The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-08-24
w. C. 7. u. NOTES.
Contributed by the Dawson Chapter.

The liquor men are terribly fright
ened just now, and are making
frantic and phenomenal efforts to
discredit prohibition. They are say
ing that prohibition has been tried
in many states, and that it has failed;
that the people have found that the
license system is better; that pTohi-
bition makes people liars and cow
ards, while license makes them hon
est and virtuous; that there are more
drunkenness, crimes, divorce and do
mestic misery in prohibition states
than in license states. This cam
paign of misrepresentation at the
present time is pursuing two chief
lines of t-misrepresenting the
history of prohibition, and then falsi
flying the operations of the law and
belittling its success.
Fifty years ago a jug of whiskey,
a key of beer and a loaf Of bread
enjoyed practically the same favor
everywhere. Nearly everybody sup
posed that alcohol was a food, a
stimulant and medicine, and very
many people regarded it as necessary
for some or all of these purposes.
But a great change has come about
The last half century has seen the
most wonderful advance in the
knowledge of the true nature of al
cohOl and of scientific temperance
which the world has ever witnessed;
and the temperance reform stands
today upon quite another footing
than it did then. What school board
would have authorized the teaching
of the effects Of alcohol upon the
human system half century ago?
And If a school board had decided
to introduce that kind of instruc-
ton into a school where could it
nave found either books upon that
subject or teachers prepared to teach
it? Truly, a wonderful change has
-transpired during these fifty years
touching the knowledge of alcohol.
The person who now advocates the
use of alcohol as a food, or as
medicine, is at once and very prop
erly set down as an ignoramus on
the subject The future of prohibit
ton certainly looks brighter in a
country where scientific Temperance
is taught In the public schools OF
every state than its past looked IN
a country where more than half of
the people had been taught to be-
lieve that alcohol was a food, a slim
ulant, medicine, where it was used
by ministers and church members,
and believed to be commended in
the Word of God.
For more than forty-seven years
the organized liquor traffic has been
a vicious and dominating factor in
American politics. 1t has influenced
political parties, nominated, elected
or defeated candidates for office die
tated party platforms; controlled leg
islatures and congress; influenced
police. mayors, governors, courts
and presidents; made poodles of poll
ticians given the lOckjaw to States
men" subsidized in some instances
the press, sand-bagged the editors,
silenced the pulpit or reduced it's
message to harmless platitudes, and
led the church into captivity to Gam
brinus and the devil. Truly, the
mightiest power that ever entered the
arena of American politics is the or
ganiZed, aggressive and dominant
American saloon and its allied inter
ests, This is the chief reason why
prohibition has ever been defeated.
But the spell is broken. The
charm and the harm of its power has
been exposed. Men and parties are
breaking from its power. The au-
tumn election of 1905 in Ohio and
Pennsylvania was the handwriting
on the wall. In both of those states
the temperance forces measured
strength with the united liquor pow
er, and for the first time in fifty
years were triumphant The spell
was broken. Politicians and states
men say for the first time that the
united conscience of this christian ma
ton is greater than the liquor traf-
fic. They saw that that traffic is
blatant braggart that cannot de
liver the goods" against a united and
aroused christian conscience And
they woke up to the criminal folly
of further alliance with the infamous
traffic. What has been the result?
Cities, towns, counties and states are