The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-20

| talk" about the rights OF the people,
saying it was the old demagogue idea
why" said he to Mr. Morton. you
know Butler landed in the Senate on that
talk Do you want a job like that"
Mr. Morton: Il never departed so far
| from my party as TO go against its
| fundamental principle"
! Mr.. Lucas: You needn't be afraid
Youn never be elected to the Senate"
Mr.. Lucas closed with great eloquence
Gnd was loudly applauded
| Mr. Morphew then showed that the
amendment made it more difficult TO get
vote than The Code did in it's present
form.
JUDGE GRAHAM.
| Judge Graham next made a brief ar
gument against the Watts bill He said
| it had been argued that the Constitution
az Amendment had been passed by the
| Legislature as an arbitrary measure.
Surely these gentlemen forgot that that
great question had been left to a vote
! of the people, even though the negroes
| themselves voted at that time.
We should not, he said be carried
away by the eloquence Of the gentleman
| from Hyde, or the beauty in the gallery.
| We should be guided by common sense
and a sense of justice.
| He agreed with Mr. Smith that the
Watts bill Disseminated against eighty
! two per cent Of the people of the State.
Thief petitions from 10000 people did not
constitute the wishes of a majority of
population of about 900, 600 What
should We DO about the people who had
not signed petitions, but who we were
supposed to represent?
Vermont, that rock-ribbed Prohibition
State, had recently repealed her law.
| New Hampshire was about to annul
| hers, and in Maine it was violated with
| open consent all over the State.
Mr.. Watts said he had been Informed
| last December by the Senators from the
States of Maine and New Hampshire that
| those States prohibited liquor in the
country, and only allowed It in towns by
| a vote.
Judge Graham replied that his infor-
nation about the State of Maine came
| from business men with whom he was
, associated, and he knew what he had
| said about Maine to be the absolute fact.
Mr.. Morton informed Judge Graham
! that friend of his had found by con
| sulting Dunn's Agency that there were
| 60 wholesale whiskey houses in Maine,
and about 500 open bar rooms.
MR.. STUBBs.
Mr.. Harry Stubs, Of Martin, next got
the floor. He said this was a movement
of the supremest Importance to him,
1t was an hour when sentiment and pas
sion should give way, and reason and
! justice hold sway. Three times in the
lest four years had great questions con-
| fronted the Legislature, and always it
| had had the courage to settle them for
| the best good of the State.
He realized that. ranged on one side
| of this question the great temperance
| leaders and prominent men of the
moral forces and of the State had come
| here or been represented upon this great
| issue. But he realized also that the
| great majority of the white voters of
| this State, in their cabin homes, were
at work, trusting that this Legislature
would not take from them their funda-
mental rights as citizens Of North Caro-
| lina, even though they had sent no dele
, cations to the General Assembly.
| He declared that the bill of the gem
tleman from Iredell did clearly discrim-
| mate between the people of the country
and the people of the towns We were
J no better than the people that sent us
/
| here.
The enmity of the country PEG,
| pie toward the town people, that sprang
| up and became apparent at the time OF
the coalition between the Populists and
| Republicans is now dying out, but the
| passage of this bill would kindle anew
| the dying embers of this destructive fire.
| We had no legal or moral right to pass
| this bill
| The voters of the State had trusted
! their representatives never to disfran-
chise any of the white men of the
State, upon their solemn pledge not to
do so.
! Now he saw a Democratic Legislature
about to pass measure that would dis
! criminate in the franchise against the
great mass of our poorer citizens.
Pass this bill, and arm the wiley and
| astute politician with a deadly weapon
to use against the Democratic party in
the country districts.
He had favored the amendment of the
gentleman from New Hanover Now that
it was lost, he favored the amendment
of the gentleman from Gates.
| They called this Watts bill prohibition
measure Ye Godsl what a travesty!
| Mr.. Watts asked him if his objection
to the bill was that it was not a prohi-
bition bill.
| Mir. Stubs said no. His objection was
| that it Disseminated between the people
of the country and the people of the
| town.
| He closed with a forcibIe and powerful
plea for the great basic principle Of De-
mocracy, which the gentleman from Hyde
! had taught all his life.
MR.. BULLARD.
Mr.. Billiard, of Cumberland, then
spoke of the Cumberland question, de-
claring that prohibition was thrust upon
the people of that county without their
consent by this Legislature. He dwelt
| upon the great increase of real estate
values there during the last year. Crime
| had decreased. The money saved in its
way amounted to more than all the
money received from the whiskey tEaf-
| fic
| Mr.. Morton said that the records Of
| the Federal Courts showed ffty-five cases
of blockade stills and blind tigers in