Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-05-19
FACTS AND FIGURES REGARD
ING PROHIBITION.


News, Judge Edwin Y. Webb, during
his sixteen years in Congress recog-
nized as national champion of pro-
hibition legislation, and joint author
of the Webb-Kenyon bill, at the open
ing of his first court in Charlotte re-
Gently, as presiding judge in the wes-
tern district, urged upon the grand
Jury the necessity of bringing to JUS
tice all those concerned with the in
fraction of prohibition laws. He re-
viewed at considerable length the
history Of the fight that outlawed
whiskey in North Carolina and trans
formed it from "the liquor soaked
state that it was about twenty-five
years ago to its present condition as
the fourth agricultural state in the
Union and one of the rapidly devel-
oping industrial states, with increas-
ed attention paid to every agency
that fosters civilization"
Recalling that twenty-five years
ago every North Carolina village had
its barroom and every cross roads
its grog shop, Judge Webb said:
1I remember two typical counties.
The frst-7Yancey-lying like a
pearl in the Blue Ridge mountains,
was as beautiful an area of fertile
land as could be found. But drinking,
assaults, and murders occurred fre-
quently. Whenever a judge of su-
perior court would arrive at county
seat to hold court, procession OF
men would file around the judges
hotel firing off pistols and guns. 1t
is said, and I believe with truth, that
every rock in huntsville, the county
seat of Yancy, has bruised some
mans head in drunken row. In our
great statewide prohibition election
Yancey won the temperance banner
by casting only thirteen votes
against prohibition, and the people
have made it a felony, punishable by
Imprisonment in the penitentiary,
either to make or sell liquor in that
county.
SIN the second county that have
in mind-Gaston- could stand
on the courthouse and see the smoke
issuing from forty-fve government
distilleries. Today you may stand on
the same courthouse and look in vain
for the smoke of single distillery.
Instead of the forty-five you could
formerly see, you will now behold
the stacks of thirty-five active, pros
porous cotton factories, and it is a
violation of the state law to import
even drop of whiskey into that
county.
"step by step the good people Of
North Carolina drove out the liquor
traffic just as it has been driven out
of the United States. We drove it out
of the county district first, then out
of the small town and, finally, in
1908, by a statewide referendum,
the commonwealth was made dry by
majority of $4,000, Ever since in
my opinion, we have had the dryest
state in the Union. A mighty change
has taken place in the Old North
State. No state has in the same time
made more progress than has ours
during the last twelve years of pro-
hibition.
"Under eight years of prohibition
up to 1917 our banks increased in
number from 325 to 529. Our depos-
its increased from $49,OOO,OOO to
$137, 100000, OF $50 per cent. In the
same time building and loan asso-
Citations increased from $5,000,OOO
with s2,oOO,oOO loaned for the pur-
pose of home building, to $16,0OO,-
600, with 100000 loaned for the
purpose of home building, or an in
crease of 22O per cent in assets and
$50 per cent in home building.
"The number of our school teach
ers has increased from 10000 to H.
900, or 3S per cent. Our average at
tendance has increased from $685.
600 to 446,OOo or A per cent. The
yearly expenditure for schools has
increased from $2,5OOO,000 to S5,1
100000, or 100 per cent, while the
value of the states school property
has increased from $5,000,ooo to
s11,5oo.Ooc, or 1so per cent. After
twelve years of prohibition, with its
,,ondarfuJ decrease in crime and its