The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1903-08-20
Prohibition ::
/: Reduces Taxes.
Charlotte Ol,sers er. Aug. I4th,)

<<>>>>>><>>>>>>>>>>>><<<><
Charlotte Ol,ser. er. Aug. 14th)
To the Editor of the Observer
noticed in your Issue of Sunday,
August End, communication from
Mr.. ]. D. McNeill, Of this city, under
the caption, "Does Prohibition Prohib-
it?" List the outside world may take
it that by their 81 ience the friends ii
our probibitory law acqu,esce in the
statements and conclusions of Mr.. Nc
Niell's article, have ventured this
reply in their behalf.
The facts upon which Mr.. McNeil]
proceeds to condemn our law as a fail
ure are that, according to The Fay ette-
Vile Observer, the Fayetteville letter
10 the Charlotte Observer and to The
Wilmington Messenger, all M July
9th last, there were IL or II cases o.
drunk and disorderlv Of that date,
and that there were AZ prisoners in our
county Jail. 25 Of whom are in camp
working the public roads, and II in
Jail awaiting trial, five for murder
Surely no intelligent person would pass
judgment on the merits oi any law BY
one days resnits, To ascertain wheth-
or prohibition is any improvement over
salt. .ons compare the reeults for one year
under both systems. Here is What
Mayor Mcmillan said on October 18th
last: "There has been decrease in
crime sincesaloons were abolished, and
a still further decrease since our pro-
hibitlon law has been in operation,
especially Of those crimes due to drunk
enness. am satisfied the decrease
will average fully so per cent" Mr..
Mcmillan has been an acting justice
of the peace for Is years, city alder
man for over 20 years, and mayor for
nearly 2 years. On October 3rd last
Mr.. W. II. Flowers, for Is years con-
secutiyely chief Of police, said "There
has been great decrease in crime
since saloons were abolished, especial,
IT these crimes supposed to be caused
by liquor, decrease of fully 10 per
cent" On the same day Major A. A
Mckethan, serving bis second term as
clerk af the Sucerlor court, said this
= have carefully examined the Grim
.insl records OF this Office, and beg to
state thai I find for the past several
years gradual decrease in crime in
the county, and very large decrease
in such cases of crime as could be
traceable to drunkenness or the use OF
whiskey." Numer GUS magistrates
taroughout the town and county give
similar evidence. am convinced
that com par:son of the records from
last October till now will show up
equally we'll for prohibition. One
swallow does not make summer, and
one days bad record does not prove
prohibition to be failure.
Mr.. McNeiil omits to mention that
at at our Fourth of July celebration,
of which he was the efficient general
chairman, and at which there was an
enormous crowd, estimated at from
5000 to 10000 people, there was not
a single arrest for drunkenness, very
little drinking perceptible, and but one
case of dlsorderly conduct reported.
The same Is true OF our celebration
last year, and of the immense crowd at
the last circus here. / challenge any
saloon town to show a slmilar record,
under similar conditions.
As to the jail Statistics, 25 OF the AZ
prisoners mentioned were sentenced to
the roads for mlsdemeanors, and en-
brace all classes of prisoners, including
tramps. Like Mecklenburg, Cumber-
land .county has caught the "good
roads" fever, and instead of letting Of
tenders off with payment of cost in
petty offences, or sending them to the
penitentiary for ie!onies: we have been
sending most of thom to the roads. OF
the seventeen In jail awaiaing trial,
some are Federal prisoners, some are
insane awaiting transportation to the
asylum. and the remainder, probably
eight or ten, are to be tried at our next
criminal term of the Superior court
the last of this month. we have not
had a criminal term of court since the
last of April, or nearly four months,
and this is NOS an abnormal number of
prisoners, surely, for county OF 49,
249 population.
I may say in conclusion, and by way
of parentbesis, that many of the high
license advocates once declared that
prohibition would injure business, yet
the last property assessment In this
county showed an increase In values OF
nearly million dollars, and the COM
OF the coApty have in con-
reduced the tax rate 20 cents