The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1903-09-04
Liquor Dealers UnWise Move.

The character of a community is
that Of the best men in it, and their
voice, if it is in the maj ority,
controls affairs. In this State,
through the active agency of the
Anti-Saloon League, sentiment,
moral in nature, was engendered
against the sale of liquor. A law
was enacted through this influence
which said to the towns in Tennes-
see: ''f you do not want liquor
sold i'll your community, vote it
out" This was done in all except
twelve towns and cities. The |
Supreme Court has held the law |
constitutional; this is a government
where the majority rules; and there
fore, no one can deny that anything
unlawful or harmful has been done
by eliminating the saloon from those
places which now have it not. No
force other than the majesty of the
law and public sentiment was used
to accomplish this result, and the
General Assembly very wisely left
it with the sovereign communities
to decide this question for them
selves. This was a moral move
ment, the elimination Of years of
agitation, the end of the progressive
Christian plan. 1t was an ism,
which failed as political move
ment, but succeeded when the
people Of great party took 1T up.
In 1887, on the vote for constitu-
tional prohibition, it being a moral
issue then, the question was barely
defeated and would have been
carried if the preachers and good
, sieters had remained off the stump
and away from the polls. That
enormous vote on, oO0) was an
evidence of the sentiment of the
State toward the liquor traffic.
) Since 1887 the sentiment against
the saloon in this State has grown
until to-day it has crystalized into
the Adams law. This statute owes
its vitality to the Democratic party,
which controls this State, and with
out whose support no law could be
enacted.
Now comes the retail liquor
dealers, who are meeting in this
city, with an ultimatum. 1t has
not been issued, but it is known
l that it will be if present counsel
prevails. Through the operation
of the Adams law several hundred
saloons have been closed, and their
owners and attendants thrown out
of employment. These men, with
their more successful brethren, en-
gagged in the same business, are re-
volving plan, the essence of which
t is: "U uless the Democratic party
repeats the Adams law, we will put
the Republican party in power. "
This is a positive announcement
that the liquor interests are going
to enter politics actively. Should
d they do so openly, as they will have
/ to do if this ultimatum is hurled at
the Democrats, they at once force
an issue that will damage their
e cause. They raise the question oil
k class in politics, which the Ameri
> can people will not endure OF
= support. How many votes would
# man get if he ran on a Methodist
Y platform? or on a German birth!
|. or on a professionalism the saloor
3 men say: ''Vote for me; | want my
~ business to GO where the people are
| Cpl osed to it," they at once array
is against them every moral force IL
1t the State. 1t is such an impractica
Is thing these liquor dealers propose
, that few outside of themselves ar
"a disposed to take it seriously
n There is an element of humor in
I'd that savors of the beer mug. Th
l. Democratic party will never g
backward on a moral issue, and a
re for the saloon men holding III
s. balance of power and the dispose
nr of this power, the Democrats wi
y; - have 10 be shown. -Commercia
ia Appeal.