The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-10-24
PROHIBITION MOVING ON.
Its Spread in the South and West

/ is gong uTy.
A mighty moral movement has been
Mason and Dixon'S line and teaching
the principle that strong drink is the
basis of all that is evil.
So prompt has been the response of
the people that Georgia, Texas, Mis-
sissippi, Alabama and even Kentucky
have been swung into the prohibition
ranks.
| Georgia has gone over outright, and
after January l, 1908, the law to which
Gov. Hoke Smith has just attached his
signature will make it a crime to sell
drop of liquor anywhere within the
confines of the State.
When the governor put his signature
to this law he deprived himself of some
sixty thousand dollars, for it is said
without liquor the big hotel in which
he holds controlling share will cease
to be paying proposition.
But the governor never heSitated,
for he, too, is a prohibitionist, aud
sharing the great impulse that threat
ems to abolish the liquor trade in the
south.
The Georgia colonies of fiction and of
one most characteristic motion was
that which involved a crooking of the
elbow, and the raising of bit of glass
ware as far as the face, will exist no
more in the old State.
On August 9th, when Gov. Smith
signed the State prohibition bill, there
were several hundred people in his
office, all who could crowd in, while
the capitol grounds at Atlanta We're
packed to overlooking with hundreds of
others.
AS soon as the governor wrote his
name the crowds inside and outside
the capitol sang 'Praise God from
Whom all Blessings Flow
USED SPECIAL PEN.
Gov. Smith used special pen pro-
vided by merchant of Atlanta, who is
a prohibltionist. This pen is to be pre-
scented to Emory College the Southern
Methodist institution of Georgia.
The prohibition bills number was %.
The measure originally was known as
senate bill No. l. 1t was the twenty
third bill to reach the executive office
for approval, however, and that num-
Der displaced the senate No. l.
To drink now it will be necessary to
move to the north, lodging, of course,
Maine, Kansas and North Dakota,
which have already preceded Georgia
III the teetotaler ranks.
When Georgia cut off the liquor
trade, it involved loss to the dlstil-
lers and brewers of S1OOU0, 900 yearly,
and to the State in lost revenues about
s., 0QD, 000.
dent of the Women's Christian Tenn
|. perance Union, gives a large share of
, the credit for the movement to the Or
0ani2atin whose chief She ic
In her opinion it was because public
men the country over, but especially in
the south, are beginning to believe that
the worst foe of a mans patriotism and
his duty to the commonwealth is strong
drink, that they have resolved to help
, along the cause of better government
by curtalling the opportunities of the
saloon.
The terrible race riots of Atlanta a
few months ago are attributed to the
trouble producing tendencies of Georgia
whisky. In the saloons have been TO-
mented much of the race prejudice eX-
element.
Thus, though in elections the prohi-
bitionists have been able to cut but
little figure, nevertheless they contend
that their never-ceasing campaign is
I bearing fruit in the enactment of these
+, new laws.
TEXAS GOING DRY.
Texas, beloved of the small boy as
Y the home of the desperate outlaw, the
bad men who could drink their quart OF
S firewater without blinking an eye, is
the last place where one would think OF
looking for the influence of the white
S ribbOnerS, yet more than One-haif OF
the 224 counties of the Unions biggest
e state are dry, and it is a probability OF
the not distant future that a law as
: stringent as Georgia's will be enacted
4 Travellers who visit the smaller
towns find it necessary to resort to sub
: terfuges to get drink, and in many cases
! find it to be impossible County laws
. and local regulations have made the
Lone Star State far more puritanica
. commonwealth than New York OIL
e Pennsylvania, for example.
Tennessee and Mississippi, sharing il
: the wave, have the spectacle of county
after county voting to make liquor sci
y ling illegal. In Alabama it is legal tc
+ sell liquor in the cities as late as
:. O'Clock, and in the towns out in the
country up to O'Clock, but the saloon
keeper who keeps his place open later
than these hours runs the peril OF
+ being put out of business after paying
a a heavy fine.
a In Kansas, the prohibition law, once
treated as a joke, is now stern reality
i for Gov. Hoch is an ascetic believer in
a prohibition, even carrying his aversion
to strong drink so far thai when his
:, daughter was selected to christen the
r Kansas, he insisted that instead OF
breaking over the brow of the superb
II battleship the traditional bottle Of
j. champagne, that the boat should be
o named with nothing stronger thar
It water.
y Accordingly when the giant shiI
slipped down the ways to take the in
itial plunge. the governors daughter
smashed a bottle of water over the
:, . steel sides of the warship, as demon
+ stration to the nation that Kansas leaC
: in prohibition, was lived up to even il
the smallest details.
In the southwestern part of Virginia
the widest part of the old common
wealth, many towns have voted liquor
n out of business, and it is said that thu
next legislature of North Carolina will
consider prohibition law.
EVEN "OLD KENTUCKY"
Kentucky, the last stronghold, il
captivating, and Gov Beckham il