The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1908-04-23

EIOl Ia
no matter under what name or guise
it may be carried on.
A favorite argument with those
who want to stand Will, ile bar
room, but who try to give some ex-
cuse for SO doing, is that prohibition
does not prohibit. On, they say, if
prohibition really prohibited they
would vote for it. This argument
is not sincere. Those who use it do so
because they are ashamed to stand
for the bar-room with all its horrors
and evils without some cloak to hide
behind. If they are sincere, why do
they not say the same thing abou.
other prohibition laws? We have
had law against stealing which has
been our statute books for ages,
and yet some men steal. Our statute
books are full of prohibition laws
which are violated nearly every day.
Do we hear those men say these do
not prohibit, and therefore let them
be repealed? Nay, verify. 1t is
only when it is proposed to prohibit
by law something of the wreck and
ruin produced by the sale of whiskey
that we hear the cry the prohition
does not prohibit.
| now propose, very briefly, to
show that prohibition does prohibit
not absolutely, but largely and
bene6cially. In the first place | re-
mark that no human law is perfect
in its construction or execution. We
have to take all law with it's linita-
tons, but the law which prohibits
the manufacture and sale of intoxi-
eating liquor CAN BE MADE as
efficient as any other law if the peo-
pie will it. In the next place, | re-
mark that we are more or less crea-
lures Of habit. If We have the habit
of going to bed at 8 o'clock, when 8
o'clock comes & sleepy feeling creeps
upon us. If we get out when
o'clock comes, We became wakefu,.
II II O'Clock be cur dinner hour
when noon comes, hunger comes
with it. Men even contract the
dirty. filthy habit OF chewing tohac-
90, and when the habit gets a good
mold upon them they are never salts
fed except when they have q wad oi
the stuff in their mouth. So with
drinking. II is largely habit. The
man who has the habit wants his
drink at the usual hour. The man
who is free from the habit does not
want it. Now, anything that tends
to get men out Of tie habit is use
full. AS you make it more and more
difficult to get liqucr you more ard
more get men out Of the habit Of
using it. H men can't get it they
can't use it. and if they get out of
the habit Of using it they soon cease
to want it. And | submit that pro-
hibition makes it difficult, if not i'm
possible, for that very class Of men
to get whiskey VINO can i'll afford TO
waste their hard earnings and scanty
means in something that can do them
no good. After all, the effective
ness of prohibition, like al other
prohibitory laws, depends upon the
local authorities. five have sker;tfs
and constables and police ard nagis-
trates who are in sympathy with
blind tigers, the blind tigers viii
flourish. II these officers are in en-
nifty with the blind tiger and in full
sympathy with rigid enforcement
of the law, the blind tiger will soon
seek other fields for his deyelish op-
erations. Hence the necessity for a
great big majority for prohibition.
Let US make it so large that the
officers of the law will know that
the people are in earnest and that
they mean to see the law enforced.
Let US make it so big that the wretch
who would engage in the illicit man.
ufacture or sale of liquor will know
that there is no hiding place for him
in North Carolina, and that, if he
would engage in his wicked business
he must go beyond her borders.