The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-10-06
THE WARFARE AGAINST DRINK
TEMPERANCE BATTLE GATHERS
STRENGTH EVERY DAY.
The Personal Liberty Fake.

States, for years has sustained pro.
hibition as a right of the people. II
has said. the people can go to the ex.
tent of "entire prohibition" 1t has
decided that 1.-The liquor traffic is not
and pernicious." According to the
rulings of the Supreme Court, prohi.
bition is not a violation Of either
civil rights or individual liberty. Is
the Supreme Court a "riff-raff of NOR
al idiots" are these decisions born
of intolerance, and are its members
Intermediates?
The personal liberty cry belongs
to a barbarian past, and not to this
age, when n cannot build himself
a frame house within fire limits of a
city, or set up a slaughter house
within city borders, or drive his own
horse faster than a walk across. a
bridge, or smoke a cigar in a railroad
a where ladies are, and where Ia
dies themselves cannot rel merry
widow hats in opera houses.
Bob Burdette said: 1.-The Declara-
ton of Independence was not written
In a beer garden on a Sunday after
noon, not by a jug full" The barrier
line of personal liberty lies between
the help and the hurt of another;
over this line we have no right to step
to the injury of our neighbor.
Mr.. Watterson bitterly denounces
as tyrannical, the sumptuary law that
denies to a citizen the right to order
his life, his home, his meat, his drink,
his clothing according to his convent
snce." Will not Mr.. Watterson apply
this test to the sumptuary law of the
saloon?
Every woman in our country who
flls the holy Office of wife OF mother,
has a right to a home. The sumptu-
airy law of the saloon says to hun.
dreds of thousands: You shall not
have a home, you shall live in a
howell, you shall not order your home,
o food, nor drink, nor clothing to
suit your convenience, but these
things shall be ordered to suit the
saloon. You shall toll all day in the
harness of oppression, and when
night comes you shall not v order
your restful sleep, but watch the stars
for the return Of drunken husbands
and sons" What about this inhu-
nan denial Of the right to order meat,
drink, clothing and home life?
Every child in this country has a
right to an education and a chance
in the world.
The liquor traffic says to a great
army of children, you shall have
neither; to the streets and sweat
shops you shall 60 to earn bread.
and by evil environment you shall be
handicapped drought your youth"
One of the most inhuman facts the
! sun has shone on since 1t hid its face
from that awful crime on Calvary's
summit, is seen in multitudes of wo-
men and children denied the right to
order their food, clothing, education
and home life, by the tryannical
sumptuary' law of the liquor traffic.
Are these to suffer on in silence that
men may order for their drink what,
to say the least, they do not need,
and what the Supreme Court says is
the source Of more misery and crime
than any other? When on election
days these women and children gath
er near the polls and out of the ashes
Of smitten home life, plead with men
to remove what denies them the right
to order their life comforts and joys,
are they to have no more respectful
reference in the Courier-Journal than
that their presence is IAN indecent
S~pectacle?"
Cardinal R%ichelieu, when his niece
was demanded by a licentious king,
said:
Around her torn I draw the awful circle
of our kingly church;
Step a foot within, and on thy head aye!
though it wear a crown,
IN lay the curse of Rome"
Shall the crown of gold on the dis
tillers' and brewers brow in Ken
lucky hush into silence the lion
hearted manhood of our State, when
the sons and daughters of Columbia
are demanded to feed the nav of the
liquor traf1c?-Colonel Geo. W. Balm.