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VOLUME SIX
NUMBER FIVE
PIPE'S TEARLESS ISJHT
Heroic Cartersbille Jurist Hakes 'Kinging Speech at Francis Willard Memorial Meeting / Were On the "Bench in Atlanta
or Sahanndh I Would Kun Them Out or They Would K ' O <V m Out. ”
By WILLIAM D. UPSHAW. W'
F MADE the blood tingle—and it
is tingling yet! It was one of
those rare moments which nobody
plans, and everybody forever re
members.
The Cartersville, Ga., Chapter of
the Woman’s Christian Temper
ance Union of which Mrs. W. J.
Neel is the wide-awake, resourceful
v* 7
president, had planned a Francis Willard Me
morial meeting* on the birthday anniversary of
the great ‘White Ribbon” leader. The place
was the Sam Jones Memorial Methodist
Church, and the stirring soloist of the occasion
was Mrs. Annie Jones Cunyers, daughter of
the beloved and lamented Joe Jones and niece
of the famous and likewise beloved Sam Jones.
Into an atmosphere thus electrical with tem
perance and prohibition suggestiveness, Wil
liam D. Upshaw, editor of The Golden Age and
somewhat of a “booze-fighter” himself, was
invited to come as the “speaker from a dis
tance.” Said speaker had spoken the best he
could under the circumstances on “The Un
finished Work of the W. C. T. U.,” sitting
down with the conviction that the occasion
needed a climax. It got it. The pastor of the
church, Rev. Dunlap, who was the mas
terful master of ceremonies, arose and put
the necessary “finishing touches” on this edi
tor’s speech. Dunlap knew just how to do the
thing.
Things “Caught on Fire.”
By this time things were catching on fire,
when suddenly a “burst of flame” leaped forth
and a “huge conflagration” swept the crowd.
Judge W. C. Fite, whose heroic, effective
work as Presiding Judge of the Cherokee Cir
cuit has made him a worthy addition to Car
tersville’s “coronet of celebrities,” was the
cause of this “conflagration.” Fie sprang to his
feet, at the “psychic moment” and made an
impassioned speech for MANHOOD IN CIT
IZENS AND OFFICERS that fairly electri
fied the crowd. Judge Fite’s unexpected speech
was one of those impromptu utterances that
cannot be reproduced—because the occasion
—the atmosphere cannot be put on paper.
The Judges Ought to Have Been There.
But we would that every hesitating judge,
solicitor, juryman, voter and Governor in Pro
hibition territory could have been there. We
believe he would have quaffed a spinal tonic
and a judicial vision that would have' wrought
wonders in a clime where MEN and WON
DERS are vastly needed.
“NORTH CAROLINA CLEANING UP”-Page Four
ATLANTA, GA. MARCH 23, 1911.
Declaring every place to be a nuisance that
is engaged in the flagrant violation of law, and
indicting every “near-beer” saloon and “near
beer”brewery to be guilty of known violation
of the State prohibition law, he said it was the
duty of every Superior Court Judge to close up
these defiant nuisances in his circuit, “on the
spot.” And still again, amid enthusiastic ap
plause, he declared that the Governor of a
state should remove from office any judge or
solicitor flagrantly guilty of violating his oath
to uphold the law of his State. “Knock down
evidence” that Judge Fite was not indulging
simply in fiery phillipic and empty oratory is
* |
t JUDGE A. W. FITE. t
• i
found in the glorious fact that there is not a
“near-beer” saloon or brewery in all the bounds
of the Cherokee Circuit, including Rome, a city
of nearly twenty thousand people.
He Routed “Uncle Sam.”
It was under Judge Fite’s jurisdiction that
the famous Cureton Distillery Case occurred.
That dare-devil institution proposed to make
liquor under a United States revenue license,
but the loyal, fearless Judge said: “It is against
the law in Georgia to manufacture intoxicating
liquors. You go to jail or stop.” He went to
jail and stopped. And Judge Fite was sus
tained. Os course, it is just as much against
the law to manufacture malt liquors in brew-
ejies as it is to make corn or rye or vinous
liquors in distilleries—and we call on every
Judge in Georgia, and all other Prohibition
Territory, to catch hope from Judge’s Fite’s
victorious heroism and “go and do likewise.”
Come—Join the “Roll of Honor.”
Doubtless there are many other Judges and
Solicitors in “dry” territory who ought to go
on the “roll of honor” with Judge Fite and
The Golden Age hereby invites every
one whose eyes fall on this story to let our
readers know who you are and where you are,
giving any suggestion or any experience that
you count helpful in our fight— the fight of all
true citizens —for the enforcement of our laws
and the consequent building of manhood, civic
ideals and regnant citizenship.
We append here a brief synopsis of Judge
lute’s speech at Cartersville—but only a synop
sis, minus the magic of the stirring hour:
Our Laws Better Than Our Officers.
“()ur prohibition laws are all right as far
as they go, and they go about far enough.
What we need most is an honest, faithful and
vigorous enforcement of the laws which we
now. have. However, there should be a law
making the possession of a United States
liquor license prima facie evidence of guilt.
Such a law would greatly facilitate the en
forcement of our present prohibition laws; and
blind tigers, near-beer saloon t s and breweries
would soon be a thing of the past in Georgia.
“When one says that he is opposed to our
prohibition laws because they don’t prohibit,
he says what is not true; what he knows is
not true and what the people know is not true.
1 he truth is, if he is opposed to them at all
it is because they do prohibit, at least to some
extent; and the more they prohibit the strong
er he is opposed to them. To say that we can
not enforce these laws is a reflection upon our
manhood, and an insult to our Americanism,
and stamps us as incapable of self-government.
I admit that these laws are not enforced as they
should be, but the fault is not in the laws, but
in the administration of them. The one man
most responsible for the non-enforcement of
the law of a state is the Governor, and next
to him are the Judges, and then come the
Solicitors General, the Sheriff, and the Jurors
in the order named. Every criminal law should
be enforced, and can be if those charged with
the duty of enforcing them are honest, faith
ful and efficient. Every official whose duty
(Continued on Page 2.)
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