The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-02-24
TIE BATTLE FOR TEMPER aNCE
LEGISLA ZION.

paper an interesting resuT" OF the llquoi
situation as il appeared 10 him early in
the week. Since then the Watts bill has
passed the House, Mr.. Smith withdrawing
mis- amendments after a long and persist
ent fight for the measure ne deemed
! wisest. Though the closing paragraphs
referring to the Watts and Smith bills
are now not applicable. since the House
has acted upon them. they are still in
teresting. DR.. McKelway began the fight
for the dispensary in Fayetteville, which
resulted in prohibition in Cumberland
county. He is an earnest, jealous adVo-
cate of advanced temperance legislation,
ready to accept the best measures and
not to insist too ~strenuously upon partic-
ular bills if they can be improved. His
letter is as follows:
1--WE were profoundly impressed, last
week, with the immense gain that has
been made by the temperance movement
in the last ten days. The people have
been heard from. The General Assembly
has some men in it who are opposed to
all temperance legislation. There are
others still who have a natural and wen
praise-worthy ambition for honor and
preferment in the future. The first are
blind. But the last are being convinced
that the people are terribly in earnest.
w attempt to give a faithful and ac-
curate sketch of the present status of
affairs. Before the Legislature met
Senator Simmons came out in an inter-
view in which he proposed the roofing
up of the country distilleries, and the
confinement of them and of the saloons
to the incorporated towns. 1t was at
once recognized what an immense stride
this would be in the direction of tenn
perance-and We use the word always in
the sane sense, the equivalent to So
briefly. There was already manifest a
strong under-current Of popular feeling
on the subject-the Anti-Saloon League
has not been idle for a year and the in
fluence of all the religious papers has
been worth something to the cause.
Governor Aycock's message was along
the line Of advanced legislation. But the
Anti-Saloon League put in it's platform
a series of demands which were embodied
in the London Bill" Senator London
was requested to introduce it on account
of his weli-known and long-standing adj
vocacy of the cause. This bill was at
once announced as extreme, by the Ii
quor interests, and the theory was &C
cepted by those who did not take the
trouble to read it. Then came the broad
side of the News and Observer that
helped to wake the people up and Incl
dentally sent the whiskey attorneys
scampering from their paid espoUsal of
a rotten cause like rats from a sinking
ship. Then came the hearing before the
joint committee of both houses in which
according to the Charlotte Observer the
morally stunted were outclassed. And
the petitions began to come in in d steady
stream, sometimes rising to a flood, for
the london Bill.
The chief point of attack in that bill
was the fifth resolution, requiring the
saloon keeper to get a majority of the
voters on his petitions for license or to
call an election once in two years. Last
week the Senate Committee amended that
proposition, by requiring that only one
third of the voters would be sufficient to
secure the license. 1t was amended by
some Of the most earnest advocates of
temperance. We have cOntended for it
entire as a sound principle and a reas-
enable measure, but we have never re-
garded it as a vital part of the bill, in
the original or amended form.
las thus amended the bill was favor
ably reported to the Senate and will
come up Thursday of this week, before
the Senate. We have good reason to be-
lieve that it Will pass that body. In the
meantime the Watts Bill along the line
of the Simmons interview, was favcrably
reported to the House by a majority of
the committee. AS a substitute for the
Watts Bill, Mr.. Smith, of Gates. offered
his measure. which is q modification of
the London Bill. in the particular of al
lowing the country communities now af-
flicted with the distilleries and saloons
there are very few saloons left in the
the privilege of voting to re-
tain them, and putting all communities
not voting by a majority of ballots or
petitioners before July, 1903. for retain
ing the saloons and distilleries. on a
prohibition basis.
But the encouraging thing has been
that both these house bills have been
shown to be defective and to need
amendment in the right direction. And
the pressure has been enormous to
amend. TIL idea has gotten abroad over
the State that anything less than the !,
London Bill would ho a make-shift, a sop
thrown by the politicians to the Cerberus !
OF Prohibition. The cry has been more
and more insistent for the London Bill.
SO on saturday it was understood that
Mr.. Smith was willing to accept an
amendment abolishinG TIC country GistiI-
!ery (the main feature of the Watts Bid
and Mr.. Watts has since offered an
amendment giving the right to the in
c~crporated towns to vote at any time for
dispensaries as we'll as for prohibition or
the saloons and for or against the dis
Ca feature of the London Bid. |
Watts Bill needs now but the in
corporation of the anti-jug law, making
the place of delivery the place of sale.
it to be stronger than the ninth
Bill and practically identical with the
London Bill. The Amendments have been
in the right direction and for the pur-
pose of getting the needed votes for the
passage of the bills.
And now one good strong pull alto
Sether, this week, and the work is donei
ASK by letter and telegram and delega-
ton that the representatives of the pco-
Die as distinguished frop, tho roprocpDto