The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-15
..DlSTILLERS, BAR-KEEPERS AND REPUBLICAN
POLITICIANS.

IS cusslng out the Democratic party or
administration. All dissension is water on
their wheel
The Democratic party has not deprived
any voter of the State of any right and it
will not do so. All power is derived from
the people and they are the rulers. Their
representatives have fixed the rules where
whlskey can be made or sold where pis-
tolls, firearms and cigarettes can be sold
and to whom. where and how poison can
ce dispensed, and certain other police and
Ike regulations deemed wise and neces-
sary If the people in the country wish
to vote upon any of these police regula-
tons, they will demand it, and they will
secure that right, but they will not fail
to SEE that the Posts sudden zeal for
them Is inspired by a desire to use them
as monkey to pull the chestnuts out of
the fire for its monopoly owners
and bosses. And as they have been
sensible enough to refuse to follow anv
policy heretofore advocated by the Post,
they will not permit that paper now in
this transparent piece of demagogery. to
lead them into the camp of the trusts, the
railroad tax-dodgers, and the whskey
crew. Not much! The country people"
have sound sense, good Judgment, and long
memories. They will not bite at the bait,
The Biblical Recorder of this week,
copying an extract from the Morning Post,
makes the following reply:
The Watts law is a temperance law
not a prohibition law. It is temperate
and it makes for temperance. But we will
not dispute about words in this day of
dictionaries, grammarians, lawyers and
halr-spltters. Cur purpose is to discuss
briefly the Posts criticisms of the Watts
act
The Posts language is not temperate
The Watts act does not disfrauchise the
country people, and an advocate of fair
play should not use word so plainly cal
culated to appeal to prejudice. The Watts
Act protects the rural districts by Kidding
them of saloons and distilleries.
Such discrimination as there is in ia
NOI OIL IHe country
That the country people do not OBJ
jeet 10 this we have this testimony: The
editor of the Recorder has been defend
ing the Watts Act twelve months. on the
platform and in his paper. HE HAS
NEVER YET HEARD AN OBJECTION
TO 1T SAVE FROM A DISTILLER, A
BAR-KEEPER OR A REPUBLICAN
POLITICIAN. THE DISTILLER HAS
BRING HIS BUSINESS INTO THE
LIGHT; THE KEEPER OBJECTED
BECAUSE 1T PUT HIS BUSINESS AT
THE MERCY OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT;
AND THE REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN
OBJECTED BECAUSE HE WAS IN
SORE NEED OF SOMETHING TO OBJ
JECT TO.
ION the other hand, the Watts Act has
been received with remarkable enthusiasm
throughout the State Never was an ac;
more perfectly adapted to conditions. 1t
was not radical: but it followed the posi-
tive pointing of 5000 churches and school
houses For since 1880 the saloons and
dstiileries have been on the retreat before
the churches and schools which year by
year in cvcr-eaining number have been
incorporated for the one particular pur-
out Of the rural districts.
THE Watts Act has therefore. received
the enthusiastic approval of the churches
and school houses. and so it can bear
with grace the odium of opposition from
bars and distilleries.
''There IS absolutely no demand for the
submission OF this act TO a vote and the
movement in that direction took It's origin
in a recent political circular denouncng
"class legislation '-without naming the
Act itself for the reason that at this
period no party leader dares do so. 1t
remained for the Post to open the way.
I'VE welcome the issue. We hope the
temperance sentiment in North Carolina
will be thoroughly tried this year. A
moral issue in State politics will tend to
purify the fountain of our civic life Let
the people be on their guard, UNLESS
THEY ELECT MEN SURE TO DEFEND
THE WATTS ACT SOME MOVEMENT
LIKE THAT SUGGESTED BY THE
POST WILL BE QUIETLY SET ON
FOOT TO UNDO IT.
''The Posts editorial is the timeHest of
calls to the temperance people of North
Carolina TO be on the alert"
Democrats, who have no Interior pur-
pose. whether they believe in the Watts
law or not, see in the Post S suggestion
no good for the Democratic party but a
playing into the hands of the Republican
party. The Posts proposition will be in
corporated into the Republican platform
in Greensboro on the 18th of May, and it
will stagger into the same humilating de-
feat that it reeled into when DR.. Mott
tied it to the Liquor jug in 1882.
The Winston Republican has only six
columns of abuse of the Democratic admin
istration this week. Nest of it is taken
from so-cailcd Democratic papers. The
Republican is happy only when it can
abuse Democracy or defend conspirators
like McBee and Finch.
The Southern Tobacco Journal says
that the independent tobacco companies,
as well as the American Company, opposed
the Tawney bill. But the independent
companies could not have succeeded. The