The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-04-15
To the Temperance People Of the

1
ence of superintendent and field
workers OF the Anti-Saiooa League
OF the Southern States. assembled at
Atlanta. Ga, April / to 4, 1910, and
were ordered by the conference to be
printed and given general circula-
ton throughout the Southern States:
The development or public senti-
ment In our beloved Southland has
Reached the stage at which the saloon
Is recognized as-R-curse- to-the- In
dividual. and as a menace to society.
This sentiment has been crystalized
! into law, and In 80 per cent. of our
Southern territory the liquor traffic
has been branded as a criminal. OF
the LAYS counties in the sixteen South
| ern States. 1.116 have no legaiized
saloons and there are not as many
saloons in the entire territory south
| or Mason and Dixon's line as there
are In the single city OF Chicago.
Having, wrought this tremendous
revolution and having convicted the
| saloon as a criminal at the bar OF
pubic opinion, and having embodied
that conviction into law, many OF our
people have been inclined to think
that the victory Is won and have set
| tied down in fancled SECURITY But
to rest now will be fatal to our cause
The war Is not over. the battle liz still
raging and the liquor traffic, while
sorely wounded, Is not dead. The
great liquor trusts have tremendous
resources. They do not propose to
| surrender the n trade of the great
South, and from their strongholds in
the great cities they are directing the
! fight In a desperate effort to regain
what they have lost
The South is face to face to-day
raj m ma ~ nF la "a
/ lessness on the part OF the liquor
traffic. This monster Is neither
ashamed nor afraid to declare that
1t VIII not obey the law, but that it
VIII continue to do business In spite
OF the law 1t stops at nothing. II
buys policemen and councilmen and
judges on the bench. 1t offers brides
of various kinds to State officials
from governors down to constables.
1t buys outright, OF IL subsidies by
large advertisements many prominent
newspapers through whose editorial
and news columns II carries on its
warfare. 1t employs brilliant writer's,
who prepare Imaginary interviews and
fake" news Items and editorial COM
ments TO discredit the working OF
prohibitory laws. 1t attacks the
methods and the motives OF temper
ance workers. and originates and
through a subsidized press circulates
ISLANDERS concerning them In an effort
to destroy their influence with the
people. 1t is thoroughly desperate
and unprincipled. and neither char
acter nor life itself Is sacred In its
eyes.
In carrying on Its campaign OF null
lifcation, We regret to be obliged to
State that the most potent ally of the
liquor traffic Is the United States law.
which allows the flooding OF dry ter
ritory with liquor from wet territory.
under the protection of the inter-
state commerce law. 1t Is matter
of prime Importance that each State
be made entirely independent in the
exercise of Its police power.
The paramount. the vital issue to-
day in every Southern State. is. shall
the will of the great majority OF the
people as expressed in the law be
obeyed, or shall the will OF the peo-
pie be nullified by the covetousness
and appetite of those who declare
that they WIN not obey the law? Shall
ali the work that has been done, all
the victories that have been won, be
brought to naught by timfd, half
hearted attitude toward insoient, de-
f1ant law breakers? II we were able
to drive out the saloon and II we were
right in driving 1t out. are not the
same people who drove 1t out able
to enforce the laws, and are they not
under the strongest obligation so to
do?
The liquor traffic is primarily a
moral, secondarily an economic, ques-
ton. 1t is a political question only
because II has been granted license
by the State. and legislation is there
fore necessary to abolish the license
rotA of,I rhnT rrNr-
hibited by the law OF the State viola
tons OF the law must be punished by
the officers of the State. II must not
be forgotten that the liquor traffic has
been banished not by the political
parties. but by the moral forces of
the country, under the leadership of the
Church of Jesus Christ, without any
regard to purely personal and political
affiliations. The same moral forces.
under the same leadership of the same
Church OF Jesus Christ, must lead the
fight against lawlessness and against
the return of the saloon. More than
ever is the question a moral rather
than "A political question. and 1t presses
upon the Church for settlement.
From every pulpit which sounded
forth the battle cry against the exist
ence of the legaiixed saloon there must
sound forth a cry against the shame-
less defiance of law. This Is pre-
eminentiy+ once more the battle OF the
Church, and the same Church which
triumphed In it's fight to brand the
saloon as a criminal can triumph in
it's fight to compel the branded crimi-
nal to respect the law. II the Chris
tan pulpit win unite In earnest APP
peal to the Christian citizenship OF
the South to stand for the enforcement
Of our righteous laws the victory will
most assuredly be ours.
Resolutions.
We present the following resolutions
for adoption:
Resolved, /. That the legalized aver
age liquor traffic Is a community, State
and national sin. and we pledge our
selves anew to fight for its complete
extinction In county. town, State and
nation.
Resolved, 2. That law enforcement -
equally as important az law enactment,
and we urge our people to elect only
those men to public Office who will
strictly enforce the law.
Resolved, 8. That we rejoice in the
great work that has been done by the /
Church Of Christ in the destruction
OF the legalized traffic In our South
ern country. This work of the Church
has been phenomenal In its success
and has placed the South In the leader
ship Of the nation on this great meEal
question. We look with full and un-