The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-14
LET THE ISSUE BE MADE PLAIN

The Newton Enterprise quotes MI.
A. A Whitener, the Republican leader
in Catawba county, as having declared
/ that the Watts law would be zone OF
the leading issues of the campaign,
and he added: 81 am unquaiihediy
AGAINST it, He predicted that The
Republicans would make gains be-
| cause OF the passage of the Watts law
Commenting ON this declaration, the
Newton Enterprise wisely says
This is the way parties should act
on all public questions: take one side
or the other, and be the same to all
men. Too often is it the case that
party workers seek votes from men of
Numerically opposite views on &.
certain question by talking one way
to one man and the opposite to anuth-
Ell
eve have known for some time that
the Republicans have been hasing
much hope on the Watts law, which
has stopped the manufacture and sale
of liquor all over North Carolina, tx-
cepl in towns which, by Il majority
vote, permit the business.
The Republican State Convention
will be held in Greensboro OH the
eighteenth day of May it is Custom
airy for party in power to meet first
but the revenue crowd was anxious to
issue the challenge to the Democracy.
The leaders of the party everywhere
have been making overtures to the Ii
quor men TO join hands with them in
a fight to defeat the Democrats.
Their plea has been virtually in these
words: Come into the Republican
party and take the place of the negroes
who have been DISTINGUISHED. We
promise to let you make whiskey and
sell it when and where you please. ;"
Those men in the business who Can
not see further than the end OF their
nose will accept their invitation The
others will not join the defeated and
damned Republican organization.
The Democratic party will take no
backward step. 1t stands upon solid
ground 1t has put into statute that
no intoxicants shall be manufactured
or sold in the State in any place where
police protection is wanting. That
position is one that will be approved
by ninety-nine out of every hundred
Of the good citizens of North Carolina,
rural districts. They have been sub
iected to much annoyance by the To-
cation of ''sow-paw'' factories near
their homes, where the youth and the
ignorant have been debauched. They
wish no saloon or still except where 1t
has police surveillance. Making and
selling whiskey tend to produce
drunkenness and disorder. There
| fore, the law puts restriction around
both not attendant upon any. other
sort of manufacturing or selling. The
last Legislature added another neces-
sary restriction, to-wit: Police super
vision.
The day will never come in North
Carolina when any Legislature will
take a step backward in temperance
LEGISLATION. Certainly no Democra;
will favor any policy looking to re-
storing rural saloons and stills. There
were good Democrats who doubted
the wisdom of the Watts law. They
have either been converted or abide
by the action of the majority. The
Watts law does not enforce prohibi-
| ton or anti-prohibition. 1t simply
saws: No intoxicants shall be made
or sold away from police protection,
and where there is police protection
1.-THE people may have saloons, dispen-
sary or prohibition.
The Democrats will stand by the
sound principle upon which the Watts
law is based The Republican reve-
nuers and politicians have been de-
nouncing it since its adoption, not be-
cause it is not good law. but be-
cause they thought they could get
some political advantage by so doing.
The Oemocrats-both prohibitioniSts
and OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES ready to
meet the issue that the Republicans
propose to tender.