The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-12
WILL OF THE PEOPLE


Great Mass Meeting Last Night in Met
ropoIitar Hall Despite the Downpour
Addresses by Rev. F. ]. Murdoch
Dr.. W. C. Tyree, Or. A. H. Moment,
Judge H. G. Conner, Dr.. T. N. Ivey,
Senator John S. Henderson. Bishop
Joseph BIount Cheshire Presided.
The booming of the great wave is
heard again over North Carolina.
Two years ago a like wave started.
Its end was the swapping of the
liquor evil in North Carolina. And
now the liquor evil is all but con-
quered in our State.
The end of the wave whose boom
ing is heard from Raleigh now is the
swapping of the divorce evil in
North Carolina. The name of that
wave, for it's the same wave come
again, is Christian Sentiment.
Yesterday the convention of the
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
adopted unanimously resolutions that
spoke in no uncertain tone the pur-
pose of that church to call upon the
people of the State to rouse them
selves from their lethargy on this
VIII. question.
Last night great leaders from the
churches, Episcopal, Presbyterian,
Baptist, Methodist; from the judiciary
and the legislative branches of the
State. in plain language reminded the
people in mass meeting assembled in
the Metropolitan Hall of this city, of
their duty as citizens to let their rep
resentatives HON they send to make
their laws know their will, which is
to go back to Gods law and the States
own old law of divorce.
A splendid crowd was present; they
had literally braVed the elements, for
1T began to pour as it seldom does
pour about fifteen minutes before the
time f" The meeting to begin, and
cont u during the meeting.
of Divorce.
re made a brief pre-
which he referred
in North Carolina
'Vorce during the
the Bishop in
'rdock, of Sal
x.
xpressing
would
ty-One
laws
Use.
l.
/
judgi.
that t.
four hu
he was Sl
Der eXceede
vOrceS were
sons than II.
Bible, and in
the divorce was
re-marriage. NAH
cred the worst Sta,
and in that State it
marriage in every siA
vorce. He did not b,
much better in North {
20 per cent. of the divor>
in North Carolina marriet
there would be about 1000 Z.
people married a second Ii.
North Carolina. Probably there
something like 10000 people mari
the percentage of divorce was aboul
one in seven.
1.-THE law for us in this matter isl
declared the speaker, "'whom God
hath Joined let no man put asunder.'
Who is putting them asunder? The
law is doing it. The laws are made
Dy the Legislature, and the Iegisla-
ture is made up of representatives of
every one of us who is here tonight"
In this connection the speaker dweIt
upon the great responsibility of all
the people, for the legislators sin
cerely desired to be responsive to the
will of those who send them to the
Legislature. 1T is the plain duty,
therefore, of the people to instruct
their representatives. and refuse to
vote for any man who would favor
any divorce law other than the di-
s vine one.
DIR. Moment.
Rev. DR.. Alfred H. Moment, pastor
of the Presbyterian church, of this
city, spoke next. He took as his text:
IF the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do?" We SOW
the wind and reap the whirI-wind,
us to cover tonight. The origin of all
of this trouble is no mystery. 1t is
domestic infelicity.
DIR. Moment recalled how the bill
that passed the last Legislature was
opposed by man whose arguments
were exactly on the line of holy writ
on this subject When he had ia
ken his seat the man who was speak
ing for the bill said that those were
old things and that in the great State
OF North Carolina we must advance
and keep up with the times And
that idea carried the House. and what
was done on that first day of March
was being done all over this Union.
Justice Brewer had said that the
Bible was the sacred book of this ma
ton. The history of every nation had
been downfall whenever it had dis
carded it's sacred book. Our legisa-
tive halls were now disregarding the
sacred book of this country. and this
was the result what brought us here
tonight.
The average of divorces in the Uni
ted States was about one in every nine
and the figures were greatly increased
during the last nine years. In a num-
Der of States the courts were sitting
all the time. grinding out divorces for
any ,pretext whatsoever. and with no
ropdiftoug bl1t money ones Orr