The semi-weekly messenger., 1908-02-21
WILMINGTON. ". G.
THE PEOPLES RIGHTS.

What does Broths- King, of The
Herald mean when he says that
wilmington is going about 1t just
as IL though She could help herselt?'
Does he mean thai the citizens OF
this city are tied hand and foot and
must yield the management OF their
local affairs to the people of all other
sections OF the state? Is the demo-
cratic party determined to take from
the people the right of self-govern-
u:ent which is guaranteed to the whole
state by the democratic party? Is
a mans allegiance to the par
ty TO be measured by the
alarcity Dy which he aban-
dons the declared principles of his
party at the beck and call Of few
politicians and office seekers who wish
to ride into office on a wave of public
sentiment created and fostered by
those who expect to profit by 1t?
By the time the May election comes
on We believe the people will have
learned the true condition of affairs
and that they will vote according to
their true convictions and not from
sentiment.
This question to be submitted to the
people is one of far greater import
ance than whether a few towns in the
state shall continue to have saloons
or not; it is one of the much broader
and more important questions Of
whether we shall have government
by our people.
There is no telling when the same
principle may be involved in O. gener-
a, state election on some other ques-
tion involving local interests. For in
stance, what would the farmers OF
Buncombe or Mitchell ,or Hyde or
Pitt or of any other county in the
state think If the legislature should
pass an act saying that the people OF
New Hanover should have a voice
in an election declaring whether or
not the no fence law should be estab-
lished in those and other counties
in the state? Such proposition
would almost create a revolution in
our state. What difference in princi-
pie is there between that and the
proposition to be submitted to the
people Of the whole state in May? Does
not the legislature invite the voters
of Buncombe, of Mitchell, of Hy de, of
Pitt and of the eighty-odd other coun-
ties in the state to say what the peO-
pie Of New Hanover shall do in regard
to their own internal affairs? In the
name of fairness, Of justice and of
that principle of liberty and self-gov-
ernment for which the people OF this
state have ever stood and for which
they have more than once suffered
SO much we appeal to them to he fair
and just now and to stand by the
sacred rule of primitive democracy
which has its foundation in the princi-
pie Of local self-goyernment ard the
rule of the people. In behalf
of the party We ask the
people Of the state to stand by that
fundamental principle of democracy.
Whether this town or that one
shall have saloons or no saloons is
a secondary question when compared
with the far greater one, involved in
this matter Of preservation of the lib
critics of the people and their right of
self-government. There is greater
danger to the state in the violation
of this principle. than would arise
from the closing of every saloon and
the destruction Of every distillery IN
the state. let the people begin to
surrender their rights and to yield to
encroashment on their natural priv
ileges and there is no prophet wise
enough to foretell what the end will
be?
Not on the question Of saloons do