The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-02-17

Mr.. Hinton then went on and made a
| vigorous speech for some temperance leg
| isIaticn. not especially the Watts bill.
MR.. BENBow.
Then Mr.. Benbow spoke for the wishes
OF the people of Yadkin. He said not
4 single petition had come up from that
| county. and that he spoke for the Demo
Gratis as well as the Republicans.
Yadkin county differed from most OF
| the other courties OF the State. There
Iwere no towns of more than LOCO people,
and every town already had prohtbitlve
laws. and accordingly the first section
of this bill entirely knocked out ladkin
county. 1t would injurc all classes Of
| the people not only the distillers, for the
| traffic benefited all the people of the
| county. even the preachers.
Coming to the committees amend
mcnt. he declared that it would mean
| wholesale family drunkenness, instead OF
temperance.
Mr.. Curtis: You say it benefits all
classes of people,"
Mr.. Benbow: Il do
Mr.. Curtis: do you have any people
that get drunk in your county?
MIR. Bonbow: Yes
Mr.. Curtis: well. does it benefit the
families of those people,"
Mr.. Benbow then went on 10 show how
the traffic benefited every one in the
county. 1t was a business with them
just like raising tobacco.
He said it was rot a political question
in his county. and that he was simply
asking what his people had told him to
ask. He had always voted with the
Democrats in local measures, and he
asked the same of them. A member or
this House was not here to represent
his own conscience, but his constituents.
Mr.. Benbow then made a strong plea
for local self-government, saying that
all he asked was that his people might
be allowed to vote on this question. Ac-
| Cordingly, he would support the amend
ment of the gentleman from New Han
over.
Mr.. SMITH.
Mr.. Smith then sent forward his sub
! stitute for the bill and all the amend
ments, regulating the sale and manu-
! f&cture of liquor on the principle of local
self-government.
Mr.. Smith then spoke to his substitute,
and said that a great deal had been
said for the bill now before the House
that was misleading. 1t had been said
that the committee reported the Watts
bill favorably by a vote of II to 4. But
he remembered that at the committee
meeting, one gentleman after another had
gotten up and said that they cast their
votes for this bill, for it was the best
thing then pending; but they wished it
distinctly understood that they were not
committed by that vote to the support
of the Watts bill.
The gentlemen who support the Watts
bill had derived much encouragement
the day before from the remarks of the
gentleman from Hyde. But that gentle
man had just come from home, from a
temperance community, and he had not
had time to look into the matter at all.
He was simply expressing his senti-
ments upon the subject of temperance,
and everything that he had said, and
that had been SO much a~pplauded, could
be equally as truly said of this substi-
tute.
The substitute did as much for tenn
perance as the Watts or the London
bill.
Both Of these bill made q very unjust
discrimination between the people of the
country and the people of the towns.
and the discrimination was against the
town people. Nothing is done for tenn
pcrance i'll the towns. And it put prohi-
bition upon the people Of the country,
without any chance to change it.
II 1t is the purpose of the bill to en-
force moral ideas upon the people of
the country, why not enforce them upon
the people of the towns.
And that enforcing of moral ideas and
governing the rights of people to OK
ercise the dictates of their own con-
sciences IN moral questions was the very
principle that brought on tho Spanish
lnquls1t1on. He read from the Constitution
OF North Carolina on this subject.
But he considered that the burden Of
obtaining license should be upon the Ii
quor seller The right to sell liquor
was not a vested right. 1t was a privi-
lege granted by the State, that is, by
the people. Accordingly, there was a sec
ton IN his bill putting the burden upon
the applicant for license, to secure "
majority expression of the will of the |
People Of the commCnity. That was
merely another way of the State rant
irA the license, and it was a concession
to the temperance forces of the State.
He then dwclt strongly upon the great
principle of government by the people
again reading from the Constitution. At
this point he grew very eloquent, ana
was literally app12uded. He hoped that
the members from Mecklenburg would
in this matter be actuated by the same
principles that brought into being the
great Mecklenburg Declaration Of indie
pendence. rs it possible that this great
Principle. 50 often bathed in blood. is to
be voted down here in North Carolina.
III the house of its friends. Don't vote
against this sacred principle of self
government. If it can be voted down for
a good cause, it can be done for a bad
cause"
He referred to the times of Fusion.
when this principle was voted down. ana
asked II We wanted to see those scenes
re-enacted. ANY party that campers
with this sacred right of the people will
be rebuked sooner or later, and it ought
to be. l say this, Democrat that | am.
He believed it would revolutionize
Gates county in three years, and how
many other counties he could not tell.
But in many of them the cry would 90
UP that the people had been denied self
government.
Had We forgotten the great slogan.
Equal right for all and special privi-
ieges TO nOne2' If Thomas Jefferson
We're to visit this ScaO0 ro1a, ho v,-o,1l