Henderson daily dispatch., 1940-08-29
Gathering Momentum


Victories by dry forces IN recent
referenda in this and at least one
other state us>uredly do not mean
that the Country, nor even this State,
III the aggregate. have turned their
backs again upon legalized NQuor,
but they are indicative Of 4 L, ID. u
will not be surprising if Tremendous
pressure is put upon the 1871 leglS-
lature TO order statewide referen-
dunn in North Carolina, and with a
chance of success better than existed
even 4 few short months ago.
Johnston county'S abandonment OF
legal liquor in an election d few
weeks back, after experimenting
with it Tor three years, and the &C
ton of Person county for second
time in rejecting liquor stores. are OF
significance. Every one knows OF the
hoary argument that the bootleggerS
joined with the church people against
LIQUOR, and we are not the one to dis
pute the merit of the claim. The
same may be true in the statewide
referendum in South Carlina last
Tuesday.
But elections are not determined
alone by what critics may give as an
explanation of the results. The ac-
tual votes are what count. And in
two counties in North Carolina and
in a statewide vote in South Caro-
lima within the space of few short
weeks the dry cause has been vic
toriouS.
The South Carolina referendum,
though legal. had no mandatory
force It was. however, intended as
a guide 20 the next legislature, and
those responsible for the wide margin
of the dry cause in the voting may
be relied on 10 press their adVan-
tage for all it is worth. In that
State the sale of liquor has been
legal for several years under an ar
rangenent similar to that in effect
in some q North Carolina counties
that have, by votes of their own, set
up county stores under authority of
an act of the 1885 General Assembly.
Should d statewide referendum in
North Carolina be ordered by the
legislature next winter, a few of the
counties that now have liquor stores,
owned and operated by them, might
vote dry, but it is fairly certain that
most of them will not. The Jingle Of
dollars dropping into county treas
ITieS as profit is such easy money for
politicians to play with that they
will be loath to part with it, If the
State should go dry, it will have to be
made that way largely by the vote
of those counties that do not now
have legal liquor.
Some of the counties now wet got
that way by large majorities in eiec-
tionS, as, for instance, Vance, where
the referendum in June, 1885, was
about four and half to one for liq-
uor. In others the margin was much
smaller. In the aggregate, the result
would turn not entirely on the basis
of 10 counties against 81. Whereas
wet majorities were in some cases
small, it is likewise true that dry ma
joritieS have in other instances been
too low for comfort on that side oil
the question.
North Carolina, in a statewide rioc-
ton May 26, 1908, voted itself cry
and remained that way, legally, I'M
til the legislature OF 1935-not the
electorate-took the bull by the
horns and upset the mandate OF the
people. In our own limited knowl-
edge of things, we have never been
able to understand how the legsla-
ture could overturn the popular
will. But, legal or illegal, it did it
If its action were legal, how, then
can the people upset that situation:
AT least theoretically, popular ref
erendulm is final authority in ;
democracy. Which brings us bach