The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-06-09
IRE PROFESSIONAL AGTTATORS ARE AGITATING'
Those Who Secured Pledge From Governor Brown
Are Now Planning to Crcumvent It.
Albany Herald.

,,, the Albany I1eIdIu'
,I+bough we now have one of the
- drastic prohibition laws in
D rY1. that was ever enacted by the
,risIature of any state, there are
w. w. who are. not satisfied and will
+;,ra TO agitate Insofar as stat
,.nr law can avail Georgia is now
'.ar,,, state and the liquor traffic
on+lawed. Nothing that the legis-
,.4nra could now do that would be
.+i4u+ional would strengthen the
cont law or make it more effective.
r,o law is as drastic and sweeping
:. oood lawyers and earnest prohibi-
.,onie+s could make it, and If pro-
sinitfon is not complete in Georgia
.odov If is not on account of any de-
foct in the prohibition law, but is
Ana solely to individual evasions and
tho failure of comm unities to enforce
.bo law. Wherever there is a good
moral sentiment in favor of prohibit
zion and the officers of the law do
tbeir duty prohibition is as complete
in Georgia today as legislative en-
actment can make it.
Rnt there are some chronic agi-
tators in the state who have thriven
or nrohibition agitation for years
VIM are not willing to subside. 1t
.oomad reasonable to suppose that
nban the legislature passed the pro-
bibirion law and outlawed the sa-
Icons and all manner of traffic in in
toxicating liquors the anti-saloon
evangelists and other peripatetic ag
itatoIs would at the same time be
Iegislated out of their jobs. Not so,
however. We see from the report
of the proceedings of the Baptist
Ministers Association at it's Mon
davis meeting that DR.. J. G. Solo
mon. superintendent of the Anti-Sa-
loon League, declared that the pro-
hibition fight in Georgia has not been
settled. He further stated, accord
ing to a published report, that it
was up to the prohibitiOnists to get
rid Of the beer evil by some kind of
amendatory legislation, and vouch-
safed the assertion that a bill is be-
ing prepared with that in view, and
will be introduced at the coming
session.
According to the same report At
lanta correspondence of the Macon
telegraph DR.. Len G.. Broughton
ventured a word of caution as to any
movement to amend the present pro-
10 10 70
the fact of Governor-elect Joseph M
Brown being under pledge to veto
any amendment affecting the law.
He suggested that if any effort is
made to get rid of the near beer evil
it be put in the tax bill, which the
governor will have to sign.
1t was these same agitatOrs who,
suspecting that Joseph NJ. Brown,
candidate for governor, was in league
or sympathy with the liquor element,
prodded him with searching and i'm
pertinent questions and finally forced
him to publicly declare that if elect
ed he would not only stand for the
enforcement of the prohibition law,
but that he would veto any bill
which amended the law. This salts
fed the most ardent prohibitionists
at the time, and shows how adequate
and effective they considered the pro-
hibition law which the legislature
had given them.
But now we find the same old agi-
tators getting ready for another cam
paign, and no less a parsonage than
DR.. Broughton advancing a sugges-
ton whereby the pledge demanded
from the gOvernor-elect may be cir
cumvented by a trick that would do
credit to a measly politician-tacka
rider prohibiting the sale of near
beer onto the general tax act, bill
that the governor will have to sign,
and thus force him to break a pledge
which they themselves eXacted of
him when he was a candidate before
the people. 81 If GovernOr-elect Brown
is the man we take him to be we do
not believe he will suffer himself to
be trapped by any such tactics.
We submit in all fairness that this
looks rather bad for men who pose
as saints.
The prohibition law as it now
stands is as drastic and complete as
1t can be made, in the opinion of
some of the ablest lawyers of the
state, and as it has stood the test
Of the courts the people should not
be subjected to another prohibition
campaign by fanatics and profession
al agitators.