Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1909-05-20
Temperance Topics.

The Hagerstown Mail is spitefully un-
easy for fear that the appalling growth OF
drinking and consequent vice and crime
will cause the people of Washington
county to vote the saloon out of existence
in that section. and it naliciously abuses
the Register and other papers that are
giving their efforts to temperance reform.
The Mail is independent in many things,
but the whiskey interests seem to have it
by the throat at present. It's own news
columns day by day show how depraved
the town is becoming because OF its Sa-
looms, and its editorials lose weight when
put alongside of current news. Mondays
paper shows depravity that can hardly
be equaled in the United States. One
item tells of a man and woman, the wife
of another and the mother of three little
children, lying along the railroad in the
city limits Saturday night and Sunday I'M
til they were arrested for indecent con-
duct and sent to prison. The wretched
woman acknowledged that she was in the
habit of frequently meeting men in sa-
loon and taking them to her home, while
several young women testified that they
made practice of meeting men in the
same place. The testimony was so indie
cent and the facts showed such depravity
that the hearing had to be held behind
closed doors. The same day number
of abandoned women were hauled before
a magistrate and fined for running disor-
derly places where whiSkey and beer
were freely sold and where vice prevails.
There's no doubt that Hagerstown needs
a cleaning out, and the way TO do it is to
first get rid of the saloons. It's a pity
that none of the newspapers there has the
nerve to 60 into this campaign.
The city of Charleston, the State CAPT.
tai of West Virginia, is in state of mind
over the liquor question. Tuesday oflaSt
week when the recently elected council
met, motion to refuse to license all sa-
looms in that city was carried by vote OF
% to II. This was regarded by the Ii
quor people as quite a joke, but in order
to take no chances they managed to Sc
cure a recess until Thursday night, when,
oh, horrors the council by vote OF 80
to TO- ordered that at the expiration ofthe
present license year no more saloons
shall exist in Charleston. This was an
awful shock, and the advocates OF the sa-
looms do not yet know where they "are
at" We can hardly believe that Charles
ton is going "dry" the first of July. We
are not yet prepared for the millennium,
The action ofthe city council OF Charles
ton in refusing to license the retail sale OF
liquor shows how any city in the State
can vote itself dry if it chooses to do so
under the present laws and without both
ering the Legislature for the enactment OF
new laws.-MartinSbug World.
This is the sort OF argument that Sena-
tor Silver and Senator Mclntire use, and
the very fact that they advocate such an
uncertain method is proof that it is so
satisfactory to the whiSkey interests as to
be suspicious. In reality it is impractical
bic, for in electing councilmen personal
matters have so large part that it is i'm
possible to get a fair expression. What
can be as effective and satisfactory as to
put plainly before the voters the direct
question of license or no license? We
have no doubt that Senator Silver and
Senator McIntire and the other tools OF
the whiskey and beer interests would like
to have the temperance people TO quit
bothering" the Legslature-but they're
not going to quit