The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-05-19
WHAT THE LEAZAR DEBATORS
SAID ON DISPENSARY QUESTION
The Arguments for and Against the System as a State
Measure. Some Very Strong Points
are Scored.

ments in favor of local option apply eqkai
ly to the dispensary law.
sixth: The dispensa1y system IS par
t~icularly adapted to the present needs OF
North Carolina because its enforcement
would not place upon our shoulders a
great burden of expense.
1.-The question I would now ask is, which
would be best for North Carolina, prohl
bition, which never has been nor never
can be enforced; high license, which
tends to increase the evil, which gives to
the rich saloon keeper a monopoly of the
traffic and protects him while he robs the
poor: local option with high license and
prohibition as alternates. a combination
of the evils of both with the attendant
one of keeping the question constantly in
politics and thus offering endless invita-
lions to bribery and corruption or dlspen-
4 sary system, which has not only succeed
ed, but has succeeded under conditions al
most exactly similar to our own? Which
shall we choose. the failures Of Northern
and Western States, or the success Of d
Southern State?"
MR.. P. S. EMERSON, NEGATIVE:
prohibition ~pronOunces the verdict OF the
States d~isapproval upon a ruinous and
baneful traffic, and thus brands it will,
public disgrace; it relieves the State of the
sin and responsibility OF turning it's sober
children into drunkards by virtue of ar
act of the Legislature and for a money
consideration; it prevents men, whom no
moral consideration seems to influence,
from making it their sole business to in
duce their fellows to drink so that the
| seller may thereby live upon their degra-
dation and ruin; it ~elevates law into righ-
teousness and thus makes it a continual
.eacher and supporter of sobriety and jus
tice.
my first objection, then, to the dis
oensary, is that it tolerates a c~ontinu-
ance of this baneful business.
1--WE want no compromise with the IL
luor traffic; no halfway measure; no
gliding over of the great evil; no over
-ures of peace with whiskey men. Can
We raise a new generation free from the
taint of drink and still allow liquor to be
sold?
Some of our so-called temperance re-
formers have been nursing and giving
medicine but what this case needs is
diagnosis and we are offering the right
hing at the right time and at the right
place. This thing is absolute prohibition.
my second objection to the dispensary
S that it turns a majestic State into an
,ffcial bar-keeper, and violates the high
.st attribute and function of a State.
Bower, an eminent authority on Grim
inal law, said last year that seventy-fve
ger cent. of all crime was directly trace
lble to the liquor traffic. Every ailment
bears testimony to the fact that whiskey
S the prolific parent Of insanity. How
Ear, then, is a State departing from It's
lofty function when it degrades itself to
49, -. -o1.-- -.,,,o l. ~ =, Il
filling asylums! How poor and pitiful> a
thing does a sovereign State become if it
violates the conscience of it's best men
md women!
"The State wisely passes and %enforces
laws against the manufacture and sale
If adulterated, impure or poisonous food.
Can it then with an atom of consistency
punish men for selling harmlessly adulter-
ated food when it IS openly selling ar
admitted destroyer of human health and
happiness? Away, forever away, with a
compromise with iniquity, and with a fell
'oWship in degradation!
my next objection to the dispensary
system is that it is far behind the pro-
Zressive business sentiment of America to-
lay. At this juncture our progressive
business men are demanding not the
checking but the abolition of the whiskey
evil.
North Carolina has very few large
owns, and our State is what is called a
'ural State; therefore, we can hope for
,ess.
What means the general movement all
,ver the Southern States for prohibition
if prohibition has proved a failure? We
see Virginia, West Virginia, North Caro-.
ina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas
Mississippi and Kentucky lave alread,
over half of their territory under prohib
tory laws.
"All over the State the question
is being discussed and over half the
State has already expressed it's opinion tina
prohibition is the solution of this ques
! zion.
81 have endeavored to show that the
cause which we nave so near at heart il
founded on bedrock principles, and that
the State cannot support a cause which
conflicts with ours.
Were ~dispensaries established, what woe
our State would suffer. In my mind.
see the paths leading out from ever,
town, dotted with men, some in the gur
ter, some Keeling on with their bottles .
the fiery water, all of one mind, drink
Again, 1 see a prohibition State. A CT,
is rending the air. No drink and no
where can drink be found. Perhaps i
will not be too much to suppose that On,
or two deprived of their drink have gon'
to their reward. But just over the gentl
rise 1 see the bright glow of a risin:
sun. This sun is rising on clear brains
happy homes, communities rid of vice an,
crime, a country with excellent roads no
made with convict labor, a State of whicl
we will be more proud and one whicl
besides being an example to her siste
States will show to the world that wher
!, love for humanity abounds there will b
, a complete State"
f MIR. W.. FINLEY, NEGATIVE: First
I propose to show that the dispensar
, system is a moral compromise. 1t is tn
State doing the work of the saloon. Blu
even the State cannot allow whiskey to b
sold without a license.
| Second. l maintain that the peopl
5 are not more ready or more likely t
unite on the dispensary than on prohib
. ton. At the present juncture there ar
thousands of men who on principle wi
s not vote II or support a dispensary sys
t TEN. For example in a poll recent
& taken by the Biblical Recorder, of 10