The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1920-01-28


samples of such a state Of affairs, dc
you want to try it some more, and
with an increase of activity? Nc
community can have real and perma-
nent prosperity without a moral and
capable head. The end of all gov
ernment is the public good-not the
individual preference. So when the
candidate tells you of his desire for
your vote, better find out what he
proposes to give in return.
1t takes money panic to test the
business capacity of a man; takes a
sorrow to test the faith Of Christian;
takes the shadow of death to test the
sheer courage of man; takes bal
lot to test the citizenship of man
whether he regards private greed OF
personal preference as of greater i'm
portance than the public good. A
wide open town will bring money to
certain persons, opportunity for
graft to officers of easy virtue, if
such there be,-but it is death to
much of the sterling manhood of the
town, and blunts the moral sense of
our womanhood to an alarming de-
gree. We are governed by law
not men. When men take the law in
their own hands we have mobs, bull
let's, rope, wide open doors. When
law is justly enforced by constituted
authority there is peace and an in
creasing measure of prosperity--
Hence your ballot is a bullet in the
mould to shoot the peace of the COM
munity, the security of your family,
the honor of your boys, your neigh
bors---or it is a warrant for the
protection of your wife and children,
your business and your social life.
A woman of the underworld is re-
ported to have been in the local movie
last summer shoulder to shoulder,
cheek to cheek with the wife and
daughters of certain man. He pro-
tested to an offieer. The officer told
him that the lewd woman had every
right there his wife or daughter en-
joyed. Of course the officer was
right. That is part Of a wide open
city. Like it? Neither do !.
You can't drink wood alcohol and
have good eyes. You can't put men
in office who believe in wide open
town and have clean city.
Putting gold on tooth wont stop
the ache.
Law is stream of pure water ever
widening, deepning, ife-giving. You
may dam it for a time, not perma-
nently. Every good officer respect
the majestry of the law, every good
citizen invokes the strong arm of the
law. Your vote will represent the
mejesty of the law or the savagery
lawessness. Here your citizenship
is expressed. What you are is found
here. What you stand for crops out
here. The ballot is sacred. 1t is
blood bought, blood baptized. 1t is
your real voice in the affairs of city,
state, nation. A newspaper is pow
erful only as it holds the confidence
of the people. A Mayor is like that
What is true of the Mayor is true of
all the other officers. Look at the
record of your candidates in business,
that tells of their ability. Look we'll
into their record as citizens, that tells
of their moral qualities. Find what
they stand for-that tells you of
their regard for the oath of office.
Vote honestly, intelligently--Its
your manhood suffrage. Don't allow
any man, candidate or other, to in
suit you by paying your pole-tax.
All the good men are not in the
church, all the bad men are not in
the world---so make no condition of
church membership-but clean, up
standing, representative citizenship
that there come no blush Of shame in
the days to come.
And don't forget that Prohibition
is written in the Constitution of the
U. S. An oath to support the Con-
stitution includes Prohibition. 1t is
time for Columbus to wake up, pre-
serve her good name, find the best
men possible for office, stand by
them-and write yet more honored
history that she has already written.
4 Nothing that | have said may just
ly be interpreted as allpying to the
present, Mayor or any of his prede-
cessors. What you find here is the
accumulation of the years. But we
need to look we'll to what is to follow
if we would keep our standing with
the thought and progress of our neigh
bors, preserve our selfrespect, and
have a measure of justice done to all