The Progressive West Virginian. [volume] (Williamson, W. Va.) 1911-1913, 1912-10-24
FINAL WORD
TO TIE VOTERS
Chairman of Federation in
a Final Appeal to w. Va.
Manhood
FOR DEFENSE OF HOMES
Eloquent Appeal to the Voters Of West
Virginia Concerning the Great struef
gle at the Polls In November.
[By Judge ]. 9. McWhorter. j

lby Judge j. Y. McWhorter1
We are now reaching the end of the
amendment campaign. The crisis mo
ment has come. The hour that shall
test the moral courage, the citizen
ship, and the manhood and woman
hood of West Virginians is here. This
is no time for the weakling or the
coward
MEN, MEN AND WOMEN, of West
Virginia, the state, in this hour of
need, is calling to you! Every child
who has felt the cuff of a drunken
father; every wife who has reeled I'M
der the blow Of drunken husband;
every man or boy who, in hopeless
agony, writhes in the deathgrip of the
saloon, is holding his hands out to
you, pleading in wordless, pitiable an
guish, for your help. Will you, can
you. withhold it? Will you, can you,
turn your back upon the pathetic, out
stretched hands of defenseless child
hood. give deaf ear to the pleadings
of d Wretched, despairing manhood,
and cold heart to the entreaties of
an anxious motherhood?
Fathers and husbands of West Vir-
ginia, are there spots out yonder in
Gods acre made sacred to you by the
memories of the dead darlings who
sleep there, whose eyes were as blue
rs the violets that bloom above their
pulseless clay, and whose clinging
love for you was as fixed and change
less as the planets to their orbits?
II there be such, then, in the name Of
the undying love you bear to those
dead darlings Of yours, in the name
Of every sacred memory that clusters
round those hallowed spots, declare by
your votes upon this mighty question
that the children Of other fathers shall
receive at your hands the same protec-
ton you would SO gladly have accord
ed to your own.
And you, more fortunate husbands
and fathers Of West Virginia, you who
still feel slipping into yours the hand
of confiding love, and stealing round
your necks the soft tender arms of
helpless dependence, those dear ones
who Merciful Providence has still left
to bless and sweeten your lives, de-
sert them not in this hour of their de-
pendent need; give to them the best
environment within your power. Help
to remove from otheir pathways the
saloon death-trap gaping to receive
them.
And you, young men of West Vir-
ginia, you, strong young masters of
your state and her destiny! The bur-
den must lie close to your heart. She
who went down to the brink of the
grave to give you life, and she who
has or will some day, plight her faith
and surrender her very life and soul
to your keeping, to become the mother
Of the children God may give to you,
their hope and their happiness hang
trembling upon the toss of your bal
lot on this question, and the destiny
OF your children yet to be is in your
hands.
Let us make no mistake. Never
again, perhaps, in our life times will
we have another opportunity to vote
on this question. For twenty-four
years has the organized liquor traffic
in this state beaten back the rising
tide OF civic decency that has de-
creed the death of the saloon. During
that time no fewer than $4,000 lives in
our beloved state have been offered
up on the dripping affairs Of this Mo-
loch. Is this not enough? Is this not
enough ghastly evidence of the utter
futility Of all license measures? What
more do we want? Shall we temper
ize longer? Shall we compromise fur
Their with thing innately wrong and
Immoral? What will be the answer
OF the Christian citizenship of West
Virginia to these questions?
Men of West Virginia! Kingly men
Of our little mountain state! The eyes
Of the nation are upon YOU The
civilization Of the twentieth century
has laid its burden upon your heart
and conscience, and trembling awaits
your verdict What will it be?
Are you indecisiye? Are you in
doubt and uncertainty as to what your
vote should be? Then go down into
some home where the drunkenness OF
a husband has swept from the cheeks
OF young wifehood the bloom of youth,
and placed there in its stead the sick
~, pallor Of blighted. love and sunless
misery, and ask her how you shall
vote-for or against the saloon?
II still You move in doubt, 60 to the
mother whose sons salooninduced dis
sipatfon has wrung her heart with an
anguish which only a mothers heart
can feel, and from the red agony Of
her ceaseless Gethsemine take your
instruction. !
IL still your duty is not clear, 60 to
the poor child whose father has been
guttered by the pitiless saloon, and
then, from out of the depths of its
hallow pleading eyes, set in face
pale and pinched and haggard with
the dumb agony of its starved and
frightened life, read your duty, and
know Of the very truth, that little
child shall lead you.
II still you hesitate, then go to our
state penitentiary, bid it's iron Jaws
open until you can look through its
A millionaire isn't as afraid OF ]