The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-30
HOW THE LAW MAY LIFT TO
A BRIGHTER AND BETTER LIFE
Thoughtful and ForcefuI Reply to the Argument
That You Cannot LegisIate Righteousness
Into People.
presbyterian Standard.)

briefly. 1t denies the motive Of private
greed to its employees, and thus takes
the pressure off the seller of the liquor
Prohibition prevents all lawful sale of
liquor in the prohibited territory. Better
twenty blind tigers after boy than one
with his eyes open. Drinking may not be
stopped, but if drunkenness is decreased,
then the real end of the law has been OBJ
tanned. There are some restrictions even
around the saloon. Would the Post have
those laws repealed?
Gambling is another evil that can be
prevented by law and its viglant en-
forcement. We used to have a heap of
gambling in Charlotte. This paper could
tell some interesting tales of the protec-
ton of the offenders by the sworn of
fieers of the law. Now, thanks to our
vigiIant police and to Judge Shaw with
his heavy hand, gambling is all but gone
from Charlotte. 1t is not the temptation
that it once was.
Young men have been known to lose
their employers money in gambling dens
liz Charlotte. If there is no opportunity
OF temptation to do that, does not legis-
lation against gambling tend to honesty
and therefore to righteousness?
Men talk just as hopelcssly about the
social evil Unfortunately our laws on
that subject have come down from an
impure period of English history. They
need to be brought abreast of the en-
hghtened sentiment of our own day. But
such laws as we have. with such munici-
pal ordinances we have. do diminish
the evil. Who would say that if every
house of shame were in constant danger
of a raid by the police, and the male
as we'll as the female offenders ran the
risk of exposure before the world IN
court the following day, with the added
risk of having their names published III
| the papers, that harlotry would not be
amazingly diminished? New York City
| is ten-fold more decent that 1t was TWEEN
ty years ago. John Calvin found one
third of the city of Geneva given UP to
! the social evil, with men and women
parading naked through the streets anc
he made it the model city OF Europe,
with the help of legislation
| Once more and we are through. We
trust that we have also been thorough
There is rising generation OF boys and
girls that we can help to keep pure and
sweet by the removal of temptation. We
cannot remove it all. But that is not
saying that we must acquiesce in the
most open and shameless and over-power-
ing temptation, when law can lay Its
heavy hand upon the evils and make
them at least shide their diminished
heads The paper published at the Thorn
well Orphanage. Our Monthly, said the
other day, thanking God, that there was
q generation of young people growing VI
in South Carolina who do not have thu
word bar-room in their vocabulary Who
shall say that that is not a gam?
No, we cannot make people good by
legislation But we can send them to the
devil a heap faster and heap more OF
them If we let an evil go unrestricted
and unrebuked. To bring the thing dowr
to fine point, murder is both a crime
and a sin. Legislation does not keeI
men from committing the sin of murder
in their hearts. But it saves the victim
from being murdered and the murderer
from the actual shedding of blood. Not
always Law is broken. as its penalties
for being broken would imply. But re
peal the law against murder. or rape. oil
robbery, or all three, and see whether
legislation would not be needed again
and soon, ere we went into state O
anarchy.