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Resolution On The Liquor Situation


1. We declare afresh our unalterable opposition to the whole liquor traffic, whisky, beer, and wine, and to the license system by which this most blighting and corrupting traffic fastened upon our body social and body politic.

2. We stand unalterable for total abstinence on the part of the individual and for prohibition by the government, local, State, and National, and that we declare relentless war upon the liquor traffic, both legal and illegal, until it shall be banished.

3. We cannot but express our hearty disapproval of the acts of the legislatures of North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia, by which they flouted the will of the people of their respective states, as expressed at the ballot box, and usurped the rights of the people by fastening the liquor traffic upon their states at the will of wet counties, thus destroying the integrity and authority of the state as a unit to govern by the will of the majority of its citizens in every part of its territory.

4. In keeping with a fundamental principle upheld by a long line of court decisions the majority of citizens in any political unit, however small, have the right to banish from their midst a recognized evil, even when such evil is licensed or tolerated by the larger political unit of which the smaller is a part. But no political unit has a right to establish and maintain an evil against the will of the majority of the larger political unit. This is the right of local option. This principle was put in reverse and utterly violated by the legislatures of North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia when they permitted wet counties to establish liquor stores.

5. That we express our great pleasure in what appears to be the rising tide of prohibition sentiment, as indicated in the statewide dry victories in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, the last by such an overwhelming majority, and in the great number of dry victories in local option elections in counties and smaller units in all the states where such elections have been called. We hope and believe that an aroused public sentiment, outraged by the increasing crimes and highway fatalities brought by the liquor traffic, and the increasing disregard of law and decency by the traffic, shall soon again and permanently place upon the liquor traffic, shall soon again and permanently place upon the liquor traffic the brand of the outlaw, which it so richly deserves
6. (a) That this Convention earnestly recommends to our Baptist people, both pastors and churches, that the churches take a firm and consistent stand against all indulgence in the use of intoxicating liquors, including wine and beer, and against all participation in their sale by members of the churches, and that we seek as rapidly as possible to educate our people against the folly and sin of such use and sale, and that as rapidly as possible our churches shall be relieved of the open shame and burden of church members in any way connected with the unholy traffic; (b) that our churches be urged to give their full moral support to the prohibition cause, and to give a more liberal financial support to dry organizations which stand for the united action of our people against the liquor traffic.