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Mississippians Call Tor Constitutional Prohibition
'Ringing Resolutions by baptist Conbention at Winona —Committee to C3ct With Roth Methodist Conferences Memor alizing
Legislature—Hon. Will Whittington , Rrilliant Young Christian Lalvyer Leads in the Tight.
Vy WILLIAM D. UPSHAW.
■ i■ i ■ ii, i
LABAMA will not fight her battle for
Constitutional prohibition alone. Mis
sissippi valiantly takes her place by her
side. The Mississippi Baptist Conven
tion, which met recently in Winona,
Sounded the call to arms, and appointed
a strong committee to confer with the
Methodist Conferences of North and
South Mississippi looking to a movement
for memorializing the Legislature to submit Consti
tutional prohibition to the people.
While every session of the Winona convention was
one of stirring interest it was highly significant of
“coming events” that the livest hour of the whole
convention was the one set apart for the discussion
of the “Report on Temperance.”
The atmosphere fairly caught on fire. The report
was offered by Hon. Will Whittington, a brilliant
lawyer of Greenwood —a stalwart young statesman,
whom we would call a “coming man” in Mississippi—
if he had not already come! Whittington’s speech
supporting the report and the constitutional resolu
tion was a positive tonic of martial eloquence.
Among the notable speeches that followed Whitting
ton’s was one from the great educator, President J. C.
Hardy, of the famous A. & M. College, who, in blaz
ing sentences, pointed out the danger of leaving
state prohibition an open question, subject to the ca
prices and intrigues of politics; another that wak
ed the echoes was made by Hon. E. M. Barber, of
Biloxi, who, almost single handed recently fought
Sunday desecration in that Rome-ridden, “wide open”
coast town, and won a marvelous victory. His
story, “Hot From The Bat,” telling how two brave
little preachers helped him close up the airdome
devilment on Sunday and put a den of blind tigers
out of business was electrical in its effect.
Whittington’s Eloquence.
We are glad to be able to present to our readers
a part of Mr. Whittington’s report, and the substance
of his speech. It is a clarion call to stalwart citizen
ship, and is an utterance well worth preserving on a
subject in which every state in the South and many
in the North are vitally interested today.
Speech of Hon. Will Whittington Before Mississippi
Convention.
Statutory prohibition is on trial in the State of
Mississippi, and its success depends very largely
upon the efforts of the Christian people to uphold
and enforce the law. In Mississippi, where there are
no large cities, and where the Anglo-Saxon race is in
absolute control of the political affairs, the very best
results from anti-liquor laws out to be obtained. The
advocates of temperance have a splendid opportunity
to demonstrate to the w r orld that prohibition can be
enforced in the city, as well as in the country dis
tricts. If the liquor traffic is fundamentally wrong,
then prohibition ought to be firmly embedded in 'the
fundamental law of the state by the sovereign will
of the people; for the legislative body ought not to
be permitted to bargain or barter away the public
health and public morals.
We hear a great deal in these days about the
greatness and glory of our country, and the price
less heritage that has been transmitted to us, and
of our rights under democratic government; but I
believe that the time has come for our public speak
ers to talk more about our duties and responsibilities
as citizens, and about the problems of civic righteous
ness, upon the right solution of which depends the
peace and prosperity of our people. In order to be
successful, and in order that the best results may
be obtained, every good citizen should aid and assist
the officers in the enforcement of the prohibition
laws in every possible way. In no better way can he
do this, than by the faithful discharge of his obliga
tions as a juror, when called upon to sit as a juror
in our courts. He who fails to serve his country as
a juror is a traitor to the cause of good government.
We take this occasion to congratulate the circuit
judges of our state, who are punishing those convict
ed of a violation of our prohibition laws with the
maximum penalty, and we are persuaded that the
The Golden Age for December 2, 1909.
infliction of terms of imprisonment upon the violators
of the law is the very best method of upholding our
prohibition law and preventing the illicit sale of li
quor. Our circuit judges, therefore, who are realizing
this, and who are visiting imprisonment upon those
convicted of unlawful retailing, are to be congratu
lated. by all good people.
The State Should Protect Its Citizenship.
It is claimed that prohibition does not prohibit.
It might as well be claimed that laws enacted against
murder, manslaughter, and arson do not prevent the
occurrence of these crimes; but it is the duty of the
state to protect the public morals by keeping drink
away from the people, and the Christian people
should be concerned in keeping the boys and men
away from drink.
