The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-05
Voted Prohibition
For Wilkes County.
Continued from First Page.)

ca AT lHat, Tor 1ld not Know NOa dfdlk
liquor"
Gen. Bryan: 81 know | said that.
Just wanted to know what YOU thought
about it,"
Mr.. Simpson, Of Perquimans of the
committee, said he did not sec that this
argument was accomplishing anything
inc Democratic party always urlifted the
people. They We're building school
houses on every bill, and now was the
time to do something else shat was good
for the people.
lie moved that the bill be reported fav-
orably
MI Gordon Hackatt, Democratic candi-
date Tor the Legislature. testified that 1t
would be best for the county politically
ana IN every other way. The good men
CT the county who paid The taxes, wanted
IL. The dtstiller was always 4 Republi-
can, because in that business it was
either Republfcanism or the pcnirentiary
Rev. {. w. Robinson of the Presbyte-
rlan church, next spoke for the bill lie
said that government statistics gave the
figures as $612. 900 a year lost 10 labor
and in food products by the distilling
business 1t had been said it was profit.
able. Wilkes had shipped IN last year
S0-lO0,OO0 bushels of corn. He told of a
case in which three pincs OF liquor COS,
the county $1S3, due to quarrel between
two young men who had bought The IL
quor. The solicitor had told him that
thirty out OF thirty-fivo Of the cases in
court were directly traceablc to liquor.
The forests were being cut down by the
people for crossties, etc. IL order 10 raise
taxes. The women were raising chickens
and eggs to ship out Of The county.
He had never been in but two homes IN
Wilkes county where the wives and
daughters OF the family plead that tie
county might be delivered from the curse
of liquor.
Moreover, it DESTROYED the business
confidence OF the county. Not one half Of
the children were in the schools. because
of the prevailing ignorance of the pco-
pie, who must send Johnnie to the mill.
and Molly al home to help mother The
blighting effects Of the Whiskey traffic
were responsible for this awful ignorance.
Mr. Robinson made a magnificent plea
| for the moral issue involved in the mat
ter.
The burden of proof had always boon
| imposed upon the moral side. Now let
| it be put upon the other side.
Rev. j. b. Tabor spoke to the question
| from business and financial standnoirt.
| for on the moral side there was no de-
Tense at all.
| He was very fond of horses he said, but
since he had been in Wilkes he had been
walking his circuit, instead of riding it,
| on account of the scarcity and high price
| of corn.
He had actually known of cases where
| liquor was carried TO school houses and
| given to the pupils like water.
| AS to the apple question, they could
| get more by shipping apples off than
| they could by selling them to the distill-
| ers.
| He said he had never found anything
| SO easy as the getting of signatures to
| these petitions. They were the best peo-
| ple--doctors, lawyers, merchants, manu-
| facturers, even the Republican sheriff
| and chairman of the county commission
ers If they had had time they would
have gotten perhaps a two thirds ma jor-
| ity on the petitions.
People had told him they never knew
anything grow so fast as the movement
| had iii the last ten years.
Rev. DR.. l.. F. Webster discussed the
question asked by Gen. Bryan: do you
believe the people of Wilkes county want
this bill?"
He had been one of the organizers of
the Wilkes County Anti-Liquor League
In this work he had gone over the coun-
ty q great deal, and he had found that
the intelligent men md women of the
county never were so wrought up on the
temperance question as they are now.
He spoke eloquently of the duty of the
people to save the weaker part of the
population from this terrible curse
DR.. Pegram said he did not want his
position and that of Gen. Bryan misun-
derstood. They were both temperance men
and were not pleading for drunkenness
or to hand out liquor to the children.
lie had never seen that done, ana he had
practiced in over thousand families.
Gen Bryan and he We're only doing
their duty in wishing the people to say
whether they wanted it or not. He
wished to put the responsibility on the
people of Wilkes.
Mr. Curtis: DO you think that the
people of Wilkes will hold you and Gen.
Bryan responsible for this bill if it is
passed." U4aughter)
Dr.. Pegram stated that, although it
had been said that the county was in
debt, it was not.
Sheriff Church said the commissioners
had told him the county was in very bad
shape.
DR.. Pegram said the only debt was the
100000 bond issue voted by the people
for railroad construction. Interest on this
debt to the amount of $50 900 was in bank
at this time
Wilkes had furnished more Confederate
soldiers than any other county except one
and it was in pensions for these old SOL
diers that the State paid in taxes, as had
been thrown up to the county the other
day.
Gen Bryan then spoke. He began by
paying a high tribute to the gentlemen
who had spoken. and went on to say that
he was a temperance man, but he con-
sidered it was the drinking of liquor, not
the making of it, that did the harm.
AS far as he was concerned he would
favor bill to make drunkenness a mis-
demeanor, but such bill had never been
introduced in North Carolina Twenty