Home and State (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, December 31, 1915 Page: 3 of 8
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December 31, 1915.
HOME AND STATE
3
THE UNITED CHARITIES.
J. T DODSON, Sherif, Taylor County, Texas.
-mam
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-
U. S. Postoffice, Abilene, Texas.
1
1
io
OFFICE OF SHERIFF
J. T. Dodson, Sheriff
J. A. McMahan, Deputy
Carnegie Library, Abilene, Texas.
a
past year and I find the percentage of crime
very
small in comparison to the population of
our coun-
The Home and State,
Gentlemen:
v
THE CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK
of Abilene.
CAPITAL AND SURPLUS, $200,000.
Abilene, Texas.
a- .
J. W. HUNT,
President Pastors’ Association.
A. D. ELLIS, Secretary.
Abilene, Texas.
December 22nd, 1915.
ty, and while I am unable to make you a compara-
made up of the highest standard, builded with a
care that would at all times stand out as an invi-
tation to the entire world as an ideal location for
a home, surrounded by those great environments
that make a city worth living in to those that seek
a higher standard of life.
sions from the citizenship that there is no one liv- tive statement between our county and places i
ing within the gates of Abilene that would tolerate , where the open saloon exists, I assure you that i
for one minute the idea of re-establishing the only a small per cent of our people would welcome
saloons in this city as the entire citizenship is "
the open saloon in our midst. Yours very truly,
. . a . ■ mu
amnamzun azasasf =3 arnc
The Home and State.
Gentlemen: In answer to your request for
statement with regard to criminal conditions in
Abilene and Taylor County, Texas, as to what
cause the same can be attributed. After having
lived in Abilene for seven years, during which
time prohibition has been enforced, am unable
to make comparative statements, except that I
served as officer in like capacity in a wet district
for six years previous to my residence in Abilene,
since which time I have served as an officer for
three years. I state frankly that there can be
no comparison between the two communities as
concerning petty crime. The number in the wet
district far exceeds those in the dry. Abilene is
as free of drunkenness, brawls, affrays and crimes
of like nature as any place in which I have ever
lived; in fact, are almost unknown in this city,
which fact I feel sure can be attributed to the
absence of the open saloons in our midst. I believe
that our citizenship, almost to a man, would feel
that man a traitor to our community’s best inter-
est who would even attempt to secure the return
to the open saloon. J. P. DARDEN,
Constable Precinct No. 1, Taylor County, Texas.
liquor into this territory. After the courts had
held the most salient features of the Allison law
unconstitutional, the illicit traffic materially in-
creased; still, by careful work and vigilance, backed
by conscientious and fearless jurors, the law can
be enforced, as well as any other law upon our
statute books, and so well has it been enforced
in this county that even near beer and other
joints have never been permitted to run.
In my judgment, a town may increase in growth
and wealth with or without whiskey, depending
upon the energy and intelligence of its citizen-
ship, and the economic conditions surrounding
same;, but the proper enforcement of prohibitory
laws decreases crime, provides the people with
more of the necessaries of life, increasing their
comforts and happiness, and promotes their gen-
eral moral, physical and spiritual well-being.
From the viewpoint of decency I think there
are few who would exchange the character and
reputation of Abilene as a clean, decent, orderly
town for the character and reputation it would soon
acquire if infected with saloons and drunks, even
conceding that these would bring with them in-
creased prosperity, which cannot be conceded.
Yours very truly,
THE MONTGOMERY DRUG CO.
Dear Sirs:
I have been in business in Abilene for the last
twenty-five years and I feel that prohibition has
not only been a benefit to business in general, but
a great blessing to our town and community. I
feel sure that I voice the sentiment of every busi-
ness man in our city, that under no circumstances
if it were in our power, would we have a saloon
back in our town.
Our people are a happy, prosperous, debt-pay-
ing people, as a whole, and we are proud, indeed,
that we are a prohibition town.
I could add much more, but for fear of taking
up too much time and space, beg to remain
Yours very truly,
GEO. L. PAXTON, President.
Closing of Saloons Make
far Better Morals
C. W. Hearon, Pastor First Methodist Church.
A BILENE is one of the most delightful places
H in which to live and rear a family, that may
be found. It is a city of religion and mor-
ality, culture and refinement. The atmosphere
living P-ace 1S conducive to high-thinking and noble
The city of Abilene has had its greatest growth
and noblest development since the saloons were
voted out. As is always the case, there passed
away with the saloons those many other kindred
evils that curse wet communities. These schools
of vice and crime having been destroyed, our city
has gone forward in the development among its
people of this high ideals of law-abiding and right-
eousness-loving citizenship which alone can make
a country great.
This is a city where the churches have an en-
couraging field, the sentiment of the people here
is decidedly and definitely friendly to the princi-
ples of Christianity. The Divine idealism of the
“Man of Galilee” is not considered an alien to be
guarded against. Preachers are considered worthy
members of the community and the churches play
a prominent part in the community life.
