The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1903-01-28
THE PARAMoUNT QUESTION.

THE PARAMOUNT QUESTION.
There is such question before
the people of Mississippi today.
1t will not down. 1t concerns
every man, woman and child in
the commonwealth for time anc
eternity. What are we going te
do with the saloons in our midst
We know. what they will do with
discontinue to make drunkards
of our men, orphans of our chill
dern, widows of our women, de.
stroy our capacity for business.
wreck our homes, cause many 8
child to go hungry, many 8
woman half clothed, debauch oui
politics, enlarge our insane asy.
lums, increase the population OF
our jails and penitentiary and
greatly increase the criminal
docket of our courts. The saloon
is a resort for gamblers, toughs.
harlots, loafers, thieves, murder
ers, roustabouts and idlers in gen.
eral. 1t is the friend of all that is
evil, and the friend of nothing
that is good. 1t is no fault Of
the saloon, that all of us are not
acknowledgements of men and
women washed up all along the
shores of life's ocean. What we
will do with monster with such
record, only many times black
er than human speech can de-
scribe it, ought not to engage us
five minutes; for the spontaneous
uprisings of every human soul
would cry day and night for its
complete overthrow in all the
earth.
Nor ought we to be lost for one
minute, for the only satisfactory
way of dealing with the evil, in
view of the vast experience we
have had with it. To confine ou1
thoughts to our own State, we
once had the saloon all over the
State, in every town, village,
hamlet and cross-road store. We
tried this from the earliest settle
ment of the territory, until about
% years ago, when we got ''local
option" in as an entering wedge.
With this we have driven whisky
from about 81 counties, and from
several others with the exception
of one or two towns. The fight
has been long, expensive and
hard, and one that never ends in
some counties. What is needed
now is to have a law prohibiting
the sale all over the State once
and for all. The law that was
passed by the last legislature, pro.
hibiting the sale absolutely in al
towns of less than 500 inhabi-
tants in every county in the State
gives us what DR.. Searcy last
week aptly called statutory
Prohibition, Limited.'' And the
strange thing about it is, that the
very men, most of them, who OPP
posed statutory Prohibition as be-
ing wrong in principle, in the
next breath favored the Dunn
BILL which gave us statutory
prohibition, "limited" to only &
few towns in the four or five
"wet - counties, of more thar
five hundred inhabitants.
Now, as DR.. Sample set forth
so clearly in his article of the
same issue, if it is good democrat.
ic government for all the people
of one county to have a voice in
what laws are to prevail in every
part of the county, it is likewise
good democratic government fol
all the people of the State to have
a voice in what laws shall prevail
throughout the State. And, as
every voter, in every county in
Mississippi, has democratic
right to say whether whisky shall
be sold in any part of his county,
so likewise has every man in Mis-
sissippi the good old Jeffersonian
right to say whether whisky
shall be sold in any part of the
State. Just as we'll argue for
"local option with respect to the
law against stealing, or murder, OF
carrying concealed weapons, OF
any other evil, as for local OPP
tom in the sale of liquors. 1t is
not a local question, any more
than are these other.
Local option was designed only
as a means to an end, and not the
end itself. 1t has served it's day
in Mississippi, as a forerunner to
something greater and better, but
it's day of service is about spent.
We can only hold what we have
gained with it by it. So it is as
plain as the nose on your face that
it is time to reach for the stronger
hand of statutory prohibition,
with all the "limited" eliminated.
The time is upon us; the hour is
striking now, and it is time fol-
us to strike one final blow in the
defense of our homes, our wives,
children, and our sacred honorl
Will we do it? The hand of the
great people of this great State is
being raised to strike the final
blow-one that will free us from
the dominion of the drink demon
forever-who will interpose in
it's behalf and ward off the blow
No man, who loves his mother,
this wife, his children, his home,
his honor, his country, to say
nothing of bis God. can do it!