The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1908-05-07
The Enforcement Of The Law.
Central North Caroliuian.

Raudleman Central North Carolinian.
Perhaps one of the greatest oblee
tions to the prohibition BILL. ito be
voted on i'm May, aside from the OBJ
lection that it denies to Inc various
municipalities throughout he State.
the right of local self-goyernaent,
is the fact that no law can he en-
forced unless backed by a healthy
public sentiment in IFS favor. And a
law that is not enforced is worse
than no law at ALL When n law is
disregarded and trampled under foot
by the citizens Of Il community, that
law becomes Kissing and by word
When the officers of the law learn
that law is not backed by n strong
and wholesome public sentiments and
that the breaking of that law is coil
doned, and the offender regarded as
martyr to the cause of personal
liberty rather than a malefactor, he
will be 10th to enforce that law. The
disregard of one law leads to the
contempt of other laws and finally
ali laws fall into disrepute.
\ You can place as many laws on the
statute books as you will, but after
all, public sentiment makes laws.
In proof of this assertion, witness
the case over in our sister State, Vir-
ginia, where Judge Loving shot young
Estes, in cold blood, both court and
Jury yielded to public sentiment and
acquitted Judge Loving. DR.. Charles
H. Parkhurst, pastor of the Madison
Square Presbyterian church, OF New
Nork city, and president of the So
ciety for the prevention of crime,
and whose loyalty to the cause OF
Temperance is above suspicion, re-
marked, in an interview not long since
as follows:
"While / will not Say that prohibi-
ton by statute is impossible, | do
know that no prohibitory statute
enacted in the past has actually pro-
hibited the traffic in liquor. Ibelieve
in the passage of laws only so strin-
gent as to be sure of the endorsement
of the average sentiment OF the COM
munity. If you enact laws beyond
that point your statute will not he
enforced and a statute that is not
enforced, is a great deal worse than
no statute at all. The degeneracy
of morals in our country is due to a
considerable extent to the fact that
the legislation has been above the
tone of the country's moral senti-
ment. The only straight road to-
ward prohibition is to enact restrict
ing laws only SO rigid that their en-
forcement is assured. People have
been led on to better things by short
steps.
A writer in Golfers Weekly discuss
ing the growth of the temperance
sentiment in the state of Mississippi,
and it's ripening in the passage OF a
state prohibition law, and the
part played in the movement by
that great friend to temperance,
Bishop Galloway, OF the NJ. E. church,
tells how the Bishop. who had been
fighting whiskey for the past twenty
five years, had to hold back the
radical prohibitionists with one hand,
while he gently led the faltering with
the other" until he could educate
public sentiment in favor Of prohibit
ton to the extent that the law would
be enforced when passed.
Now ii the ministers of the Gospel
in North Carolina, and every other
state as we'll, for that matter, would
initiate the example set them by
these two eminent Christians, Dr.
Parkhurst and Bishop Galloway,
devote more time to educating the
people along the line of temperance
by persuasion, rather than by dras
tic legilation. prohibition would
come OF itself