The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-01-26
The Growing Issue.
BY Savoyard.

And we nave the liquor QueSlIOu Will u.s.
| 1t is manifest that it has fetched its knit
! ting along and intends to stay most all
| day." 1t is an issue made by the liquor tolk
| themselves Had the saloon not deliberately
| entered politics the liquor question would
| have no greater place in our politics than II
| has in the politics of England or Germany
| And then the scurVy politics the liquor peo-
pie practicedl In Cincinnati the saloon was
| a republican; in Louisville it was a demo-
| crat Right now in Tennessee the blind tiger
is the most shreking, the most snarling,
| the most ramcat of a democrat there is.
| We are admonished that the issue is sure
to play the dickens with the democratic par
| ty and only day or so ago read in stand
| pat paper an editorial that eXulted in the
! embarrassment that must come to the dem
ocratic party because of the obtrusiOn of
this question into national politics. We shall
see about that. Time will disclose.
THE Party of Great Moral Ideas" has
taken pains to promote a propaganda to this
effect and perhaps there is slight fOunda-
ton for it, That in Northern communities,
where lodge all the virtue and decency of
our country, the republican party always has
the majority in the prayer meeting and the
democratic party at the ringside of prize
fight. Horace Greeley said that all demo-
Gratis were not horse thieves but all horse
thieves were democrats. 1t might be an
swered that all republicans are not Peck
shifts, but that all Pecksniffs are republic
cans, and truth it is that your ruftian is not
as dangerous to society as your pharisee.
And so the democratic party has always
been called the party of the saloon and the
republican party the party of the church.
OF course there was great deal of lying in
that assumption, but in a wicked world like
this we live in heap of dirty work must be
done and a lie has it's political uses Indeed,
in our party politics it is absolutely indis-
pensable in certain heightened and moral re-
publican circles to promote lie.
It is certain that the liquor folk have been
powerful in politics. They have contributed
hugely to campaign funds to debauch the
electorate. There is no doubt about that. The
American people have a conscience and a
sense of decency and they are resolved to
put stop to that sort of thing. The saloon
went into politics and the time is come when
politics is grimly resolved to put the saloon
out of business. That is all there is to it.
What is the office of the saloon in our
country? To put want in the household,
hunger in the cupboard, sorrow in the hearts
of wives, tears in the eyes of children, pow
erty in the homes of labor. That is what it
is said, and as sure as eggs is eggs the
American people are resolved to seize the
monster with the grip of an Olympian demi-
god, smite it, destroy it.
Now am not a prOhibitionist. In Barron
Jefferson county, Kentucky, / would vote
wet" for sometimes I drink, and properly
regulated, | would tolerate the business in
communities where there is adequate police
protection. But the saloon is fool. 1t has
outraged all decency. Your saloon keeper
is intolerant of opposition to his calling. He
will allow you to have no opinion adverse
to him. He has debauched the ballot box.
He has inundated the voter, and done it
all in the name of personal libertV'' He
will insult you, though you be his customer,
if you dare to have an independent opinion
adverse to his business Of purveying wretch
edness to the home that should be con-
tented
For years I believed that prohibition did
not prohibit; but Kansas has shown that
prohibition does prohibit in all communities
where the officers of the law obey their oaths
and enforce the laws. Kansas boasts empty
jails and tenantless almshouses. Kansas
gives credit to prohibition for that. If Kan
sas can do that any and all the states can
do it,
Politically | am a democrat, and mighty
shy OF the prohibition party but the saloon
has made that party a mighty force in our
politics. Millions of eyes are now turned
on Russia that has stopped the manufacture
and sale of alcohol There prohibition pro-
hibits, for it is a government of force, and
not Of consent. If prohibition shall prove
what is claimed for it in Russia then look
for a mighty, an irresistible wave in it's be-
half to sweep our country.
However, if l were in their councils I
should advise the drys to tackle the states
and abandon the amendment to the federal
constitution. Too much states rights in
YOlVed for that.
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