The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-09
PROHIBITION IN MISSISSIPPI.


Mississippi is almost a prohibition
state, not by a gsneral prohibition law
but by means Of local option. The
campaign against whisky has been
carried on so quietly that the fact that
the state was gradually coming under
the control of the prohibitionists was
not widely known beyond the states
limits.
1t is said. however, that the cam
paign against liquor has been more
exciting than a presidential campaign
And it is asserted that the counties in
which liquor has been voted out are
prohibition in fact as we'll as in name.
OF the seventy-five counties sixty
nine have declared against the sale
and manufacture of intoxicants. Six
alone are now open 10 barrooms. Three
Of these are coast counties, and are
regarded as suburbs of New Orleans.
rather than as parts of Mississippi. OF
the other three two are to soon hold
local option elections. They are Mad
ison and Monroe counties, and the opin-
ion is expressed that both will vote
against whisky. There will remain
then only one county which the pro-
hibitionists expect to capture. They
will make a hard fight for it.and those
who are in position to know say that
the chances are that they will get it.
Then Mississippi will be practically a
prohibition state, and the people there
will have prohibition, not blind tigers
as there are in Kansas and Maine.
In Maine there is a general pro-
hibition law. and it has been found
impossible to enforce it in those coun-
ties which have not been educated
against whisky. In Kansas there is a
similar condition of affairs. Indeed in
the latter state prohibition has been
admitted to be failure.
We have pointed out time and time
again that the only way to bring about
genuine prohibition in a state is to
educate the people against the liquor
habit and the liquor trafT1c. Get the
majority of the people in each county
against whisky and there is no trouble
to enforce a prohibition law.
The writer of the dispatch giving an
account Of the way Mississippi has
been captured for prohibition, says:
Moreover, with the support of local
public opinion, as shown in the popu-
lar vote, il is possible to enforce pro-
hibition in the Mississippi counties and
towns far more thoroughly and salts
factory than in Maine. where it Is
forced on many counties which do not
want it, Prohibition in Mississippi
therefore. usually means prohibition.
There are a few blind tigers, that is,
illegal saloons but the number is small
and it is decreasing. The sheriff elect
ed by a vote shown to be prohibition
is pretty apt to carry out the law
against barrooms if he wants to be
reelected.
1t is evident that it is we'll under
stood in Mississippi that there cam
not be successful prohibition where
the majority sentiment is against it
Here in this state a good work has
been done in the capture of about
three fourths of the counties by the
prohibitionists. Now the prohibition
lists propose to risk losing all they have
gained by demanding a general pro-
anything from the experience of other
states. They insist upon learning by
their own experience. Simply be-
cause whisky is sent from wet coun-
ties to dry counties, it is proposed TO
abandon the local option method by
which the state is being captured and
adopt method for stopping the liquor
traffic which has been tried often. and
which has always proven a failure.
The fact that whisky can be obtained
by dry counties from New York as
easily as from Savannah or Atlanta,
makes no impression upon them what
ever.