Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-12-08
HOW CAN WOMEN HELP EN-
FORCE THE LAW?

Prohibition, before the National W.
C. t. U. Executive Committee.)
It was suggested that say some
thing about how the women can help
us in our work. There are a great
many people these days who think
that the only thing needed is to make
arrests and that will settle the ques-
ton; that if we make enough OF
them in any city or community, after
a while everybody will obey the law.
Arresting law violator certainly has
q good effect. It not only Furnishes
him, after he has been tried and con-
victed, but he serves as a good ex-
ample to others. But the matter OF
making arrests is not all there is to
this problem. What we need most IN
the different communities of the
state and nation, as whole, is to
create sentiment which will indicate
to the officials that the people want
the law enforced, and will show vio-
lators that the law must be obeyed.
I know that it is always difficult to
enforce law at first. The American
people will sit around and rest easy
until they are driven to do some
thing. But when they see 1t has to
be done, they will wake up and do-it.
That is the thing we need more
than anything else. We do not SO
much need help to make arrests. we
do not so much need information;
we have more of that than we can
handle. The thing needed today in
stead of information-though, OF
course, we need that's an organ
lied effort in every community that
will take hold of the situation and
saw that the thing has to be done. A
certain city has mayor who is not
a dry man, but a pretty respectable
fellow. An ordinance enables him to
fine law violators up to $500 for
selling liquor, and yet there is hard,
ly a man in the city who is doing any
thing towardletting the mayor know
he, as an individual, would like to
have him enforce the law.
If can say one thing more than
another it is that you women assert
yourselves on this question. You will
have to be like Deborah and go along
with the Baraks to fight the battles
of the Lord. I know a great deal
about men. Most of them are cow
ards. They think about their business,
they think about politics they think
about one hundred other things that
stand between them and the, things
they ought to do. I have had men to
come to me and say, "Kramer, will
tel. you something, but don't tell
where you got it." If we had one
thousand men who were pot afraid
to tell where they got the evidence,
and would stand by the law, it would
help greatly to hold up our hands.
Now if thousand women were
organized for that very purpose, the
law violators would take notice and
there would cease to be violation.
Another thing you can do is to sit
steady in the boat until we get fur
ther along with this thing. know it
is working out all right; it is bound
to because of the way things fit into
each other so we'll. For instance, the
arrival on the scene of the women
with the ballot is going to help
nightly. The thing we must do is to
keep steady for the next two or
three years, SO that we shall not suf-
ser a reaction.
What bothers me more than any
thing else is this talk about wine and
beer-just as if this were light mat
ter, something that didn't mean much
after all. Let me tell you that L look
somewhat with suspicion upon the
man who will advocate that kind OF
temperance when he knows it means
pure notification. The constitution
SAYS that Intoxicating liquors shall
N t be sold, bought, manufactured,
transported, imported or exported:
Right in the face of this provision
there are many statesmen and poll
ticians who say if they get to con-
gress they will make it legal to sell,
buy, manufacture, transport, import,
and export light wines and beers.
You know what light wines are. The
1ightest of them contain from twelve
to fifteen per cent alcohol, and you
can make a man crazy on that