Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-03-10
DROUGHT
ON MAY |.
Witten-Sh;,mate Bill Passed Vir-
ginia Senate, and Saloons at
POcahOntas Will Have To
Go Out of Business.

The Virginia State Senate passed
the Witten- Shumate amendment to
the Harman law on Tuesday night,
which amendment makes the town of
Pocahontas dry on May 1st, when the
present licenses expire. The passage
OF this bill is a great victory for the
temperance workers in this section of
the State, and feather in the cap of
Representative Witten and Senator j .
Powell Royal, of this district. To
each of these gentlemen is due a large
part of the credit for the passage of
the bill.
No little credit, also, should be
given to the other public spirited cit
zens of this town and Pocahontas and
Graham, who spent much time in
Richmond, at their own expense in
the interest of the bill
Rev. Mr.. Hickman, the Baptist min
lister at Pocahontas, spent several
days in Richmond fighting for the pas
sage Of the bill, as did also Rev. C. r.
Brown, G. W. Doak, of this town,
and w. B. d. White, composed the
"lobby" from this county, who repre-
sented the people in the committee
meetings and in private caucuses i'm
Richmond, and much of the credit
for the enactment of the measure is
due these gentlemen.
Drug Stores Shut OF Entirely.
The provisions of the Harman law,
which is operative in the counties of
this Senatorial district, are such that
liquor cannot be sold under anv con-
ditions. The Quart Month" pro-
vision in the Mapp bill cuts no ice
in this neck of the woods, for the Har-
man laws provides, that "it shall be
neither manufactured no sold in this
district" under any conditions.
The Richmond Times-D Dispatch of
"Wednesday had the following ac-
count of the passage of the Witten-
Shumate bill in the Senate:
"By vote of 81 to 5 the Senate
yesterday passed the bill introduced
in the House by Delegates Witten and
Shumate, which was designed to make
Pocahontas, i'll Tazewell county, "dry"
after May /.
Senator Royal, Tazewelps repre-
sentative in the Senate, and Senator
section of the State, stood sponsors
for the measure. Representing prop
erty owners, who are vitally interest
ed in the policy laid down by the leg
islature for the little Southwestern
town, Senator Buchanan, of Marion,
voiced n vigorous protest against the
apparent discrimination between Po-
cahontas and the rest of the State in
making 1t dry six months prior to the
time when the general prohibition act
goes into effect.
"The public schools of Pocahontas,
said Senator Buchanan, would be
obliged to close down if the legisla-
ture enacted a bill which would de-
prive the community of $4,000 of
revenue derived from the liquor licens-
es to be issued on May 1. Manv of his
constituents, he said, had contracted
obligations i'll the town, predicated up
on the belief that the saloons would
be allowed to operate until the state
wide prohibition becomes operative in
Virginia.
Senator Royal plead for the passage
of the bill in answe rto the demand,
he said, of thousands of people of his
district who are of the opinion that it
is absolutely necessary, in the inter
ests, of not only the town itself, but
for the surrounding country, that the
saloons be closed down. Murder, he
said, is a very common occurrence in
Pocahontas, which he denomipatcd as
"a vertiable hell on EARTH"
The sentiment of a majority Of the
people, said Senator Royal, had not
been brought to bear upon the Senate
for the reason that they are not able
to employ paid lobbyists to advance
their interests.
The vote stood:
Yeas-Messrs. Allen, Andrews, Bar
ham, Bowers, Byrd, Conrad, Corbitt,
Davis, Early, Garrett, Gayle, Goodloe,
Goodrich, Hening, Jeffreys, Jordan,
Lacy, Mapp, Rison, Robertson, Royal,
Saunders, Thornton, Trinkle, Walker,
Webb, West-27.
Nays-Messrs. Addison, Buchanan,
Cannon, DreWry, Pilcner-5,