The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-30
Raleigh the Mecca of Anti
Saloon Advocates.
WHAT is PROPOSED TO DO
Temperance Workers 10 Make Serious fort
TO Relieve the Drink Evil in the
State Of North
Carolina.


forever, thus shutting up tight fully 500
factories for making drunkards that have
been running wide open In North Caro-
lima Under the operation of the Watts
act every town or city in the State that
desires to do so can shut up the open sa-
looms The entire State will be organized
with a view I'd To enforcing the Watts
Act; l2) To establishing Prohibition IN
Towns and Cities; 90 To obtaining more
effective legislation.
In order that the temperance advocates
may work in harmony and plan wisely
and agitate effectively a State Temper
ance Convention has been called to n1ees
in Raleigh on the seventh of July. on
account of the Summer School at haieish
the railroads have granted rate OF one
fare plus 20 cents for the round Trip
July 6. {. This will enable many 10 at
tend the Temperance Convention. IL -
a most important meeting, and the friends
Of TEMPERANCE should take this opportun-
ty to manifest ther interest.
: BELOW printed statement for the
purposes of the convention issued by the
Executive Committee to the people OF the
State:
A STATEMENT OF THE PROPOSES OF
THE TEMPERANCE CONVEN-
TTON At RALEIGH, JULY
SEVENTH.
The evil of the saloon and distillery, the
evil of drinking intoxicating liquors and
drunkenness may be properly referred to
as the Drink Evil. AS opium is the curse
of the East. alcohol is the curse of the
West In North Carolina the object of
the present widespread concern IS not the
determination of the saloon and the dis
tillery but the cure of the Drink Evil.
Too often have States and communities
overthrow the saloon only to this Evil
persisting.
The time has come to make North Caro-
lima serious. earnest, self-sacrlficlng
effort to relieve and ultimately cure this
Evil 1t viii be easier now than 1T VIII
be in another generation-easie than IT
vii ever be again; and it Is difficult IN
the extreme now. To wait will be to Tor
felt perhaps our last opportunlt They
do not now even try to relieve the Drink
Evil in New York City for example. They
have long since surrendered to it. OF late
they have actually surrendered the Sab
i
be our history unless we shall now rise up
and resist. 1t will not be content with
5000, 600 victims. 1t will not be content
with six days in the week. 1t will not
be content with your neighbor's boy. Its
greed looks to your boy nd your girl
We have not merely a commercial insti-
tuition to deal with. The saloon is strong
financially: and the inducement to sell
liquor is the financial return. But we
have stronger factor yet to cope with.
The saloon is strong politically. 1t is
right well entrenched in municipal poll
tics. Each saloon is a factor In every
election But deeper yet nd stronger yet
is the Drink Evil itself. If it were mere
matter of voting out the saloon, the work
would have been done long ago. This evil
amounts to nothing less than the charac-
teristic vice of modern Anglo-Sagon civil
lization, that Is the characteristic vice OF
the foremost civilization and most i'm.
portant nations in the earth. If the Ango-
Saxon shall fall from his present glory. the
Drink Evil will be the cause.
To drinking alcoholic liquors is traced
four-ffths Of the crimes committed in the
United States; to drinking alcoholic liquor
is traced three ourths of the number OF
paupers in this country; to drinking al
coholic liquors is traced fifty per cent. OF
the number of idiots in this country.
The people of the United States drink each
year in intoxicating liquors the price OF
their annual product of wheat corn, rye
buckwneat, potatoes, gold, silver, pig iron.
nickel, lead, and precious stones. The
tariff-that great instrument of taxation
does not yield in year enough money to
nav the drink bill Of the people of this
country two months. Our annual hquol
bill is 81 ,674 .663 40s. The people engaged
in the liquor business number 238 ,683. The
number of liquor drinkers in the United
States is more than 100000 and more
than one million them are hard drink
ers. According to official statistics of the
40 cities in this country having popu
lation OF 80, 900 or more there were ar
rested for drunkenness alone in the year
1898. 294. 800 people. Thousands went un-
arrested And thousands were arrested for
other crimes induced by drinking. But
here are 294. 800 men actually arrested IN
40 cities in one year fir drunkenness alone
And the amount of liquor consumed and
the number of drunkards made increases
every year.
We say that the Drink Evil is the char
acteristic curse-and the chief curse-o
our eiVlIlZdLlOns lneSe IdcJS lHuiSatC hOn
terribly it has gripped modern life.
Not to endeayor to relieve it is to u
more the greatest obstacle to progress and
to be Indifferent to the supreme call of hui
man and divine need 1t is wilewise tc
despair; for the Evil is growing rapidly
The alarming proportions of the Evil have
often excited people to thoughtless and
ineffective policies. 1t is too great an Evi
to be met with excitement Indeed II
has overcome most serious efforts to re-
lieye. 1t has grown steadily despite ever,
effort to check it. State prohibition has
been overthrow in twenty-four States
Local prohibition has often been thwarted
and abandoned. The pledge system has
been long in disuse. though there is now
an effort to- revive it. The Womans
Christian Temperance Union has of late
seemeu to falter even in its hopes Pc
litical parties have invariably failed. TIL.
Dispensary substitute has proved greatly
unsatisfactory failure as State sys
tenn, at least SO far as relieving the drinl