The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-10-18


"The local option law of 1885,
for which, as a member of me legis-
lature from Clark county, l voted
and worked for by the side of Hon.
Charles R. Pringle, then leader Of
the temperance forces in Georgia,
was designed to prevent the evils
of intemperance and so states in its
caption. The present so-called pro-
hibition law was conceived in stealth
and ushered into the world by
snap Judgment which silenced by
force the voice of any and every
humble citizen who dared to protest
against it.
Results of Prohibition.
"At the time the general prohibit
ton law was passed prohibition pre-
vailed in more than 120 counties,
and in many of these counties the
law was enforced because there was
public sentiment behind it. 1t
can readily be seen, therefore, that
the only possible reason for the pas
sage of the statewide prohibition
law was to affect those counties
which had not adopted prohibition
under local option; and if prohibi-
ton was what the 1870 counties need
| ed they already had it. What has
been the result in the remaining
counties? Instead of a limited num-
Der of legalized saloons from which
| the state derived a revenue there
has been a multiplication of various
devices by which intoxicating liquor
can be sold, and the general effect
of this disregard of the law in the
counties in which there is not suffi-
cient sentiment to support the prohi
bition law has been to teach disre-
gard and contempt of law in counties
in which prior to the passage of the
act of 1907 the prohibition law was
fairly well enforced.
Leave 1t to the Counties.
''It is not my purpose to aid in le-
CALLING the sale of liquor in any
county not desiring it nor to suggest
the right of legal sale in any county
unless majority of it's voters so de-
eide. Those counties which prior to
1907 voted prohibition for them
selves should have prohibition again
if they so elect. But conceding that
the law is effective in all of these
(more than 100 counties) what is
the result of the secret act of 1907?
AS l see it it is merely the transfer
of the liquor business necessary to
supply the uses of the people of this
state from the control of our own
laws to the control of the laws of 9TH
er states in which we have no voice
l propose to the people of Georgia
that they return to the democratic
principle of local option and the right
of the people to manage their own
affairs.
He said the present prohibition
law was not intended to prohibit the
sale of liquor but was political
measure, and in proof of his state
ment cited the locker club for the
rich and the near beer saloons for
the poor. These things, he said,
were tied on to it to make it an eff
fective political measure-an easy
slide, as the leaders thought, to the
| governOrship and seat in the SEN
ate.
Today" he continued, there are
more open saloons and places where
! drinks may be secured in Georgia
than there were under local option.
Blind tigers in various forms exist in
every county of the state, and in
some counties to a shameful degree.
Many of them are run by trifing ne
| dition of things to continue or
whether they want to exercise the
gro men, and the lowest of vile ne
gro wenches.
For the People to Decide.
The question for the people to de-
eide is whether they want this con-
right to say in the various counties
whether or not liquor shall be sold
at all, and if so under what regula-
tions and restrictions.
Il have always been a prohibition
list in my home county. Personally
do not favor the return of the open
saloons. If elected governor l shall
recommend to the legislature that
they enact a local option law giving
the people in each county the right
to vote upon that question as to
whether any kind of liquor shall be
sold in that county and how. I think