410 



GEOKGIA. 



Kepublicans, whites and blacks, occupied the 

 same platform in advocacy or denunciation of 

 prohibition. On Nov. 30, United States Dis- 

 trict Judge McCoy issued a temporary injunc- 

 tion restraining the ordinary from declaring 

 the result of the election. The proceeding was 

 instituted by a non-resident of the State, inter- 

 ested in the liquor business in Atlanta. It 

 was claimed that the local-option act was un- 

 constitutional. On Dec. 17 the judge, after 

 hearing argument, dissolved the injunction, 

 overruling the objections alleged against the 

 act. Other injunctions were obtained, but 

 had not been disposed of at the close of the 

 year. The history of the movement has been 

 given as follows : " From time immemorial it 

 has been the custom of the Georgia Legisla- 

 ture to forbid the sale of liquor within so many 

 miles of churches and school-houses in rural 

 communities. The temperance people took ad- 

 vantage of this custom. As they were inter- 

 ested in churches and schools, they took care 

 that new institutions were judiciously locat- 

 ed, so as to make prohibition territory as 

 contiguous as possible. Then a step further 

 was taken. Johnson County, far removed 

 from railroads and civilization, asked that her 

 citizens be permitted to vote upon the ex- 

 clusion of liquor. The request was granted, 

 and so remote was the county that when it 

 1 went dry,' in the popular parlance, the out- 

 side world never heard of it. Then militia 

 districts, here and there, asked for the privilege 

 of local option, and occasionally another back- 

 woods county would come in. 



"The first sign of discontent came from 

 the wholesale liquor-dealers. When they an- 

 nounced, in 1883, that total prohibition pre- 

 vailed over two thirds of the territory of Geor- 

 gia, and that in consequence their year's busi- 

 ness had fallen off 50 per cent, from that of 

 the previous year, they were scarcely believed. 

 Yet so it was. The entire northern portion of 

 the State, a large slice of the southwestern, 

 and all of the southeastern, were as absolutely 

 prohibition territory as if they were portions 

 of Maine. In Alabama and South Carolina 

 the same tactics were being pursued. The 

 movement had also extended into Mississippi, 

 where it was already looked upon as a dis- 

 turbing element in politics. 



" Then the Prohibitionists laid siege to the 

 smaller towns, until at last, out of 'the 137 

 counties in Georgia, 85 were totally committed 

 to prohibitioD, 30 others were partially under 

 prohibition, and in only 22 counties was the 

 sale of liquor unrestrained. Thus victorious 

 and emboldened, and recruited by the entire 

 Republican vote of the State, the temperance 

 leaders demanded that the Legislature should 

 pass a general local-option bill a bill that 

 would permit an election to be held in any 

 county upon the subject, on the petition of a 

 given number of citizens, and without the 

 expense and annoyance of special appeals to 

 the Legislature in each case. This measure 



was deferred in the session of 1884, but was 

 on the calendar for the summer session of 1885. 

 Just before the meeting of that session the 

 temperance people held a State Convention 

 for the purpose of moral effect upon the Legis- 

 lature. There was presented upon the stage a 

 scene never before witnessed in* a Southern 

 city the most hated of Republicans and the 

 most ultra of Democrats shook hands in com- 

 mon cause. "White people did not refuse to sit 

 upon a stage where colored men were invited 

 guests. The contest over the bill in the Legis- 

 lature was long and bitter, but finally local 

 option won the day. This opened the way for 

 an attack upon the large cities, and Atlanta 

 was chosen as the battle-ground. A petition 

 signed by 2,800 registered voters requested 

 that an election be ordered." 



Another authority, writing just prior to the 

 Atlanta election, says : " For ten years temper- 

 ance agitation has been carried on in Georgia, 

 which has so far succeeded that now, out of 

 137 counties of the State, the sale of liquor is 

 only allowed in fifteen. These fifteen counties 

 are the seats of large cities, where the liquor 

 element has large property interests at stake. 

 The principle by which the agitation was car- 

 ried on is known as that of local option. It 

 has been broached in each community as a 

 moral and police measure, thus meeting sup- 

 port of both political parties, both colors, and 

 the entire moral element of society. No se- 

 rious opposition was met till the movement 

 reached the great cities, where large property 

 interests were at stake. These local-option 

 elections were held under special acts of the 

 Legislature. The business interest of the large 

 cities was always strong enough to prevent 

 the passage of such local-option act so far as 

 they were themselves concerned. Hence the 

 Legislature passed a general local-option bill." 



It has been said that a controlling force in 

 this movement has been the conviction on the 

 part of employers that the removal of tempta- 

 tion from the colored people would increase 

 their efficiency as laborers. 



Educational Institutions. A Southern journal, 

 advocating institutions for higher education, 

 refers thus to Georgia: "She has her uni- 

 versity, established ninety-seven years ago, 

 lately largely assisted by the noble State, and 

 giving tuition practically free. She has a Bap- 

 tist literary and theological institution, Mercer 

 University, founded in 1829. She has the great 

 Methodist institution of the Georgia and Flori- 

 da Conferences, Emory College. She has the 

 Catholic College of Pio Nono at Macon, which 

 has attained an enviable reputation. She has 

 half a dozen agricultural and mechanical col- 

 leges, at Athens, Dahlonega, Milledgeville, 

 Thomasville, Cuthbert, and Hamilton, which 

 are valuable aids to the education of their local- 

 ities, even if we say nothing at all about their 

 use as ancillary to the university. She has 

 notable colleges for young women at Macon 

 and Athens. She has a splendid and well- 



