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And what has been accomplished other than the
changing of the place of manufacture and sale of
their products to other States?
Not one day since they were forced to close up
by law. but that beers, wines and whiskeys, have
been coming into Georgia in enormous quantities.
Thus while we are not prohibiting the sale of liquors,
the object we sought to accomplish, we are suc
ceeding in destroying many sources of revenue and
rendering some of the very best of our citizens quite
incapable of earning a sufficiency of the necessaries
of life.
Be it remembered, also, that at least 90 per cent
of the “blind tiger” goods, wholly impure usually
cost from 50 to 100 per cent more than the pure una
dultercd article, that does least harm.
And the worst part of it all is. that so many
thousands who were formerly satisfied with beer or
wine are now rapidly forming the habit for stronger
drinks.
Against the Biblical injunction prohibition is put
ting the bottle to its neighbor’s nose.
Instead of assisting num to destroy their appe
tite for strong drink, our law is only increasing in
numbers and intensity the desire for it.
Instead of raising up men of courage, vigor and
power our law is very materially assisting us to raise
up a large and increasing number of drunkards.
Thus in the two things we set out to do:
Prohibit the sale of alcoholic liquors—decrease
drunkenness we have simply stumped our toes and
fell down !
The proper thing Io do right now is to get up and
move on !
Rotation of Circuit Judiciary Remedy for Increas
ing Lawlessness in the South.
There is but one wav to make life safe and that
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is to give it protection.
There is no other way to make property safe ex
cept to give it protect ion.
’When life is cheap, property is cheap. When Itfe
is dear, property is dear.
A progressive step in giving life and property
that protection which will make both dear shall
have been taken when we change our laws regulat
ing the circuit judiciary and rotate them.
This plan, in successful operation in South Caro
lina for a number of years, has demontsrated its
usefulness and proven the wisdom of its framers.
Blect the judges by the people? Yes, but remove
them as far as possible from the influences that poli
tics does have and will continue to have upon their
actions in court, so long as they are allowed to sit
where they receive their commissions.
The reasons for this are very plain and not far
to seek:
A judge is a human being, of the same flesh and
blood, and love ami hate as the rest of us. He is not
going to do anything that will give pain to himself.
The unfavorable sentiment of the people, which it
is often necessary to stir up, will give him pain.
Therefore, as a rule, no judge is at all likely to do
that which will excite the unfavorable sentiment of
the people.
THE REASON
Is there an honest, sensible man or woman in the
South that does not feel the need for a more string
ent and rigid enforcement of our criminal laws’
If any, let them speak.
Os all the State bank failures in Georgia in the
last ten years, in which through criminal means mil
lions of‘dollars have been lost to depositors, not a
single instance can be called to mind where the offi
cer or clerk guilty of crime has been made to suffer
any penalty therefor. Not so with the National
banks. Suicide is about the only means of escaping
the swift and definate punishment meted out to
those guilty of violating the laws under which these
institutions are operated.
And what is the result? National banks are
multiplying: State banks are diminishing. These
two facts are significant and carry their own lesson.
If you believe in States’ rights, if you love State
institutions, if you would preserve each of these,
you must protect them by enforcing the law, which
makes their operation for the welfare of all, possible.
A recent decision by a Georgia Superior Court
judge will serve to show to some extent the perni
cious effect of politics upon the acts of our judges
and what result such acts have upon the confidence
people place in the enforcement of law for the pro
tection of life and property.
Against the sworn testimony of eye witnesses of
unimpeachable character this judge, who in the race
for re-election is opposed by a very able man whose
honesty and strength of character strongly appeals
to the intelligent and law-abiding element, turned
loose two of the lowest types of criminals that live
to disgrace human society. lie is one of a kind who
believes in capital punishment only where the people
do not complain for want of offences that justify it,
and fixes his decisions to suit the prevailing senti
ment in the localities where he sits, lie is a dis
grace to the office he desecrates, a breeder of mobs
and the real bear in the human life and property
stock market of Southwestern Georgia.
The day after his decision three humble farmers
from the locality in which the men he freed com
mitted the murder, offered their little homes, land,
stock, and timber at half price in order to get away
and spare themselves the awful death that they be
lieve await them at the hands of the freed criminals
as a result of their testimony at the trial.
Free the judiciary of politics and you will put
good men in office. Put good men in office, and you
will give value to your life and property. Refuse to
do it and you will see a spread of lawlessness you
never saw before, a slump in the human life and
property stock market unequaled in our whole his
torv of more than 150 years.
The rotation of the circuit judiciary is a fine
remedy for the increase of lawlessness in the South.
Ike Cribb and the Rest of Shinburnally.
Senator of South Carolina, who likes a
good joke almost as much or more than a rough and
tumble, knock-down-and-drag-out joint-debate, while
acting as captain of the Klu Klux, had the novel ex
perience of performing a ceremony that married a
man to a man.
The senator, then only 21 years of age, stopped
for supper in a country village, near which he and
his raiders were doing some work for the good of
their country. He was made acquainted with the