The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-07

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That il is impossible to legislate
wniskey out of any community few
viii deny, and we dare say there is not
today q local town in North Carolina
where a mans thirst for fire water"
cannot be appeased. The only way 70
blot out the whiskey business is
through public sentiment, and We be-
lieve the establishing Of a d~ispensary
is a step toward educating public senti-
ment up 10 hat point. The fact that
Nerth Carolina towns which have
heretofore been considered whiskey
C nters are agitating the matter shows
that there is much In the system 10
commend. And the experience of
Waynesville, Fayetteville and Louis
burg is that the ~dispensary has solved
the whiskey question in those towns
more efectually than all the temper
ance lectures that have been delivered
for years.-Raleigh Post.
The Charlotte Observer well says:
There ought 10 be some way Of pun
ishing governors as we'll as other peo-
pie for such crimes as this against an
individual" So there ought, and the
same punishment should include those
who conspired with Governor Russell
in this instance for his headlong rush
Into a transaction without seeing
where he was to come out" A serious
crime was intended against certain in
t~erests, and through those interests
against certain individuals, TO accom-
plish which it became necessary TO
outrage decency as we'll as honesty in
the oppression and injury Of certain
railroad commissioners. Governor
Russell became the willing tool of
those no whit better than himself, if
so good. The Governor, by the ex-
posure of his scheme and its complete
overthrow, should not be permitted to
suffer alone. His co-conspirators,
equally guilty, should be fully exposed
and, at least TO that extent, punished
along with him. And, as our Charlotte
contemporary says, lit only remains
for a just legislature to repair the great
wrong done by a vindictive and hot
headed executive. Raleigh Post.
There seems to be no method by
which the suffrage can be restricted in
North Carolina to those who should
vote, except by an amendment to the
Constitution. An election law which
would permit the dominant party to
count out the opposition or otherwise
defraud it is open to objection on the
ground that it is not honest and that
its application tends to demoralize
those who execute it, and those who
know of it's execution for the purpose
mentioned; for it must be seen that the
d of dishonesty in notifies is
toward dishonesty in personal transac-
tons. But aside from this fatal objec-
ton to such an election law as that in
Dictated, it cannot always be depended
upon as an effective agent for the pur-
pose of it's creation. 1t was seen in
1894 how, with an election law Of dem
ocratic making and with the machin-
cry in democratic hands, the people
di-lodged this party; and again in 1898
how, with a law of fusion making and
with its execution in the hands of flu
sionists, the people ran over it and
endorsed the party in power. 1t was
neither honest nor efficient, nor can
confidence in it's efficiency be placed in
any dishonest election law. So, with
out suggesting that the democrats have
or ever had a parpose to en~ct a law
which was open to fraud. the point is
b &c made that if it is intended to shut
out from the polls the ignorant, unpa-
tliotic and irresponsible element of the
population, it is necessary to go deeper
than the enactment Of a mere statute
law, which will be subject to amend
ment or repeal by any succeeding leg
islature.-Charlotte Observer.