The Semi-weekly leader., 1907-11-27
PROHIBITION LEGISLATION.

~
the next Legislature of Mississip-
pi, following the lead of Georgia
and Alabama, will pass and the
Governor approve State Prohi-
bition law. Indeed, public senti-
ment in Mississippi is even ripper
for such-a iaM-thanIH- -5tztes4
named and conditions more favor
able for it's successful enforce
me1t, because we have no large
citiGsi ih Mississippi such as Sayan
nah, Atlanta, Birmingham and
Mobile.
Assuming that there will be no
lack of strength and willingness
by the next Legislature to pass
such law for Mississippi, The
Leader would suggest that the
Legislature should take an adj
vance step in three or four other
points which have an important
bearing on the enforcement of
prohibition laws.
First, it ought to make a Jail
sentence on the first conviction
mandatory in all cases, and the
second offense should be made
felony, punishable by imprison-
ment for not excee ding two years
in the penitentiary.
Second, newspaper publishers
and all other persons within the
jurisdiction of Missi ssippi should
be prohibited from advertising
the liquor traffic and promoting
the Jug trade and blind tiger evil.
The newspaper publisher or
other person who advertises for
liquor dealers in a prohibition
community, does it for the money
there is in it, and is on the same
moral plane in this respect as the
saloon keeper who sells it over the
bar or the negro blind tiger who
runs dive in some dark alley, and
should be placed on the same legal
footing. The editor or publisher
in prohibition county or State
who has no more regard for the
moral sentiment and welfare of
his people than to faunt whiskey
advertisements in their faces
every day or week and aid foreign
liquor dealers to ply their traffic
and tempt and debauch those who
can be reached in this way, ought
to be compelled by law to have a
decent respect for such sentiment
or 60 to Jail.
The law should also be ma
terially amended in regard to
drunkenness of public officials.
The law for a long time in the
past has simply provided that:
ANY officer who shall be guilty
of habituaI drunkenness, or who
shall be drunk while in the actual
discharge of the duties of his
Office, or when called on to per-
form them, may BIZ indicted there
for, and, upon conviction, shall be
removed from Office. y
Under this tame statute, the
proceeding must first be by grand
jury, and the burden is not only
on the State to prove drunkenness,
but to prove either that it is
habitual or that the offending
officer was drunk while in the
actual discharge of the duties of
his Office, or when called on to
perform them"
A public officer is the servant
of the people and his conduct
should be exemplary and above
reproach, certainly above con-
tempt and public scandal.
If the law against drunkenness
in Office were so amended that any
public official, State, county or
municipal, who is seen drunk in
any public place during his official
tenure, may be suspended from
office on affidavit of any reputable
citizen or other officer, and, on
conviction, be removed from
Office, it would mean something,
and Mississippi would have sher-
ifs, justices of the peace, con-
stables and municipal officers who
would not only be sober, but who
could be depended upon to proper
ly enforce the laws against blind
tigers, vagrancy, drunkenness and
all other differences.