The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-05
A STEP AT A TINE.

The Prohibitionlsts are honorable and
natriotic citizens, who are laboring for
what thew conceive to be the best inter-
ests of their fellow men. To the eonser-
vative observer 1t is obvious that they
are undertaking too much; they are I'M
patient to accomplish the impossible New
ertheless, there Is no question but that
their efforts have done some good. There
are now about 100 counties in Georgia that
are ostensibly prohibition counties. That
is thew are governed under laws which alb
eolutely prohibit the liquor traffic under
any circumstances. Still, anyone who
cares to investigate, will find that there
is a considerable jug trade" carried on
in those counties. Many of the good peo-
ple of these communities are Prohibition
ists in preaching but not in practice. They
believe in keeping the other fellow from
drinking, but take steps/to prevent the
cutting off of their own drains They are
not afraid their own appetites VIII get the
better of them, but they are terribly AFRAID
that their neighbor has not moral courage
enough to fight off the drink demon 1t is
fact, however, that local option and even
partial prohibition in the dry counties
have done much good,
City, county and town prohibition may
be possible where the people are really in
favor of it. But the majority of public
opinion must favor prohibition before It
can become effective Meantime it is to
be borne in mind that there has been the
drinking Of strong liquors from time i'm
memorial. Many of the Biblical patriarchs
were addicted to the habit. Manifestly it
is impossible to break the people off alb
ruptly from a habit that has been INDUCED
for hundreds and hundreds of years. 1t
NAV be wiped out ultimately, but it will
take much time and patience, and those
who are laboring to that end should be
content to move slowly and surely. Rome
was not built in a day" neither can the
liquor habit and the liquor traffic be wiped
out in a day, by the passage in the Legis-
lature of a paper saying, BE 1t enacted"
Step by step the reformation must be ac-
compllshed; not all at one great leap.
If the ultra-temperance people would be
content with slow and steady progress, If
they would be content TO make haste
slowly" they would find the sum of their
accomplishments accommodating faster
than through the employment of radical
measures. We have one point in mind by
way of illustration. It Is this: IF, instead
of trying to pass a general prohibition law,
the Prohibitlonists would simply work TO
eliminate from the statutes half a dozen
words, they would accomplish more real
IL, 1,ov he
possible in twenty years if they were to
be successful in forcing upon an unwill-
ing people general prohibition law. The
laws now provide that no license shall be
granted to sell liquors, Except in incor-
porated cities and towns" without the
consent of the nearest property owners or
residents to the place where the liquor
is proposed to be sold. If the half-dozen
words quoted were eliminated, the number
Of drinking houses in cities would
be greatly reduced, and the temp
tation to drink would be lessened in a
considerable degree. The revised law
would limit barrooms to those sections of
the city or town where there is no partic-
ular objection to their presence. Many of
those who now keep small bars do SO be-
cause others do. They would lose good
part of their family grocery trade If It
were not possible for the odd man" to get
his nips and have them charged on the
grocery book There are not great many
men who sell liquor from choice Probably
the majority of them would prefer to be
engaged in some other business. This is
particularly true of the small grocers who
find it impossible to separate the grocery
business from the liquor business. If the
statutes were amended as suggested, all
small grocers would be lin the same boat
and they and others, who are not Prohi-
btionists would welcome the chanre