Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1909-09-04
WEST VIRGINIA
DRY IN 4 YEAR
p p. Hutton Points Out the Rap
Progress That Has Been Made
BY Prohibition.
BY Prohibition.

That West Virginia will be dry
less than four year IS the claim
r. p Hutton, assistant superinten8
ent Of the West Virginia Anti-Saloo
League, who has just returned frohs
a trip through the eastern panhandl
of the state. Mr.. Hutton talked Ell
~terainingly of the leagues progress
IN the state when seer b. a reporte
The temperance movement ha8
gone so rapidly that it could not b
counted and it refuses to be hitch
ed for any purpose. not ever a cen
sus," said Mr.. Hutton.
For the past eighteen months
there has been an average net de-
crease Of one thousand saloons and.
ten breweries per month, until now
four-fifths OF our territory and forty
millions OF people are dry From.
Washington, d. G., to New Orleans
on the Southern railway, not a
license saloon is met with on the
main line. And the Southern Isl
prosperous. Ithas been the coveted
field for the commercial salesman,
during the present depression. Thel
value Of the new homes which At
lanta workmen are buying on INSTALL
ment plans has increased the tax rel
ceipts for above the lost licensed
money. This is the common story of
no license.
Last winter thirty-six leg slatures'
sat. Before all Of them temperance
measures were prominent. Not one
passed a measure favorable to liauorI
and some twenty passed temperance.
bills. More than three hundred tem-s
peranoe bills were considered.
local option is the key to sue
cess. Men who would net work to-
SAYS all out doors wouli clean their
W door yard and when every local.
ity is clean the nation is clean.
Local option, like charity, begins at
home.
West Virginia is in the van.
Forty counties are dry. Twelve are
dry save for one or two places and
only three, Ohio, Fayette and Nc
Dowell, are thoroughly wet. About
six hundred saloons a,e all that Is
left in this state.
Furthermore. West Virginia has
the most stringent code of liquor
laws in the Union. Under an hon.
est judge Illicit selling is little at
tempted. OF course, enc or two
judges are prone to suspend judy
ment or give minimum sentences.
but the peop'e are eiecting new
judges who announce that the old
ones exhausted the supply of mini
NUNS" This ends it and the aim of
the temperance forces is not venge-
ance, but reform of conditions.
when the league came TO this
state t%wenty-nine counties were wet
and laws were so loosely drawn that
illicit sellers ran through them into
the so-called dry counties ike rats
through a corn crib.
THE league is bending it's ener-
gies to secure an effective county
unit law under which voters will de-
termine the county's policy on liquor
regardless of who are its officers.
Under this law all save three coun-
ties would go dry. For the first
time in the history nf the state an
effort to effectively organize every
district will be made. Back to the
people is the present watchword,
and when the smoke clears men will
know that it is politically safe to be
morally right for the slaughter of
our friends will not be permitted
when the people are awake and
alert. The enemies of the move will
learn too that the West Virginia
voter e a hotter slipper than
eVer his mother did. for our recent
h s.oty shows that we always get
thea IN the end and that's the wrong
end. less than four years West
ViRyipf0 VII no drvo