/. 'wK- ' ' ■
Wit'
HON. WILL WHITTINGTON.
A Coming Mississippian.
After all, however, the foundation upon which all
laws and their .successful administration must rest,
is public sentiment. We believe that the average
citizen desires to see the right rule, when he thor
oughly understands. He who engages in reforms of
any kind must recognize this desire, if he would suc
ceed in his enterprise. A great many of our so
called temperance speakers are most intemperate
of all, especially in their addresses. When they be
come self-centered, and when they think they are
the only righteous people in their community, they
immediately make foes of all who do not agree with
them in their ideas at the beginning, and a great
gulf is fixed between them and the people whom they
should reach. Laws may be enacted against the li
quor traffic, but for their successful enforcement,
there must be the necessary public sentiment. This
public sentiment, recognizing the principle that the
average man is so created that, when he sees mat
ters in their true aspect, he wants the right to rule,
must be educated as to the enormity of the liquor
traffic and of drink, and then chrystallized into action.
Laws within the breast and graven on the heart are
stronger far than graven law on stone or written on
the statute book.
Inasmuch as the liquor traffic is wrong, the people
of Mississippi, and of every state, ought to have the
opportunity and privilege of voting to make prohibi
tion a part of the constitution of the state, so that
it will be difficult for the succeeding legislatures to
make laws favorable to this accursed traffic.
He Crowns The Work of Woman.
In Mississippi, with statutory prohibition, the vic
tory has not been won, and is just begun. We here
record our fervent gratitude to the Women’s Chris
tian Temperance Union for their untiring efforts in
securing the enactment of the anti-liquor laws in
our state; and it is but simple truth to say that, had
it not been for their endeavor, statutory prohibition
would not have been on our statute books today.
The problem that the people of Mississippi are es
pecially concerned about at this time is in the en
forcement of the laws that are already written, and
thereby making good the claim that prohibition laws
will prohibit.
The lines of Susan Cooledge, in which she tells
of the good citizen, should be an inspiration to the
workers for temperance in all the states:
“Who serves his country best?
Not he who for a brief and stormy space
Leads forth her armies to the fierce affray.
Short is the time of turmoil and unrest
Long years of peace succeed it and replace—
There is a better way.
“Who serves his country best?
Not he who guides her senates in debate
And makes the laws which are her prop and stay;
Not he who wears the poet’s purple vest
And sings her songs of love and grief and fate.
There is a better way.
“He serves his country best
Who joins the tide that lifts her nobly on
For speech has myriad tongues for every day
An song but one; and law within the breast
Is stronger than the graven law on stone.
There is a better way.
“He serves his country best
Who lives a pure life, and doeth righteous deed
And walks straight paths, however others stray,
And leaves his sons as uttermost bequest
A stainless record which all may read.
This is the better way.”
Let the Christian people be intelligent, as well as
enthusiastic in the matter of temperance. During
the Civil War, on one occasion, in the good old state
of Virginia—the. mother of states and statesmen—
on either side of a noble stream, at the twilight hour,
the two armies were encamped. The contending
forces faced each other. As they were sitting around
the camp fires, some Southern soldier started to sing
“Dixie,” and immediately every voice on the southern
side of the river joined their leader; but not a voice
was heard on the nothern side of the river. There
was nothing in that song that appealed to the North
ern soldier. After the song had died away on the
southern side, in the stillness of the darkness, a
northern soldier began to sing “We are coming, Fath
er Abraham, a Hundred Thousand Strong,” and in
stantly every voice in the Northern army caught up
the notes, until the welkin rang; but not a sound
was heard on the southern side of the river, for there
was nothing in that song that appealed to .the boys in
gray. After quiet reigned in the camps on both sides
of the stream, and the coals were smouldering in
ashes, a voice, —I do not say whether it was a North
ern or a Southern soldier, nor do I care, —began to
sing “Home, Sweet Home,” for his heart had thought
of the loved ones left behind; and immediately every
voice in both armies, whether they had come from
the North or from the South, from the East or from
the West, joined in this immortal song, until it
seemed that the melody almost reached the battle
ments of heaven, for they were one in their love of
home. The advocates of temperance are one in their
desire and in their prayer that the arch enemy of
the home, and of the church and of the state, may be
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