The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-06-29
The SALOON
IN COLUMBIA
Editor Herald

Editor Herald
The time is drawing near for can
didates to be chosen to represent the
people of Maury county, and of this
Senatorial district, in the legislature;
and want to ask, lis it not about time
that Anti-Saloon Leagues were being
organized all over this and Perry and
Lewis counties, to see to it that we
send Representatives to the legisla-
ture who will go there to vote and
work and use every honorable effort
to have the Adams law extended to
every town in Tennessee, if possible,
but first and foremost, to Columbia?
I began my fight for the Home
against the Saloon, thirty years ago,
and am glad that have been spared
to see some of the seed sown bring
forth good fruit. All these years in
our schools, our homes and churches
we have been cultivating the minds
and hearts of our children, until now
the present generation of voters are
willing and anxious to do what their
fathers would not do, and that is close
the door of every saloon in Tennes-
see and keep them closed forever.
If every voter in Tennessee knew
what l know, and had seen what |
have seen, I feel sure the saloon would
be banished at the next election. Dur
ing my 20 years of Official life in Co
lumbia l have seen numbers of bright,
promising young men come to Column
bia from the country round about,
or grow up in Columbia; l have seen
them with bright prospects and bouy-
ant hopes. Then I have seen "the
gang" get hold of them; and in a
short time, surprisingly short time,
sometimes, l have seen their bright
prospects blighted, their hopes de-
stroyed, their manhood wrecked, their
lives ruined. During these years
have seen a number of suicides grow
out of the drink and gambling habits;
four that I distinctly remember of.
! Two of them we're young men who
came to Columbia from the country.
They were bright young men and had
promising future before them. But
the gang got hold of them, and led
them such rapid gait that they soon
lost their business positions, their so
cial standing, and became respondent
and mortified, and ended it all in a
suicides grave. have seen hundreds
of men wreck their fortunes and good
names. have seen many of them be-
come petty thieves, and leave behind
them wife and children, heart-broken,
in want and poverty. I have seen
others who have not gone all to pieces,
but whose families have been deprived
of the comforts of life and of the peace
and happiness which belonged to their
homes | have seen thousands Of
helpless women and children suffer in
hunger, poverty and cold, because of
this accursed stuff called alcohol.
It is a hard heart that cannot be
moved to sympathy for the helpless,
the weak and unfortunate. 1t is not
every drunkard who intends to be
drunkard. 1t is not every one who is
drunkard who wants to be one.
became convinced long years ago, that
many men contract the habit by TAX
! ing a little toddy as a medicine, and
who become habitual drinkers before
they know it. I have known others
! to contract the habit by taking the
social glass who die not want the
glass but Just didn't know how to say
mo" But alas, the same weak man
who cannot say mo" to his companion,
cannot say mo" to his Appetite and
before he knows it he is slave to his
appetite / have the prOfoundest SYM
pathy for this class of unfortunates,
and in my official acts have always
tried to be kind and patient with them.
And | believe that, in the majority OF
cases there is only one way to save
them: and that is to take the tempta-
ton away from them. And, in my
Judgment, when the voting day comes
many of them will vote with us. They
did in the prohibition fight.
Night after night, month after
month, year after year, through the
heat and cold, and Outlines in the still
watches of the night when I had the
right to be at home enjoying the fire
side pleasures and comforts of my
home and family; often and many
times l say have I, through these 20
years, exposed myself to danger fight
ing this wicked traffic in the blood of
my fellow man; and | derive some
comfort now that all these labors have
not been in vain. 1t seems to me that