The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-07-25
THE RULE OF REASON.

Rhamkatte. y. e, July y. 1911.
To the Editor: | ave been a-mak-
Ing moonshine Ticker more than TWEEN
~ years-ever since old man Wash
Duke driv a terbacker wager oNc this
int Ny daddy before me made
white lightning. OF curse these rev
enue officers would get after US now
and then. bat We would always fix
that up. The other day one Of the
peskX krltterS came up TO our still
enuewithout the making 81 any fuss at
all. We was 4 stillinS some OF the best
corn Ticker that ever Went down the
throat OF a prohibitionist. | offered
these fcllers some Ticker. but Instead
Of being s~nciable, they took me and
my boy Bill. off TO jail.
Well, | thought it would be all right
when We saw the BOYS At the Federal
Court-for | have always voted the
Republican tick ct. but they took us in
before the Judge, and the jury went
out and convicted me and Hill 10Th.
and the Judge sentenced Us to tw eve
months in the Atlanta pe~nijentiary.
| tell YOU | was down in the mouth
and felt that my liberties were taken
away from me.
One Of these Trust lawyers came
over to me and my boy BID and told
US that he could fix i. all up. He told
us that Judge White. VINO il at the
'N>]A " ~ - &'d4 @aAF'
ton, had just decided that folks who
violated the law should not be pun
ished any more. but they should Jest
change their way of Violating the law.
This lawyer aid that he would file
a motion and ask the judge to let me
and Bill have six months in which
TO still up all our Stops and move the
still further back from the road. He
said the court had said in the stand
ard Oil case and the American To-
baccO Company case that il was the
proper way to deal with those who
does things that the United States
says they mustn't do. The Old way OF
sending we fellers to prison is out OF
date, and we captains of the industry
and developers of the country are to
be treated with consideration here
after-that the rule of reason takes
the place of the penitentiary.
Me and bill and this trust lawyer
went to our cell. Ill on the fifth row.
and held a meeting. and we decided
that We Would tell the court that
while | SWCre we never had made no
Ticker nor done nothing that was
wrong. that if the court would give
US six months in which 10 learn how
to be good, that Ne would open our
still every Sunday morning with song
and prayer, and we would have our
Ticker so Sanctified that it would make
the IOlkS pray InSJfdO OK iS III, III
that we would put our still way back
from the road in the woods so that
folks going along TO meeting could
only hear the sound Of our soSgS AID
prayers and could not smell the Stops.
We fixed up some resolutions and had
the Trust lawyer draw them up and
put a seal on them like the big court
said we must do.
Our Trust lawyer Is going TO make
that motion before the Judge, but
somehow am a little Skeered that
the Judge won't be convinced by the
rule of reason am afraid that
he will send US on to the peHItentiary
in spite of this motion. Our TTust
Lawyer says he thinks he could II We
ont: thu he knows he could II Ne
had only been Incorporated. and ne
will do the best he can To work the
rule of reason but we amt got no
board of directors. and me and Bii
are skeered Just the same.
Yours truly.