The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1908-02-08
GOV. NOEL'S MESSAGE.
Calls Attention to Various Crimes and
Urges Legislation to Cure
Them.

i lhGII.
!, Gov. Noel sent the following
message to both Houses of the
Legislature last Tuesday:
One Of the chief objects Of
legislation is for increased Sc,
curity for life, liberty and proper.
| ty by suppression of crime, the
chief causes of which in this state,
are concealed weapons, gambling
and liquor drinking. Effective
blows at these evils will greatly
ereduce the number and grade of
Eall ofenses. While laws of them.
SELVES cannot make evil men good,
it can make crime periIous and
proftless, thereby restraining
criminal instincts. Pistols are
made and used chiefly for taking
human life. For nothing else are
they adapted. Men who carry
them become brutaIIzed by con.
stsnt association with an instru,
ment of death; and their sugges-
tion of shedding human blood
Contemplation and preparation of
necessity for use of pistol often
creates such necessity; seemingly,
when none really exists. Ad di-
tional restrictions should be
thrown around the sale and owner
ship OF deadly weapons. The de,
fenses should be better defined
and possibly narrowed to weapons
of the largest size. Except as to
officers, otherwise than in con-
nection with arrests, mansIaugh-
ter. is the least ofense of which a
jury could convict when homi-
eide was committed with deadly
weapon which has been carried
cnncealed. The penalty for man
slaughter being largely within the
discretion of the court, could be
adjusted to meet emergencies.
Gambling, in it's various forms,
is one of the prevalent crimes of
the age, leading to nearly all others,
especially to thefts, embezzle-
ments. and forgeries. Dealing in
futures is one of its most seduc-
tive and ruinous forms. SpeouIa-
tion in actual products. and
"bucketshop" betting on the rise
or fall OF such products, shade of
into each other SO gradually that
many go from one to the other
without being aware when they
cross the line; gradually convinc-
ing themselves that there is no
difference, and that the two wide-
ly differing transactions AGE iden-
tical. Legitimate trading, to men
of ordiu&EF prudence, possesses
some safe guard; speculating in
futures becomes so absorbing as
to draw to destruction very
large share of its blinded and
helpless victims. Farmers, man
ufacturers and consumers are
vitality interested in maintaining
stable prices, but the interests of
gamblers if futures is exactly the
reverse and they resort TO every
imaginable device and falsehood
to so manipulate markets as to rob
outsiders. They are a curse and a
blight to all communities which
they infest.
Public. sentiment asks that the
"bucketshops" be cIosed-com-
pletely and forever. Besides be-
ing made a criminal, every dealer
should be liable for all losses to
his patrons; and every person who
provides a building, telephone,
telegraph, or other facility for
operating future gambling, should
also be made liable for such loss
es, recoverable by the nearest ref
atives, if the victim himself will
not institute legal proceedings.
When all who contribute to make
the operation of 'bucketshops"
possible, civilIy and criminalIy,
with the operators, as in morals
they are. the evil will he elfectual
or suppressed.
The brand Of crime has been
placed upon liquor selling by the
moral sense of all the counties in
the state, except a few on the gulf
coast and the Mississippi river
front. There, the saloons and
their friends, ask now to be let
alone. This is a self-refuted ap.
peal. They do not let those local
tiles alone which Fave outlawed the
Eliquor traffic, but on the contrary,
send to these both liquor and
liquor soaked victims, breeding
crimes which would not otherwise
occur. Besides, in all state cleo
tions and in Legislative gatherings,
the foreign and the home liquor
dealers are found actively at
work, seeking to control results
in their own interests, organizing
forces seeking evil ends, and pro-
\ viding liquor and sinews of war.
In state, county and municipal
lelections, the saloons know their
men and concentrate their vote on
Those candidates who would give
them most help, or least hurt
BY thorough organization, con,
ltinued watchfuIness, absence oi
lall scruples, and readiness for
eyery emergency, the Liquor forces
cannot be prevented, as long as
the business is legaIized, from
frequently holding, and exercis-
ing, the balance Of political pow
er. Thuse who become its beneIi,
lriaries. repardIess of nIatfnrms