The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-08-11

caused either by State, county or cily
action, Charleston, w. Va, Lincoln,
Neb, Concord, n. H., and Montpelier,
VT, voted liquor out iby a sort Of To-
cal option or council action. The
other Hdry" capitals are in the States
having Statewide prohibition, to wit,
Augusta, ME; Topeka, Kan; Bis
marck, n, d.; Atlanta, Ga; Jackson,
Miss. Nashville, Tenn; Raleigh, No.
Montgomery. Ala; and Oklahoma
City, Okla.
One of the singular features of the
advance of prohibition in Mississippi
is the fact that it has not been brought
about through moral ..or religious agi
tation. The Temperance agitators,
the W. c.. II. U. forces, and the prohi-
bition party proper had but little to DO
with the steady spread Of local option
for q period of fifteen years, or the en-
actment of the statutory prohibition
law last year. According to the CEN
Sis of 1900 there we're in Mississippi
64l, POO white persons and 9O7, $50 ne
grnes. The business men and COM
mercical interests i'm the Mississippi
cities compelled to employ negro la
Dor can Justly claim credit and respon-
sibility for existing conditions in the
State.
When the business interests(not all,
of course) in the cities began this fight
the planters of the State began 10
realize that the open sale of liquor was
d~emoralizing the negro and impalrlng
his efficiency as a laborer. Inc
strength of this latter force in favor
of prohibition can be realized when 1t
is explained that Mississippi is pre-
eminently an agricultural State, prac-
tically ninety per cent. of the popu-
lation being engaged in agricultural
pursuits, and the pegroes who are"the
hewers of wood and drawers of water"
form sixty percent. of. the entire pop
ulatfon. Recognition of the fact that
the use of liquor..was causing a steady
increase of crime among negroes also
had a strong effect in bringing about
restrictive legislation.
The real leaders of the prohibition
movement men like the late Bishop
Charles B. Galloway, of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South, and DIR. w.
r.. Lowrey, of the Baptist Church,
prohibitionists through principle and
not aligned with any party %organiza-
tion-in the great campaign for a local
option law, crntended that a persistent
campaign of education would inevita.
big lessen consumption of whiskey'and
beer; and prohibition laws, even
though imperfectly enforced, would
prove the most effectual means OF re-
straint to the traffic.
During the fifteen years period that
the prohibition cause has been advanc-
ing in Mississippi Through local OPP
tio), it has been frequently handicap
ped by the excessive zeal of some of its
advocates. For many years Bishop
Galloway s~teadfastly opposed q State
wide prohibition law as a substitute
for local option, believing that the time
was not ripe for such a reform. He con
tended that as the people awakened to
q realization of what they wanted
if it were prohibition county after
county would swing into the "dry"
column. His judgment proved correct
for when, last year, the State wide law
was enacted, there were only six wet
counties out of the entire seventy eight
Even in the final prohibition fight,
Bishop Galloway and his followers
were advocates ofconservatism. When
the State wide prohibition bill was pre-
scented at the 1908 session Of the Legis-
lature, some of its advocates wished to
make it effective Immediately. The
conservative element, led by the
good bishop, believed that the saloon
keepers Tin the six counties) should
be permitted until December Slst, 1908,
to close out their business. When
the conservatives won this point the
the State wide prohibition law was
pessed without a dissenting vote, and
it is said the saloon men promised not
to institute litigation to test the laws
constitutionality.
, The bill or bills passed by the Miss
issippi Legislature lit required five, or
amendments, to do the work correctly
February 10Th to March 5th, 1908, are
the prohibition laws passed in the
South by the several States; not n
can touch Mississlppi's acts as to
strictness. After reading the five acts
or amendments, n is tempted to be-
lieve that it is impossible to get any
liquor in the State. Only a minister
can buy sacramental wine. G. o. D.
shipments are prevented by an act
that does not permit the agent of a
railroad or express company to allow
the removal ofC. o. D. whiskey and
beer more than one hundred feet from,
the office or depot. The same act,
section 1,79S, states that proof of the
possession by any person in MISSISSIPPI
pi of one-half gallon or more of G. O,D
liquor or beer shall be prima-facie evil
dence of violation of the law! The
possession of a United States revenue
license is presumptive evidence of a
guilt. 1t is unlawful to give a friend
q drink at a public entertainment, any
place of amusement, or social enter
tainment, and so on, ad infinitum.
Violations of the prohibition laws Of
Mississippi are known as misdemea-
nors.
For two days after the writer arrived
in Jackson, Miss, he couldn't find
anybody but a prohibitionist. "Great
law, doing great good. No liquor or
beer sold in this town, and won't be,
I can tell you sirw! The hotel at which
he stopped, adjacent to the railway
station, gave many opportunities to
watch the train of express wagons
hauling unmarked" cases of some
thing all day long therefrom; a lot of
barrels also. Hon. Arthur G.. Crowd
or, the capable mayor of Jackson IA
friend of % years standing to the wri-
teri, who is doing his duty as he sees
it-which is to close up n blind IT,
ger wherever found-when he had the
bald question put to him as follows,
'Now look here! I'll admit, as you do,
that a visitor can .bribe a bellboy in
this hotel to go out to secure liquor or