The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1902-01-01
STATE PROHIBITION.

Ever since the commencement of
the Prohibition agitation in Missis-
sippi, constitutional and statutory pro
hibition for the entire State has been
the avowed goal aimed at aud hoped
for by the true and loyal advocates of
this great reform. For more than a
decade divided couusels among Prohi-
bitionists themselves have been the
chief-indeed, it may be truly said, the
only-obstacle to it's attainment. On
account of the division Of opinion as
to whether it is best to adopt constitu
tional and statutory prohibition, once
for all, or continue to daily with the
movement and the great moral princi-
pie underlying it, by the expedient of
local option, there has been no actual
or material gain of Prohibition terri
tory in the State for ten years. Where
an occasional saloon county has been
wrested from the wet column by the
efforts and personal sacrifices, princi-
pally, of good Christian women and
preachers, by local option, the com
bined forces of whisky have risen up
somewhere else and snatched a dry
county from the Prohibition column,
and thus for a decade the movement
has practically stood still and fuctua-
ted between from sixty to sixty five
Prohibition counties on the one hand
and ten to fifteen wet ones on the
other. This is the record.
Now, after years of such experience,
and when the Mississippi Baptist State
Convention has several times spoken
out for State Prohibition, and the
Mississippi Methodist Conference last
year at Brookhaven and again this
year at McComb, declared that the
time is ripe for an advance movement;
and while Baptist associations and
Methodist district conferences and
possibly other religious bodies have
spoken out to the same effect and are
petitioning and importuning Prohi.
bition Governor to recommend the pas
sage of such law to the special ses,
sion of the Legislature now about to
convene, it is inexpressibly lamenta
BILE that there should appear the same
old evidence of discord among pro
| fessed Christians and Prohibitionists
themselves. The deliverances on the
question of State Prohibition by the
Mississippi Conference at McComt
and of the North Mississippi Confer
ence at Winona, both of which met liz
December and represent a large con
stituency, are as much at right angles
on State Prohibition as the cruel cross
on which their common Lord was cru
Gifted on Calvary. The one peti
tiOns the Governor to recommend the
passage of such a law, the other con
ira. 1t is also learned that an eminent
ecclesiastic of the Methodist Church
who, during the early years of the Pro
hibition agitation in Mississippi, was 6
| peerless leader of the cause and {
tower of strength to it, but who fol
many years has stood as a great bar
rier to its advancement and logica
contamination, is expressing himself
privately as being in accord with the
North Mississippi branch of his church
and he, in all probability, inspired its
action.
What will the Governor do under
such circumstances? We do not know
but, if we were in his place, we would
ignore the subject, unless the Prohibi
tionists in the Legislature and those
on the outside would first harmonic
their differences and present solid
front in favor of State Prohibition
For him to act otherwise will be idle
and time lost by himself and the Leg
islature to no good purpose-possibly
to the serious prejudice of the Prohi
bition cause. Prohibition was lost in
the Constitutional Convention of 1890
when it was ably presented and there
was ample time to fairly consider il
and every other public question by
the ablest men of the State, because OF
the disagreement among the Prohibi
tionists themselves; it was lost before
the first Legislature which met under
the new Constitution in 1892 fol
the same reason; and, at a short
session of the Legislature, with
so many other pressing matters
to be considered, bill for State Pro
hibition, with the Prohibitionists still
divided, would undoubtedly share the
same fate.
So far as THE LEADER and it's editor
are concerned, we are ready today, to
morrow, or any other time to Join
with our fellow Prohibitionists of Mis-
sissippi in an honest, aggressive and
united effort to secure State and Con
stltutional Prohibition. We are still
willing to spend and be spent in such
noble cause; but We have had
quite enough of leading a forlorn hope
and fighting before legislative bodies
for Prohibition against saloon advo
Gates, Prohibitionists and church lead
ers all combined. Verbum sat.