Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-05-22
SAYS eUERRY is TRUE
LEADER OF PROHIBITION
! COLUMBUS, Ca, May Is.

COLUMBUS, Ca, May Is. 1902.
To the Editor of The Journal
Hon. Dupont Guerry is -prohibitionist,
and is not afraid to say so. votes or no
votes. He is. with all the force OF MS
great brain and all the power of his clean,
brave heart the champion of the people
against the liquor traffic. He is not pos
ing as a saint, but performing the simple
duty of a patriot. He is leader who
dares TO lead. He stands for something
and prefers defeat to cOwardly silence or
Transparent duplicity. If he is a dema-
gogue, then let US pray for more dema-
gogues, for he is making the path OF the
non-committal machine politician exceed
inly thorny. If he is a coward, may the
land be filled with towards, for his words
do fight as an army with banners, ana the
braves that go out against him DO hold
their war dances in places remote and
wash off their war paint and bury their
tomahawks when he comes in sight. With
them it is not question Of where Rode
rick was then, but where Dupont is now,
for they have business elsewhere. If he
is a ranting fanatic, then may the soil
grow fanatics till the so-called sane and
practical politicians who are as colorless
as a chameleon and as homeless as jelly
fish, shall become extinct as species and
exist only as fossil remains of an age
when the holding Of opinions was crime
and to advocate a principle was sign OF
insanity.
Were he a prohibitionist for office, his
election would be at least an expression OF
the strength of the cause, while his de-
feat would exhibit its weakness. But
since he, out of deep and honest convic--
ton and with pure and patriotic motives,
has thrown himself into the breach, fear
less and unf1inching TO fight against the
solid whisky vote and the corruption fund
of the LIQUOR Dealers association and
he raoIfffra1 RING that would
petuate the saloon that the saloon might
perpetuate IT, a battle as heroic as ever
made victory sublime or defeat glorious,
for prohibition, not to support him Is not
only a blunder, 1t is close akin to crime
For once we have a straight candidate on
a straight issue. If we shrink now, Wnen
shall we rally?
When the local option campaign was
sprung in Bib county In 1885, Colonel
Query was chosen to lead in that cause.
He consented with full knowledge OF
what 1t meant. and as chairman OF our
central committee made noble nght Tor
the home against the saloon in his own
county. In all the heat and bitterness of
that campaign he contended for clean,
honorable campaign, and frowned on ev-
cry slightest hint of doubtful methods,
and, with the same fearlessness that he
now exhibits, tore the mask from the
fraud and trickery of the opposition. He
came out of that campaign forever con-
WINGED that local option in Georgia means
the defeat of the will of the white man by
the irresponsible vote of the black man,
inspired by the rum and corrupted by the
Doodle of the saloon keeper; that all talk
about white supremacy is merest nom
sense when cities like Macon and Column
bus are at the mercy of the whisky seller
and his hired repeaters with black skins,
in spite Of the votes of a clean majority
of the white men. That conviction he is
now voicing on the stump with a fiery elo-
quence and a merciless logic that make
the liquor king turn pale on his throne
and the political boss sit UP nights to REF
pair his fences. If he is not the prohibit
ton candidate, Will some one please tell
us what it takes to constitute one? If
prohibitionists of all types do not vote for
him. then VIII they ever vote for any man
who champions their cause? If prohibition
is not a cause in this campaign, then there
is no Issue. IL 1t makes no difference to
prohibitionists how the candidates stand
on this question, then platforms have no
meaning and principles have lost their
power to inspire. Then let us cease to ask
candidates what they stand for and vote
by the pull of the wires, and tell the world
that in Georgia we have politics without
principles and votes without convictions.
w. W. PINSON.