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The Golden Age
(SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUM}
Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden fZge Publishing
Company (Inc.)
OFFICES: LOWNDES BUILDING. ATLANTA. GA.
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WILLIAM D. UPSHAW, - - - - Editor
A. E. RAMS A UR, - - - Managing Editor
LEMG. “BROUGHTON - - - Pulpit Editor
Entered at the Post Office tn Atlanta, Ga.,
as second-class matter.
To the Public: The advertising columns of The
Golden Age will have an editorial conscience. No
advertisement will be accepted which we believe
would be hurtful to either the person or the purse
of our readers.
Molv Tor Lalv Enforcement.
Disregard for law is a national curse. It is pro
duced by —and in turn produces —a class of citizen?
unworthy the name —men who fear not God nor
regard man. And what is true in Georgia today
since the passage of the State Prohibition bill is
true to a larger or lesser degree in every state
where local or general prohibition laws or any
other laws, as for that, are on the statute books.
Out in Kansas the state prohibition law was fla
grantly violated in the large cities. The public
conscience "was aroused. A Law-Enforcement
League was formed. Hon. W. C. Codding was made
State Attorney of this league and its effect has
been marvelous. The saloons were closed in Kan
sas City, Kansas, which has a population of 100,000.
Crime has greatly decreased. Business has in
creased twenty-five to forty per cent in that city
alone. And out in many of the smaller towns jails
are empty and courts are seldom held.
In Meridian, Miss., 'which has grown from eight
to twenty-five thousand population since the saloons
were driven out, the Evening Star of that clean,
enterprising city, declares that the jail is now emp
ty and the conditions as to the absence of crime
and the enforcement of law are as near ideal as
human communities ever reach. Let it be remem
bered for the profit and encouragement of every
prohibition community that must face such an ex
perience that for some time after Meridian was
freed from open saloons, “blind tigers” were start
ed on every side. The cry went up and out: “Pro
hibition doesn’t prohibit.” But the same spiiit of
consecration and bravery that drove barrooms out
arose in its manhood’s might and drove “blind ti
gers” out —and that spirit is now keeping them out!
And what brave men have done and are doing
in other states, brave men can and will do in Geor
gia.
Let the Georgia Anti-Saloon League be reorgan
ized now into the Georgia Law-Enforcement
League. Let the contributions for its best main
tenance be loyal and generous. Let its operations
be carried on with eagle eye and fearless hand and
every state in the nation will be led toward the en
actment and the enforcement of prohibition laws
by Georgia’s inspiring example.
The Member Trom DeKalb.
There is not a citizen of Georgia, probably, who
does not regret the unfortunate lengths to which
feeling and passion ran in the House of Representa
tives of Georgia when the Prohibition Bill was un
der discussion and two leading members of the
House engaged in a personal difficulty. It was an
occasion in which so much interest culminated, an
issue in which was involved the dearest hopes and
prayers of hundreds present in the galleries and the
Capitol, and so much feeling had come to a cuhni*
The Golden Age for August 1, 1907.
nating point, that it is small wonder that calm
methods were overstepped and that anger became
aroused. The situation was such that calm and
wise action on the part of legislators was well nigh
impossible, and Honorable Murphy Candler, the
member from DeKalb, deserves great praise for the
resolution he introduced deferring the action on the
Bill until July 30, and securing the consent of both
sides of the issue to have a vote on that date. In
no other way could it have been handled so wisely,
and the result has justified his resolution. We are
happy and grateful because of the outcome. Let us
all get together and join forces in seeing that our
new law is enforced. A strict enforcement of the
law will show the country that prohibition does
prohibit, except for the jug trade, and we feel safe
in predicting that this part of the problem will be
settled in the not far distant future. Public senti
ment and the wiser vision of mankind will bring
real prohibition into existence.
Georgia 'Redeemed!
The glorious deed is done! On Tuesday night,
July 30, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred
and seven, exactly at 7:53 o’clock, the final vote
banishing saloons from the state was announced in
the House of Representatives and beneath the
dome of the Capital rang out the gladsome thanks
giving hymn, “Praise God From Whom All Bless
ings Flow.”
The scene that followed can never be described.
Strong men wept as they threw their arms about
each other. Women—Heaven bless these hand
maidens of God! —women who had prayed and
worked and dreamed for a quarter of a century,
looked more like Angels of Light than we ever
saw them before —for their faces shone with the
foregleam of Heaven and their tears of joy were
ciystal with the light of the skies.
The church bells rang. The people sang. Little
children clapped their hands and shouted and earth
and Heaven seemed to kiss each other as the pean
of praise and peace went on
The telegraph wires flashed the wonderful news
all over the state and the rejoicing of the people
has never been equaled since Georgia was settled
or the nation was born. Now Georgia has a right
to be called “The Empire State of the South” —
for she lifts above her queenly head a flag without
a stain!
