The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1904-03-09
HEPBURN-DoLLIvER BILL.

Congress is confronted with
bills looking towards giving aid
to the prohibitionists in their eff
forts to put put a stop to the
sale of intoxicating liquors.
These bills are known as the
Hepburn-Dolliver bills, one in
the Senate, the other in the
House. The provisions of the
bills are to give the States right
to enact laws looking to the sup
preston of liqour drinking and,
to seize all liquor in transit
whether the same be for private
use or not. The Interstate COM
merce law forbids interference
with liquor while in transit from
one State to another, and under
that law the States have no right
to seize until after it has been de-
livered to the consignee. The
Hepburn-Doliver bills seek to
remove this obstacle Tor effective
prohibition, and in every COM
munity ladies are securing slgni.
lures to petitions urging Con-
gress to enact the bills into law.
The activity and persistency of
the prohibitionists has aroused
opposition and strongly worded
petitions are being sent to Wash
ington urging Congress not to
give heed to those who wish to
pick the mote out of their broth
er's eye, or the self-constituted
regulators of other peoples NOR
ais when possibly they should do
as the ancient Jerusalemites-
sweep before their own doors.
One of the strongest worded
petitions for the opposition to
the bills emanates from Edna
Fern, a st. Louis authoress and
poetess. and we reproduce it be-
cause there is much sound reas
oning in it that those who are ac-
quainted with cosmopolitan life
must recognize. This is what
she so forcibly says:
The undersigned beg leave to submit
a petition against the passage of the
Hepburn and Dolliver bills. The pas
sage OF these bills would not only ena-
bic the State wherein we live to pre-
vent US from enjoying a glass OF beer or
wine at our tables, but it would also
tend to enstrapge our husbands and
sons from their homes, and entlce them
to places hidden from the eyes of the
public and OF the law, where we could
not accompany them. We deem it our
right to visit places of amusement and
recreation with our husbands and chill
dren, and we believe that no man has
the right to go anywhere where he
cannot take his wife and children with
him. We deem it our right to select
refreshments that we econsider whole
some for ourselves and those we love.
We believe we are better able to lead
our children into the paths of virtue
and true Temperance by the precepts OF
our mothers than all the so-called tenn
perance books in the country could do.
Prohibition tends to destroy family life
and happiness, deprives women as we'll
as men of their individual right to eat
and drink what they like, leads to Sc
cret vices, allures husbands from their
wives and homes. We, therefore, pray
that our rational legislators will not
pass the Hepburn and Dolliver bills, nor
any other prohibition measure.
The population of cities is
made up of people from every
nation, they bring with them
their native customs, and when
lit is sought to restrict them from
the enjoyment of the pleasures
,bredinto their being, it is resented
with righteous indignation
Therefore it is easy to under
stand why prohibition has such
a hard road to travel for success.
Let anyone visit a New York
beer garden of an evening, and
there is found a sturdy class Of
people who work all day, and
find rest and recreation for them
selves and families at these re-
sorts where they commune with
their fellow countrymen and feel
they are doing no more harm
than the prohibitionists who find