The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-10
Spirit of the Press.
A SHEER AND IT'S ANSWER.
Stnnhnua

We commend to President Lackey, of
the North Carolina Liquor Dealers AS
ISOLATION and Chairman S. Ohio Wilson,
of the Distillers' Association, our local
contemporary, the Charlotte Observer,
for honory membership in both organiza-
lions on account of faithful services rem
dered.
In the midst of the fight in North Caro-
lima, for sobriety and decency, for the
school and the Church and the home, for
the poor drunkard that needs protection
from his own temptation, for the boy
who will soon be tempted into sin the
Observer comments thus:
"By large majority-15 to 4-the
House committee of the Legislature
on propositions and grievances re-
ports favorably the Aycock- simmons
Watts anti-liquor bill. This is the
first knockout for the Morally stunt
ed The bill will doubtless pass, and
then will come up the London Dill,
which in effect provides for State
prohibition. This will not have such
smooth sailing and it is likely that
it will be materially modified before
it becomes a law, but the Pure IN
Heart are certainly giving the Nor
ally Stunted a run for their money
about now. 1t would be funny if
they should get a, law under which
they couldn't get any soW-paW
themselves"
Now this wholesale charge of hypocrisy
should not be passed by. Hypocrisy is
the homage which vice renders TO virtue.
There is something, therefore, that is
worse than hypocrisy, namely, shame
lessness.
But who are the people thus virtually
accused of undue fondness for drink? We
never heard that Governor Aycock or
Senator Simmons had that reproach cast
against their character. 1t could hardly
be true of the representatives of the
great religious bodies of North Carolina.
There are some saloon politicians in the
General Assembly who will be branded.
for what they are, before long. But they
are not voting for the bills now before
the house. We think we might say for
such men as Henry A. Page A. M.
Scales, Superintendent Joyner, G. w.
Tillett. j. w. Bailey, that they would
not regard it as an unspeakable calamity
if they should be unable "tO get any
soW-paw for themselves. We take it
that there are thousands of men. who
may or may not practice total abstinence
themselves, who yet would cheerfully
surrender all personal tastes, for the sake
of those who, with the saloon and dis
tillery- groggery Astounding, are and are
to be the victims of that curse and the
slaves of that tyrant, strong drink
To intimate that these men are not
sincere in their opposition to the liquor
traffic is to raise the question of ones
own sincerity.
We deem it proper to reply also to the
argument that the London Bill in effect
provides for State Prohibition. We
serve notice now, on the Dealers" their
attorneys, and editorial allies, that any
temperance legislation in North Carolina
means the prohibition of the saloon, fin
ally. But it is only in that sense that
the London Bill provides for prohibition.
And we call the attention of the Prohi-
bitionists, to the confession of their
quondam ally. The Observer is what
one might call dispensary- prohibition
ist 1t does not hate prohibition less, but
the dispensary more.
Contrary to the impression that has
been made by the three classes afore-
said the London Bill does not even aim
at immediate prohibition. 1t differs from
the Watts Bill in the particulars Of al
lowing a community to vote for a dis
pensary with the same liberty with which
it now votes for saloon. There is nc
one outside of an idiot asylum that really
believes the saloon to be an Improvement
on the dispensary. Furthermore, as in
the case of Fayetteville and Monroe in
this State the dispensary has rendered
prohibition possible and actual.
Another provision of the London Bill
is the prohibition of the importation of
liquor into prohibited territory. 1t al
ways was an outrage that the rights of
a community could not be made secure
by law, that it was able to forbid it's
own citizens, but was unable to forbid
outside citizens from selling liquor within
it's bounds. The London Bill makes the
place of delivery the place of sale. And
finally. the London Bill embodies the fea-
ture of the Mississippi law, under which
the progressive Southern State has been
thriving for more than decade. 1t re-
quires the saloon-keeper to show that
the community wants the barroom, in
stead of requiring the decent element to
prove that the community does not want
it, 1t makes the saloon-keper get up
petition, with a majority of the names
of the voters on it, before he can be
granted license Mississippi makes him
publish the names in paper for month
But the bill says this need not be done,
when the saloon has been voted in, within
two years. 1t gives the saloon-keeper
the option of calling an election every
two years on the question.
If that really means absolute and i'm
mediate pr[ibtion in North Carolina, it
means also that the sentiment against
the saloon is already so strong that
ma jority of the voters everywhere are
unwilling to petition for it, or that in an
election, in which the saloon would as
sumo the offensive and force the issue,
it would be voted out. If these things
are already true of the Old North State,
then it will be a violation of the will of
the people for the London Bill not to
pass.
1t ought to pass. 1t ought TO become
a law, that the saloon shall prove its
right to existence by an appeal 10 the
people, or ought to be done to death'
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