The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1899-03-17
LOCAL OPTION.


the Tennessee Legislature, than they
seem to be doing. They should not
forget that the whiskey ring has
large and powerful lobby at work,
night and day. to defeat not only
this bill, but temperance legislation
of any kind, character or descrip-
ton. And they, the temperance
people, should remember too, that
legislators are just like other people,
no better and not much worse; that
they are amenable to reason and
subject to influences; and If the
argument is all made by one side,
and the influences all come from the
same side, it is the most natural
thing in the world for legislators to
yield little of their preconceived
opinions and incline to that side.
To offset this, the temperance peo-
pie should bestir themselves.
Every mother in Maury county can
and should lend helping hand, by
writing personal letter to each and
every one of our representatives,
urging them not only to vote for the
bill but to work for it with all their
might and main. Ten thousand let
tiers ought to be sent from this
county to our representatives, upon
this subject. It matters not wheth-
er you know the Representative,
Senator or Floater or not; he is your
representative and you are his con-
stituent, and have perfect right
to address him upon this or any 9TH
er pending question.
There is no good reason why this
bill should not be passed. 1t is not
only in the interest of sobriety,
peace and good morals, but it stands
upon another principle as sacred as
these; the principle of local self
government; tho right of the people
to make and enforce their own laws.
If Columbia were to petition for
the right to issue bonds, would she
not be allowed to do it? Has she
not already the right to drive
slaughter pens out of her corporate
limits? Can she not vaccinate peo-
pie by force, and send smallpox
patients to pest-houses? If so, why
not for the benefit of the whole peo-
pie should she not close the doors of
the whiskey selling houses, and stop
them in their work of running homes
and damning souls?
Men will get in a panic if small
pox case comes in hundred miles
of them; and yet where small
pox kills its tens, whiskey kills its tens
of thousands; where smallpox marks
the face of one, whiskey blears the
eyes, breaks the hearts and dethrones
the reason of one hundred thousand
What travesty upon justice to
permit such an intolerable curse to
live and thrive and flourish under
the protection of the law in an
enlightened age and christian
country!
Who can look over the history oil
Tennessee, or of Maury county, or Of
Columbia, and justify the license
system of the open saloon? Who Of
us have not suffered, directly or in.
directly, from this blighting curse
Think of homes you have seen de-
vastated and devoured by this in.
satiate monster! Think of the for.
tunes you have seen dwindle away
under this terrible appetite! Think
of the ragged children you know Of
to-day, ignorant and half fed, be
cause their father spends his wage,
of the day in the saloon at night
Think of the hopeless, pale-facec
women, whose work is never done
whose tired fingers ply increasingly
their never ending tasks, and who's,
hungry hearts never hear the must,
of loving word whose bestial hus
bands crazed with drink come home
from their wallow in the cutters t.
terrorize the children and curse and
abuse the patient motherl And
strangest of all, just think of this, al
of it is done under the license of the
law; for, we contend, that when {
man is licensed to sell whiskey, h,
is licensed to make men drunk; anC
when he is licensed to make then
drunk, he is licensed to put al
enemy IN their mouth to steal ava!
their brains" to fitch from then
their good name, to steal from then
the love of their wives and children
to rob them IF their fortunes, Il
damn their souls.
Was there ever a stranger thini
than that Tennessee legislature,
majority of whom are church mem
bers and alleged christians, woul'
vote to license such a nefariou
business, such a blighting curse
such an everlasting shame?
1t is the right, the privilege, tn
ggolrgr. To vote this business out O