Masters. .
1t is a credit to the old Board that
they passed so wholesome a law
That it was most wholesome to the
morals of the community, the wills.
key sellers petition shows for itself
Read it. 1t says, in substance, thai
1--WE, the whiskey sellers, beseecl
you to annul this law, for the reason
that the hardShipS on such dealers
have been great, and under thu
present system it is almost impossibl,
to make expenses
Real pitiful isn't 1t? And in order
to remove these hdrdships they
must be given two hours more, each
night, in which to debauch the
young men of Columbia, alter they
have quit their daily business anC
their parents and employers are a.
home asleep.
Gov. TAYLOR has announced hi,
candidacy for Senator Bates seat in