Birmingham age-herald., 1895-08-12
PULLMAN AND STRONG Talk on the Liquor Question at
 Asbury Park. THE MAYORS PREDICTION Is Questioned by tho Senator Who Puts in an
 Hour on Beauties of Dis
 pensarv

enthusiastic audience that has gathered
 in Asbury Park auditorium this year attended the national service at o'clock
 this afternoon. The attraction was a
 double one, the speakers being Mayor
 Strong of New York and Ex-Governor Tiilman of South Carolina, the author of
 the famous state dispensary laws now in existence there. Rev. J. P. Dawson, who has charge of the auditorium, presided. When he introduced Mir. Strong the ap- plause was deafening. The latter said that he had engaged in the work of try ing to enforce the plain law which had been on the statute books for some time. We have corrupted police force and corrupted judiciary, but have come to the conclusion that the law must be en- forced.".
 This remark was applauded to the echo. Continuing, he said that those who deal in liquor shall not sell on Sunday. "We are having some difficulty, to be sure, and my friends have said that I would injure my political party. l want to say that the municipal government of New York knows no political party. One year from today l expect to come to Asbury Park and want to tell you that the law is being rigidly enforced, that you can't get drink in New York on Sunday. See If my prediction is not fulfilled"
 The applause that followed lasted minute.
 Ex-Governor Tillman spoke on the sub ject, What Do We Do With Whisky" In preface to his speech he said he was a plain South Carolina farmer and not much given to rhetoric and oratory. Then turning to Mayor Strong he said
 You have a big contract on your hands-a dozen big contracts-if you come here and predict that in year from now there will be no whisky sold in New York on Sundays. I wish you to come and shall pray for your success, but you will scratch that old head of yours many time during the year thinking the prob lem over l put in two years bucking against the rum sellers, and had a mon key and parrot time of 1t. I am frank to confess that I don't believe there is virtue enough in Mayor Strong's Sodom to stop Sunday liquor selling"
 Senator Tillamn spent an hour explain ing the workings of his famous liquor dispensary law. "The democrats ofsmy state" he said, " and when I say demo- crats I mean the white people of South Carolina, declared for prohibition two years ago. I don't believe in prohibi7 ton, because it is impossibleand imprac- ticable. l cannot find any warrant in the Bible for saying that he shall not drink if he wants to. I convinced my prohibit tion friends that they were wrong and had enacted my dispensary law, which prohibitionists of my state declare comes nearest to solving the liquor problem than any other means enacted. The liquor dealers of course, fought the law, and the supreme court of the United States in reviewing it knocked holes through it that allows whisky to ooze in from other states. This supreme body has done many things. You remember the to ' decision of '76 and the reversal of the income tax. That decision did not effect me- for would not have to pay any tax, but that law was re-enacted before long. Nearly every state in the union, owing to the peculiar liquor laws, is in partnership with the liquor dealers, but in South Carolina we have dissolved part nership with the rascals and have said to our citizens, Drink, if you will but come and drink state liquor, which is pure stuff, and in so doing help reduce your taxes. You can't make man vir- tuouS by legislative enactment. You have got to educate them through their reason.
 "We can't have prohibition, but we can minimize the evils attendant upon the liquor traffic by adding law similar to the one in South Carolina, and other states would do well to follow our exam3 pie. We are fighting the devil with fire and whisky with whisky. The aristoc- racy of my state fought the law and formed a combination with the liquor dealers and rabid prohibitionists. The fight became so warm between the Till manites and the anti-Tillmanites that the members of the two factions. could be designated by their drinking, for every time an anti purchased liquor from the state he declared that 1t was the vilest stuff he ever tasted, while my adherents when they smiled remarked that the liquor was the purest and best ever dis tiled"
 For nearly an hour the prohibitionists in the audience fired questions at the sen- ator. One questioner> asked why the Maine liquor law didn't prohibit. Per haps it does," retorted MT. Tillman, but I am inclined to believe it does not, be- cause in Maine there are hundreds of cit izens who are paying for permission to sell liquor"