The Moorefield Examiner

For some time the reputation of Moorefield as a pleasant home town, which it enjoyed for many years, is steadily declining. We have lost by death or removal many of our best citizens.

Unless we can improve conditions we shall never fill their places. Instead we shall lose more.

We have plenty of laws, but they are not enforced. The law provides for the arrest of any person found intoxicated in any public place—street, stores, hotel, bowling alley, etc. It does not say he must not be arrested unless he is quarrelsome. It says nothing of his social standing or lack of it, nothing of his color, nothing of his poverty, nor his ability to pay a fine, nothing about dragging him out of sight. You will not find any such discriminations on any statute books. What the private opinion or convenience of any officer may be has nothing to do with the case. He cannot change the law.

Drunkenness leads to other lawlessness and to many sins, against which there are legal remedies. Our citizens as a body are inexcusably indifferent to the condition of the community as a whole. Last year only about sixty persons voted in the town election, about ten of whom were women. This year let us have over two hundred votes.

Never mind politics. We do not need party lines in governing a little town like this.

Pay all our officers well, including the councilmen. It will be the truest economy. Then see to it that the work paid for is done according to law and order without fear or favor. The holder of public office has not a path of roses, and we have no wish to unfairly criticize our present councilmen but we think sobriety and decency in the community are more important than anything else that comes before them. We believe, too, in majority rule. We know that a town is no better than the people who control it. We must have sobriety, decency, honesty. A town where drunken men fairly walk the streets is in a bad way. On a recent Sunday a lady going to evening church met twelve drunken men within two blocks. Others had similar experiences. It is supposed by some that one of our paid officers is a myth, as he has been invisible to them.

There is a great deal of talk about 'boosting' the town. We shall be glad to help. We now have a Chamber of Commerce. We can have other good things, but we shall never be able to get anywhere worth while with the town or be able to offer pleasant home conditions to desirable people unless we build up its character.

Do not waste time endlessly criticizing conditions you do not approve, but take steps to correct evils. Put men in office who respect the law, who keep it themselves and who will enforce it. Then stand by them.

The respectable women of Moorefield demand a clean town, and intend to work until they get it.

WOMEN VOTERS