Hear it people —hear it everywhere!—Georgia re
deemed from the legalized liquor traffic! “Praise
God from whom all blessings flow!”
R R
A Grand Old Man.
We love the way Alabama honors her honored
sons. It was a beautiful thing for Alabama to re
elect to the United States Senate a short time ago
Senators John T. Morgan and Edmund W. Pettus
—both of them past four-score years.
There was no disposition to lay them aside be
cause of hairs that were gray and steps that were
slow. They were truly a grand old pair. The eyes
of the Senate were upon them when they were in
their seats and the eyes of the nation were ever
upon them in confidence and love.
And now —so soon —they are gone. Last Satur
day night at Hot Springs, N. C., Senator Pettus at
the age of eighty-six, folded his hands and took his
place beside John T. Morgan in the files of the hon
ored dead. John Temple Graves writes these beau
tiful words in The Atlanta Georgian:
“Sturdy, rugged, loyal and knowing no shadow
of turning where principle was concerned and the
welfare of his people involved, Senator Pettus was
also the ideal Southern gentleman in heart, manner
and appearance.
“The fact of his sudden death emphasizes th?
pathos of his association with his very distinguished
colleague, the late Senator John T. Morgan, whose
death occurred only a few weeks ago.
“From early manhood they were warm friends,
later partners in the practice of law, resided in the
same town of Selma, belonged to the same school
of politics and served together in the national Sen
ate, fire most notable and picturesque pair nf states
men in that body of remarkable men. Poth of
these men, over 80 years of age, had the honor of
unanimous re-election to their elevated office a few
weeks ago, and now both men have fallen on sleep,
within a few days of each other, and both will rest
in the beautiful city of Selma honored and es
teemed not only by the people of the state they so
worthily represented, but by the country at large.
“Be it said to the eternal credit of both these
remarkable men, Morgan and Pettus, they died
poor, as the world reckons riches. After nearly a
century of opportunity, Senators Morgan and Pet
tus went to their final account with clean hands,
leaving no stain upon their long, useful and honor
able lives.”
r r
"Fool-ibustering. ”
That is a new coinage by Mrs. Armor, President
of the W. C. T. U. of Georgia, and all who witness
the filibustering tactics of our law-making bodies
agree that that coinage deserves to live. But the
Prohibitionists who witnessed the foolish folly of
the filibuster in the Georgia Legislature that held
up the will of the people for fourteen hours and
dug a deep hole in the treasury of the state had
a right to coin words and do other things to express
their disapproval.
It does not require a statesman in wisdom to
know that there should be no rules in any delibe
erative body that will allow a small minority to
override for hours and days the known will of th >
great majority. From 9 o’clock in the morning
v.ntil 10:30 o’clock at night they stood against the
will of the people. Representative Burwell, of
Hancock county, has wisely struck while the iron
is hot and he offers a bill that proposes to clear the
track for the majority to enact the will of the peo
ple into law.
Os course we understand that the young men from
the saloon centers who led the famous “fool-ibus
ter” against the Prohibition bill were speaking to
the galleries at home —and as they just had it to
do or “bust,” perhaps it was better for them to
“fili-bust.” They seem now inclined to blush,
and if they are really repentant we will try to for
give.
But let us have no more “fool-ibustering” against
the overwhelming will of the people.
r r
The Call of Tellolvship.
(Note —This address was laid on the desk of ev
ery Legislator on the morning of Wednesday, July
24, when it was thought that the vote on the State
Prohibition Bill would be taken that day.—Editor.)
Gentlemen of the Legislature:
We share together the high and splendid fellow
ship of being citizens of Georgia.
I have tried in an earnest, honest way to be
helpful to the youth of our State. You —each of
you —will have an opportunity TODAY, to do for
our Georgia youth more than I have ever done.
Stripped of every side issue, you face but one
question when you vote—SALOONS OR NO SA
LOONS! Those who vote against saloons in this,
the greatest civic and moral hour that Georgia has
ever known, will be remembered in our State like
those who signed the Declaration of Independ
ence are remembered in our nation.
Victory against the liquor traffic is assured, but
I send this call in love and fellowship to those who
have not yet decided to vote against the continua
tion of saloons. Give praying mothers, anxious
fathers and the children of the present and the fu
ture, the benefit of the doubt today, and your
names will live in Georgia “like sun-crowned moun
tain peaks that skirt the shores of our moral seen-
* «
ery.
God bless you and give you the bravery to act—
and the abiding joy that will follow if you take your
place with the forces for God and Home arrayed
in this great battle against the saloon. Determine
to be a signer of the “Declaration of Independ
ence” on Georgia’s Emancipation Day.
Your fellow citizen,
WILL D. UPSHAW,
Vice-President Georgia Anti-Saloon League.
