The age-herald., 1899-01-18
HAVE
 .APAIGN g .. Minis. ICommittee and Estabh> Headquarters.
Minis
FIGHT FOR DlSPENSARY BILL
Petitions to Legislature Being Circulat- ed Among the Laboring Men-It is Reported That Many Sigma
 lures Are Being Secured.

The advocates of the Moody dispensary bill opened their headquarters for Jeffers IT county in the Young Mems Christian Asso- citation parlors of this city yesterday. and from now on until the fight is won or until all hope is gone. the campaign will be kept up in this county with all possible yigor. Indeed, the fight has already begun.
 The following is the campaign committee selected by the>pastors' union of Birming- ham to take charge of the work in Jefferson county: James Vinson, secretary of the Y. NJ. c. A.; Jas. E. Webb, M. c. Reynolds, J. E. Wilson, Ollie Barber and Rev. o. P. Speige. As stated, this committee has it's headquarters in the Y. M. C. A. parlors, and the work is now being carried on most systematically.
 Blank petitions have been sent to every minister of the Gospel in the county, and nearly all of them have promised to see that they are thoroughly circulated in their communities. In the city the ministers, business men and others are taking the pe- tions around.
 Meeting With Success "We have been meeting with more suc- cess than l had hoped for" said Chairman Vinson last night "Men are signing the petition that I had always thought would fight it to the bitter end. This is especially true of the working men, We have been going among the railroad shops and other places where the men work and they re- ceive the petition very favorably. They all want the dispensary law fully explained to them and when they catch the idea they sign the paper willingly. They say that the sale of liquor under the restrictions imposed by the bill is better for the laboring people than for any other class Of course we meet with plenty of men who favor the open saloon in all it's glory, but they are in the large minority. l don't know that the bill will go through, but feel confident that Jefferson county will do it's part Tn sending an almost unanimous petition from our citizens favoring the passage Of the bill without amendment"
 Yesterday afternoon Captain James D. Webb, one of the members of the commit tee, went before the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Birmingham and for forms sake asked the ladies cooperation in advocating the bill. The ladies are  pensary plan.
 The fact is that the w. C. T. U. were among the first to take up active work In favor of the bill. Letters were sent from Birmingham last week to ministers all over the state, asking them to work up senti- ment in their counties favoring the dispen- sary plan, and to get up petitions to that effect.
 Endorsement of W. c. U.
 The following is the indorsement which the union has given the bill:
 .'The Woman's Christian Temperance un- ion of Alabama desires to call the attention of the thinking people of the state-wiVes and mothers, as well as others-to the dis pensary bill presented in the senate by Hon. F. S. Moody, of Tuscaloosa.
 Ut has never been the policy of the Wo- mans Christian Temperance union to en- dorse any license system, but this bill is so free from the objectionable features Of the South Carolina and other dispensary bills that we can but regard it as good, and the best legislation available at present. We therefore favor the dispensary bill as op- posed to the saloon, as we would favor pro- hibition in place of the dispensary.
 s'The open saloon is the deadiest enemy of the state; in social custom, in law, in finance and in politics. If this bill is passed the saloons will be closer, the local whisky rings which are a curse to every munich pality and the influence of saloon men as political manipuators will be practically de- stroyed, and the liquor traffic will be minimized.
 
 Tn free discussion of this subject the cause of temperance has everything to gain and nothing to lose, and as an educative measure alone it must be advantageous" And then follows synopsis of the bill The ladies have provided means for send ing the petitions all through Thomas Pratt. Ensley and other of the many industrial communities of the county.
 GOOD ROADS FOR MORGAN.