The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-11-29

/ - at all anu II 50 upOu NudI ISI LIS
upon what conditions and unde
what circumstances. Under the op
Grafton of that law the traffic il
liquor had been forbidden in man.
counties of the state, and while there
were occasional sporadic cases of {
violation of the law the instances
were comparatively few, and the Law
itself meeting with almost universe
public approval was uniformly en-.
| forced.
So far as disclosed by any ante
/ cedent discussion there was no wide
! spread dissatisfaction with this
method of dealing with this subject
But when the general assembly met
it, without any mandate from the
people, and against the advice of
Governor Smith, who had been chos-
en- at the same election, passed a law
so far-Teaching, drastic and, | might
say, revolutionary in it's character
as to produce widespread consterna-
ton in the public mind and to cause
every citizen in every county in the
state to inquire whether the right of
local option in respect of this or any
other matter was thereafter to be
of all kinds and in any quantity, in
Guiding domestic wines, was prohib-
tied under severe penalties. The sale
of the same in any quantities or IN
der any circumstances was under
like penalties prohibited.
Although within recent years large
investments had been made in the
cultivation of grapes and the prOduc-
ton of wines, and although the peo-
pie Of the state had been urged to
engage in the manufacture of good,
wholesome domestic wines as the
surest way of promoting the cause
Of temperance the general assembly
for the first time in the history of the
state, by penal statue, Outlawed this
industry, and made a criminal out
of the man who went into his own
vineyard and gathered his own
grapes and made wine for his own
1t was made criminal !
for physician to prescribe any kind |
Of wine or liquor Except pure alcO- |
hoD for his patient, and made it |
for a druggist TO fill any
such prescription. 1t slapped in the |
face every respectable physician in |
the state, and placed the members of |
hat learned profession in the same |
category with the common bootleg |
ger. Meanwhile the California wine |
grower and the Kentucky distiller |
and the wholesale dealers in Tennes- !
see, Alabama and Florida were left |
20 flood the state with liquors of all |
finds by interstate shipments, which !
are beyond the reach of our laws.
With a network OF railroads reach |
ng every part of the state with ex-
press companies willing and able to |
deliver it at the doors of our people, |
by the passage of this law the gen
eral assembly simply transferred the |
egal right to sell liquor from our |
own state to the people who reside |
beyond the limits of the state, and |
5hamelessly abdicated it's power to so |
regulate the traffic as to produce the |
least harm to the citizen and the +
greatest good to the state. In so far |
as the illegal sale of liquor is con- !
,erned that business has been vastly !
by the passage of the act. |
1t was legally possible under the To- |
al option law to prevent shipments !
u liquor from a wet county into a |
Try, but it is not legally possible to
prevent the shipment of liquor from !
wet state into dry county in this !
state.
The records Of the courts show |
vast increase In the number of per-
sons engaged in the illegal sale of |
liquor under the present prohibition |
aW. A most natural condition when !
we recall the fact that with a capital |
stock of only ten dollars in cash the !
negro may for a two
cents postage stamp obtain a stock |
Of liquor, the retail sale of which
will place him beyond the need of
work. Is it surprising, then, that
people of this type should yield I'M
der the temptation presented of large
profits quickly made and engage in
The blind tiger business, leaving the
crops of the farmers to rot in the
fields? The state by this law filings
away revenue amounting to ST.
100000 a year, and this goes to
swell the profits of the Wholesale
dealer without the state and the
blind tiger and boot-legger within
the state, and meantime to meet the
fixed charges of the state in the
of the public institu-
tons there appears an annual deficit
Of from $150,O00 to 100000. These
burdens must be borne by some one
by whom? Not by the rich, for
they pass along the taxes by increas-
ing rent, the interest on money, the
cost of living; but by the primary
producer Of wealth, the man who
has been the burden bearer through
the age, and will continue to be until
at the ballot box he demands Justice
at the hands of those whom he en-