This is also a city of schools and colleges. Our
institutions of learning are pointed to with pride
by all classes of our citizenship. Students gather
here from a large patronizing territory, and a
strong and dominant sentiment is ever working
to peel the surroundings such that young life can
find no better and safer place in the highest devel-
ment in Christian culture.
To be sure, we have sporadic cases of lawless-
ness. No large community can hope to wholly
escape these. Occasionally the criminal eludes the
vigilance of the officer of the law, and commits
some evil deed against the peace and dignity of
society; but this is reduced to the lowest minimum
by the activities of faithful officials, backed by a
united public sentiment. The prohibition law is
efficiently enforced. The boot-legger is a rare speci-
men. Our streets are unmarred by joints and
the tracks of reeling, and drunken men. There is
practically no sentiment in favor of the return of
the saloons; and an effort to bring on an election
looking to their return would not get enough en-
couragement to inspire the most foolhardy to per-
sist in the undertaking.
The saloon has gone from our midst, and gone
forever. We have found other things that are
far better for the purpose of building a city.
Closing the door to things that bring evil and
opening it to things that offer good, herein in
our fair city of the Central West, a sober, intel-
ligent, industrious, religions and prosperous peo-
ple, turn their faces to a future bright with the
prospects of material, intellectual, moral and reli-
gious progress.
’ K
305055035,, 5-
THE MONTGOMERY DRUG CO.
Kodak Supplies, Meritol Remedies Toilet Articles
Abilene, Texas.
Home and State.
Dear Sirs:
Replying to your question as to whether as a
merchant I would favor the return of saloons to
Abilene I wish to state that, looking at the matter
as a business proposition only, the argument that
to place a drain upon the salaries and incomes of
acommunity, such as the saloons place upon them,
would be a benefit to merchants in other lines
in that community, is to me an argument entirely
without reason.
522222-
d. 29
rccau.c.z . .
HE UNITED CHARITIES organization of
Abilene was perfected some four years ago
by the Pastors’ Association and others in-
terested. The business and professional men of
the town immediately subscribed a liberal support
on the •monthly payment basis, and the pastors of
the city were made the collectors and disbursers
of the fund.
At the first of each year since, the business
section of the city has been canvassed, the neces-
sary subscriptions secured and a monthly collector
appointed. A persual of the books this year shows
that 175 cases have been cared for during the
twelve months from December 1, 1914, to the same
date of 1915. Most of these have been transcient.
People in straightened circumstances, often suf-
fering with some malady, have applied for help to
reach some desired destination, and after a thor-
ough investigation of their needs have been as-
sisted.
Very little actual poverty exists among us, and
an annual subscription list never exceeding $800
has so far been sufficient, by careful administra-
tion, to meet every emergency referred to us. This
year we have expended $787.47, and have had an
unusually heavy transient demand, coming almost
invariably from the liquor towns and cities.
The approval and confidence of the subscribers
to the fund in the manner in which it has been
administered, are evidenced by the fact that each
years finds it easier to get a careful response to
our appeal.
-' ■ ..■' — -
22 . 22 1939
Pine Street, Abilene, Texas.
In answer to your request for statement with
regard'to criminal conditions in Abilene and Taylor
County, Texas, as to what cause the same can be
contributed. I am unable to make comparative
statemlent as I have lived most of my life in pro-
hibition territory, I will state, however, that I have
lived in Abilene for the past ten years, during
which time prohibition has been enforced. I have
hleld the office of sheriff of Taylor County for the
CRIME DECREASES WHEN SALOONS GO OUT.
By E. M. Overshiner, County Judge.
"T HAVE been a resident of Taylor County some
1 fourteen years, during which time I have served
as Justice of the Peace, County Attorney, and
am now serving as County Judge, and have closely
observed conditions regarding crime since I have
been here. The local option law went into effect
April 11, 1903, at which time we had some seven I
saloons in the city of Abilene, that being the only
place at which whiskey was sold in the county.
These saloons closed their doors, and in the space
of a few months their places of business were oc-
cupied by other kinds of business, consistent with
the law. Since then the population of Abilene has
more than trebled and the city has improved won-
derfully in almost every way. Before the saloons
। went out our people were a law-abiding and law-
enforcing people, and the saloons that existed here,
in my opinion, were as well regulated and as law-
abiding as any saloons I ever saw; and since then,
in my judgment, crimes, especially such crimes as
public drunkenness, disturbances of the peace, as-
saults and affrays, have decreased at least fifty
per cent in proportion to the population.
The local option law is of little or no value
unless properly enforced. The enforcement of the
law rests not only upon the officers, but upon the
people themselves. This law in Taylor County has
always been rigidly enforced, the vast majority
of the people, both pros and antis, lending them-
selves to the enforcement of the law when it went
into effect.
Before the enactment of the law forbidding
C. O. D. shipments, the enforcement of the local
option law was fraught with many difficulties;
the passage of the law prohibiting delivery to
minors was another great aid, and the Allison law
almost completely stopped the transportation of
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Barton, Arthur J. Home and State (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, December 31, 1915, newspaper, December 31, 1915; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1586005/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Library and Archives Commission.