The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1907-08-23
Liquor Prohibition in the South
New orleans Picayune.1


: attended the movement against TIA,
, sale of intoxicating liquors in tht
Southern States in the past few
years attracted but little attention
until the enactment recently by the
legislature of Georgia Of prohibi.
! ton law more radical than any
, other in existence in the United
States.
Not only does the Georgia law
which goes into operation on Jan. l
1908, close every saloon in the
; State, but it does not allow any
, liquor 10 be sold by anybody, even
a druggist, for any purpose what
ever. People who need stimulants
for medical purposes may get what
assistance they can from pure alco-
! hol on a physicians prescription.
, Even this may not be furnished by
the druggist except on the day the
prescription is dated, nor in quani-
ties exceeding a pint. Most strin-
gent regulations are provided foI
! preventing violations of the law
The burden of proof that alcohol Is
wanted for an innocent purpose Is
thrown upon the druggist.
When the first reports went ont
of the struggle over the Georgia
prohibition bill it was not supposed
that the champions of prohibition
could win success, but light was let
in on the situation by the announce
ment that recently only fifteen coun-
ties in Georgia have been wet, -
the other 135 counties having voted
themselves dry under the old local
option law, which contains the
county f4ature. Since the subject
has claimed attention all over the
country, a number Of writers have
brought out the interesting and IN
structive facts concerning the steady
and rapid progress of prohibition in
the South, and the Georgia law is
now understood to be not an isolated
phenomenon but a somewhat ad-
vanced manifestation Of a general
and deep public sentiment.
As an evidence of what was the
actual situation in other States Of
the South, it may be mentioned
that in Kentucky all but four of
the counties are dry; Tennessee
has abolished the saloon everywhere
except in the cities of Memphis,
Nashville and Chattanooga, while
Texas has ninety dry counties. The
! Carolinas and other Southern States
tell similar stories, and the prospect
is that before long the whole South,
with the exception of the large
/ cities and industrial centres, will be
prohibition territory. Georgia has
simply extended to her cities the
rule that has prevailed in her vii
lagos and small towns. and her ac-
ton is, therefore, not to be regard
ed as revolutionary.
This Is wonderful change, but
/ it is one to which the people have
been driven by the increase of crime
/ throughout their States A prompt,
firm and decisive repression of
crime by the severe and quick
punishment of criminals should
have been the proper resort, bat the
growing indisposition to punish Of
tenders has led the way to a move
ment to prevent crime by banish-
ing from the country the strong
liquors to the use of which so much
crime and misery are attributed.
The Picayune has always argued
in favor of the prompt, swift and
severe punishment Of all perpetra-
tors of serious crimes, and it has
urged the strictest regulation of the
liquor traffic instead Of its suppress
sion. The arrogant and defiant
bearing Of the liquor dealers, when
a proper system of regulation was
proposed, has brought the most Sc
we're measures down upon them in
other Southern States, and viii do
SO in this. The people Of the South
in the serious work before them
of dealing with a large negro
population, so easily brutalized hy
drink, are determined to take what
they believe Is the easiest way in
which to protect themselves and the
dependent negroes, and the result
will be that prohibition viii be the
rule in the South.
1t is commonly said that prohibi-
ton does not prohibit, but the fact
is that tblind tigers" are but
poor substitute for the saloons that
should and would have been regu-
lated by wise and reasonable laws if
those who control the business had
been sane and reasonable enough
to accept the situation that was Of
fered to them They defed author
ity and they will finally have to
submit to its most stringent DEGREES.