The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-10-18

dustry In that section have suffered, OF
are likely to suffer from the competition
of convict labor and to the end that this
conoition may be remedied
The Four-Mile Law and Law Enforce
| ment.
| have discussed many questions that
pertain to the material welfare al the
state, and nearly all Of them involve
| some moral phase or consideration. You
have heard me as to many matters rel.
alive to the orderly and business-like con
duct OF your public affairs. / now de-
sire to call your thoughtful attention fo
little while to two related questions
that overshadow in Importance all other
matters of controversy before the people
or Tennessee.
A condition prevails in certain Sec
tions of this state that would have been
thought possible ten years ago. A situa-
tion exists that challenges the suprem-
acy of the law and threatens the SOW
ereignty of the state.
Do not think for moment that
refer TO the occasional violation OF the
four-miie law by the elusive bootlegger
in the towns and villages. That IS a
small matter. | speak OF the organized.
systematic, defiant notification of the
four-mile law in the four cities Of this
state. At no time within the history
of Tennessee have our free institutions
been so alarmingly imperiled or our re.
publican form OF government so leopard
lied.
In 1877 our state enacted what has
always been known as the four-mile law.
This law forbade the sale of intoyicat-
ing liquor within four of a schoolhouse,
except in incorporated towns. The law
was statewide and state-long in its ap'
plication to country territory. 1t con-
tanned no local option feature, and was
submitted to no referendum. it was
enacted by the legislature and signed
by the Governor, and became sacred
law of Tennessee, under the sanction of
our constitution. 1t interfered with the
fetish of personal liberty occasionally,
and was no respecter of the idol of self
government; and yet, Benton McMillin's
platform says that this was the best
and wisest temperance policy ever in
augurated in any state tor the prohibl-
ton of the sale of liquor" To this
say amen and amen.
Not Enforced.
This law was not perfectly enforced
anywhere. There We're sporadic viola
tons of it, just as there were oS the
statutes forbidding gambling, larceny,
etc, but this was to be expected, and did
not often assume alarming proportions.
The fact that the law was violated now
and then did not prevent its being the
"best and wisest ever inaugurated." 1t
banished the frowning grogshop from the
presence of the schoolhouse, and pro.
tected the little children who gathered
there.
After while many of the Incorporated
towns of the state became convinced
that their schoolhouses were as sacred,
and their children as dear to them and
as valuable to the state as were those
outside of the municipalities. There WIS
a great flood of bills in every legisla-
ture to repeal municipal charters in 3r-
der that small towns might be rid Of
the saloon. Finally there grew mp a
sentiment in favor of extending Inc four
mile law to incorporated towns rather
than compelling them to surrender their
charters to exclude the saloon. / was
one of the first men who ever introduced
a bill of this character, away pack in
1898. 1t did not pass, but in subse-
quent legislatures the four-mile law was
extended to Incorporated towns, step by
step, until, at last, every town and city
in the state was covered except Nash
vile, Memphis, Chattanooga and La
Toilette.
Then, in the legislature of 1909, after
Carmack had been shot to death as the
result of his courageous fight upon the
saloons and their political allies, a law
was enacted extending the four-mile law
to the four large cities ! have just men,
toned. Thus the state finally reached
the position that every rule of sound
morals, good government and civic de-
cency that protected the .schoolhouse, the
children and the citizen in the country
from the saloon should also obtain in
favor of the town and the city.
So it will be seen that the growth of
our four-mile law has been gradual, but
no backward step has ever yet been
taken, and | stand for the people in this
state who declare that none ever shall be-
Political Hypocrisy.
No greater political hypocrisy was
ever practiced than that exemplifed by
the whiskey plank in the Patterson-Mc-
Milhn platform. 1t is filled with insin-
certify and inconsistency from one end
to the other. Its declaration of friend
ship to the four-mile law is the friend
ship of the wolf for the lamb. The in
fluences which dominated that conven-
ton have fought the four-mile law at
every step of it's victorious progress.
They would today wipe it off the stat
ute books, rooth and branch, if it were
in their power.
Their very declaration in favor of it
is equivocal. They endorse its extern
sion to AL towns and cities which have
asked its application to them" If they
mean asked by vote, then their endorse
ment is very limited, for but few towns
ever voted on it. And this is exactly
what they mean, for in the next para
graph they say ats spirit was violated
when it was extended to Nashville, Chat
tanooga and Memphis without their con-
sent"
This platform, therefore, really means
that they now favor the restoration of
the saloon to every town that did not