The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-08-12
THE CRUSADE AGAINST DRINK
PROGRESS MADE BY CHAMPIONS
FIGHTING THE RUM DEMON.
Spread Of Prohibition-Leaders DC.
clare That County Option Bills
Will BE Adopted in Eleven States
i'm the Next Two Years.

Ill Tic INCAt gu
Seven States. nearly 1900 counties,
almost 10000 towns and townships
and 1876 cities. with a population on
500 to 10000. have adopted local
option or prohibitory laws in sup
preston of the liquor traffic in the
United States.
There are eleven cities, each having
a population Of more than 5O,OOO'
that are dry, and nineteen whose pop
ulation is between 10000 and $4,000.
Many of the States have been swept
close to prohibitory laws by the
spread of local option sentiment; one
half Of Nebraska is without saloons;
of the PAL counties in Texas 1872 are
dry; twenty-nine of the ffty-ive
counties in West Virginia have shut
out the saloons; sixty-six of the 100
counties of Virginia have adopted
local option: seventy-five OF the 10
counties of Missouri are in the local
option column; in Ohio three counties
and 1921 townships and small towns
have voted against liquor, while IN
Minnesota 1911 townships and vii
lagos are dry.
Georgia's prohibition law went into
effect on January l of this year; Ala
bama will go under constitutional
prohibition January l next; Missis-
sippi will begin the enforcement or
it's prohibitory statute on the same
date; Kansas has been a prohibition
State since 1880; Maine since 1855;
North Dakota since 1899, and Ok]a-
homa came into the Union without
localized saloons in 1907.
So persistent have the Massachu-
sets anti-saloon campaig7ers waged
their war that seventy-six per cent.
of the territory Of the State Is under
prohibitory law; seyenty-five per
cent. of Minnesota is dry, while Ken
lucky, the home of moonshine whisky
since the Revolution, now has but
four counties wholly wet. Even the
Mormons have caught the fever, and
it is confidently asserted that Utah
will before long swing IN with the
local option column.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey are
admitted to be the hardest nuts to
crack in the matter of getting laws
that will permit the voters to say
whether or not they wish to keep the
saloon in the townships, counties and
cities of the Commonwealth.
1t is asserted by the officers of the
National Anti-Saloon League that in
two years eleven more States will en-
act constitutional prohibitory laws,
and that in thirteen others similar
statues will be debated in the Legisla-
lures, with every indication Of speedy
adoption.
With the same confidence it is de-
clared by the leaders in the temper
ance movement that county option
bills will be adopted in eleven States
in the next two years, and that not
only will Pennsylvania and New Jer-
sey be well speckled with dry terri
tory by that time, but that great in
vasion of the wet territory west OF
the Mississippi will be made by the
local option revolution. Arizona,
California, Oregon, Colorado, Mon-
tana, Idaho and Washington have
local option laws, and the only States
in the West completely under license
rule are New Mexico, Utah, Nevada
and Wyoming.
The battle has been delayed in the
latter territory, it is stated, because
of the comparatively small population
in that great section.
While the battle OF the bottle has
been waged at the ballotbox and in
legislative halls, wal has been con
Quoted with equal vigor in the ell.
forcement of the license laws in many
of the large cities, so that Sunday
closing of the saloons is in full force
in nearly all of the large cities of the
Union. The chief exceptions are New
York, Chicago, San Francisco and
Observation-Disclosures Ledger.