The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-11-27
GOV. NOEL WILL so RECOMMEND
IN HIS BIENNIAL MESSAGE
LEGISLATURE.
VIOLATIONS OF LAW FLAGRANT
More Drastic Punishment 1t Is
Thought May Result in WhoIeome
Respect For Prohibition Laws and
Reduce Liquor Traffic.
Special to The Netos.

Jackson Miss, Nov. 27.-To change
the penalty for Illicit retailing of liq-
uor from misdemeanor to a felony
will be one of the recommendations
submitted in Governor Noels biennial
message to the legislature.
Several of the church organizations
in the state. and the Women's Chris
tian Temperance Union, have urged
the Governor to submit the proposed
change, and at the recent Baptist
state convention in Gulfport he gave
his personal pledge to do so.
This viii doubtless be the most in
teresting piece of liquor legislation
submitted at the approaching session.
The prohibition forces have not yet
made up their minds whether to ask
for the submission of an amendment
to the constitution making prohibition
a part Of the organic law, and it is
very doubtful whether they will
do so. On the other hand there is
very little likelihood that a fight will
be made by the liquor interests to
secure the repeal of the statutory pro-
| hibition law, since the assurance has
been given that Governor-elect Brew
er would veto such a measure, II pre-
sented for his signature.
| If the recommendation to make liq-
uor selling a felony is adopted by the
legislature, Mississippi will be the
first state in the Union to adopt a
statute Of that character.
That the prohibition laws in Mis-
sissippi are not being enforced with
even a moderate degree of effective
ness is an assertion not open to dis.
pute. There are exceedingly few towns
in the state where the blind tiger
does not flourish, and in some OF the
| larger communities, notably Natchez,
| Vicksburg, and some of the towns on
the coast, theer has been little or NO
pretense at enforcing the statutes.
NatcheE is now in the midst Of a spo-
radio effort to close up the blind tig-
ers, but grave doubts are expressed as
to whether juries can be secured that
will convict the fifty or more alleged
Illicit retailers who were indicted by
the grand jury last week. Natchez
presents a case of where a majority
Of the people seem to want liquor, and
public sentiment is therefore the law,
regardless of what is written in the
statute books, and the machinery of
the courts is almost powerless.
| The present maximum punishment
for Illicit retailing is a fine of $500 and
three months in jail If the punish
ment should be changed to a felony,
with sentence OF from six months to
five years nthe penitentiary, it would
remain to be seen whether the dras-
tic nature Of the law, which many of
course would regard as all out of pro-
portion to the offense, would act as a
deterrent, and cause the venturesome
blind tigers keepers to quit business.
Two years ago the legislature en-
acted statute making the penalty for
selling cocaine a felony, instead of a
misdemeanor. In some counties a
number Of convictions resulted. but
according to the officers, there has
been no perceptible decrease in the
cocaine habit among negroes, and
they are apparently able to purchase
the deadly drug whenever they desire
it.