Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-10-17

90 It was noticeable in both Texas
and Maine that the anti-prohibition ma
jorities We're confined to certain of the
cities in those states. The bad elements
in these urban communities united with
few mistaken good people to inflict on
the country people theS consequences of
saloons in the cities. That will be tried
in Georgia. Appeals in the name of To
cal ,self-government' will be made invbe
half of allowing cities to have saloons
If they want bar-rooms. But every body
knows that local self government is de-
stroyed in the rural districts by the
saloons of the cities. Liquors are sold
in town which result in drunkenness in
the country where there is no police
force to protect helpless women and
children. -at
With respect to liquor selling the case
of Maine is vastly different from that
of Georgia. There is no race issue in
Maine; but in Georgia every man who
votes for saloons in the cities favours
taking the risk of having a CT .ain num-
Der of rapes, murders, and -lynchings in
the state. The good men in our cities
should unite with our farmers in the
country to maintain our statewide pro-
hibition law in both town and country
AND TO SEE THAT IT IS ENFORCED.
1t is an outrage to allow the liquor inter-
est to make profits by dumping disorder
and disQuiet into our rural districts
through saloons run in the few cities we
have. The homes and families OF our
country people are entitled to protec-
ton from such injury.
"a The plea was made In both Texas
and Maine that prohibition could not be
enforced in the cities, and therefore.
should be repealed Such a plea in Its
last analysis means that we allow law
lass m Ia w n nn6nr the
there has grown up an in
terest that thus assumes to defy law,
and then urge its lawlessness as
ground for repeating the law it has de-
fed, it is evident that such an interest
has become too anarchistic to be allow
ed to live longer. 1t must be put down
by law, or it will put down all law.
Doubtless there are "blind-tigers" in
the cities; but the revenue laws of the
United States are broken by some
'moon-shiners'' without any enc ,propos-
ing to repeal those federal statutes. Why
should the prohibition laws of our own
beloved State of Georgia be less sacred
than the revenue laws of the federal
government? If they are enforced as
vigorously as are the revenue laws of
the federal government, they will be
broken as infrequently. What we need
is not the repeal of these laws, but their
more stringent enforcement. Perhaps If
the saloon forces of our cities continue to
defy our prohibition laws, it will be
necessary to put in the hands of the
governor of the state the power to re-
move sheriffs and other officers of the
law who will not do their duty, and put
in their places men who viii enforce the
law without fear or favour of local in
fluences. At any rate a way can be found
to enforce prohibition in the few small
cities we have. We have not many cities,
thanks to a good Providence; and not
one of them is big enough to defy the
laws of the State of Georgia.
However, it should be said that prohi-
bition has been better enforced in our
cities than some wish US to believe.
From Washington, dispatches have been
Sent to certain newspapers telling of
the vast amount of liquor sold in the
prohibition states of the south. These
dispatches have failed to state that the
one city of Chicago consumes more I'M
toxicating liquors in year than do all
the prohibition states in the South 1t
should also be remembered that much
of the liquors consumed In these prohi-
bition states is shipped into them for
the use of individual consumers from
distillers and brewers doing business in
wet states. 1fyliquors can be had so
easily in the, cities of Georgia. why do
the liquor houses of Jacksonville, Gin
einnati Louisville. Peoria, st. Louis, and
other wet cities carry such costly adj
vertisements in the daily papers of At
lanta, Augusta, Macon, and Savannah?
Why do they get the names of all the
men and boys printed in the directories
of those cities and send them circular
letters urging them to order brandies and
WHISTLES and beers from them by mail?
If local dealers were selling as the open
saloons did in former days, none Of
this expensive advertising for retail
trade by mail would be done by the
liquor dealers of cities outside of Geor-
gia
Let none Of these specious pleas of the
liquor interests deceive any of our people.
The price of our prohibition law is eter-
nal vigilance, and it is worth the price