The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-10
Annual Meeting Will Come to Close Today After a Barbecue Rendered
 Visitors at Jack
 sons Lake.

aOOpt the ml00te ground, not prohiuluon not the wide open saloon. but the dis- stand upon. 1t is based upon reason, and facts. It does not get rid of whisl<ey, we cannot get rid of 1t, but 1t puts bride upon 1t. and places 1t where It will do the greatest good, and the least harm.
 Won Over to Dispensary.
 A year ago had been called upon to vote upon the dispensary question, I would have voted against It. l had not | at that time given the matter any con sideration, and had always associated the dispensary with certain South Carolina statesman, and had heard 1t, and It's workings .ridicuied and abused.
 | So 1t is with a majority of people in | many sections, they have not given the question much thought and know noth- | ing of the real merits of dispensary; | they need to be educated up to It, the question Is how to do 1t. Since l have | read of 1t. since I have learned something | of 1t am persuaded that the dispensary is the real solution of the whiskey problem.
 I am not a crank upon the whiskey question; l believe that there are some good points about the stuff-I believe | that it is some good to the human family | if properly handled--but I believe that | the evil far over-baances the good, ana believe that the open saloon Is the direct curse under the canopy Of high heaven. I do not believe that prohibition | prohibition that prohibits. is possibiii- l ty ] do not believe that even local pro-. hibition is practical, or even possible; | believe that you might as we'll try to legislate the arch angels out of heaven, or the devil out of hell, as to try to lesis- | late whiskey out of any material part or I our country. Deliver me from so-call- l ed dry town, I do not want any dry towns in mine, object to them
 High License Essential.
 l The question Is, is the Dspensary the thing we want? believe that 1t is. Then l how are we to get it? Public sentiment Is the law If you enact laws against 1t | they will not be enforced. Get public sentiment with ycu, and the way is easy. the question is how to do 1t; the saloon people are working like beavers against you all the time. Well, gentlemen, l think the first step is high license" High licenses an eye-opener to great many
 people. Now l will give you bit of
 history; last year We had four saloons in
 Attalla and they paid the city $500 each. or g. 400 aggregate for the year.
 In December our Board met to consider the new license schedule. We have five
 
 5c0 saloon license; the other two were
 very much opposed to it. As I have veto power, 1t was up to me-"
 | My friends, it's no small job to be | Mayor of town when you have such nuts to crack. I never knew until l was
 elected Mayor of Attalla what Carter Harrison had to contend with Well, I
 commenced to study the question. I did
 not want US to be without saloons, and all the saloon men volunteered the in- formation that they would certainly go out of business; that no one could live and pay such eXorbitant license. and Gadsden was only five miles away. and
 objected to going over to see Blackwood
 every time I wanted drink. did not want the town to get all the evil results of whiskey and the whiskey business. and not get a cent of the revenue. l am 8
 strong believer in revenue. You can't
 run a town without it. Well, studied 1t
 and studied it hard, with the result I found that the four saloons in Attalla
 sold in 1901 $46,0 900 worth of whisAey. I
 found that the maximum profits on whis-
 key when sold in drinks is about 800 per
 cent, and that the minimum profits, when
 sold in bulk is 90 per cent and so | struck an average of 40 per cent and fig l ured that our four saloons. then, made SIS. 400 in 1901. That was all wanted to
 know. I knew that Attalla would not be thirsty for 1902 and so l told the boys
 to make 1t 5000 and l would sign it, We'll we made it 2.500, and the first day | of January the saloon boys didn't open
 up, and we had few thirsty, long-faced
 citizens around the city One of the AL l dermsn, who was opposed to the measure l of high license" came to me and said, l Ed, We just got to do something: call
 meeting of the Board at once,' he says:
 business is stagnated.' But we let her stagnate. and tine morning of the third we had two saloons open in full blast. They have paid their license and both of them are making money, and I understand that We will have a third before fall. and busi- | ness In Attala Is no longer stagnated. We'll, this has convinced the people of Attalla that we can get along with just two saloons. We have less trouble, and | less Sunday selling. It convinces them | that there is an enormous profit in the whiskey businss, and you convince the | average citizen that there are millions in a scheme and he is willing for the town to get it if he can't get it himself. Rev. | erue. my frineds, we've got to have You start in on high license, and the people | will soon be with you. If you have the right kind of people. and if you have not, move to Texas. If your people are not ready for a Dispfnsary, figure out as | near as possible what the whole number I key this year, and then on the first of January put your license to about one | half that amount. so you will have two saloons. q don't believe in trusts), and you will see a great change in sentiment | during the next year.
 Sunday Whiskey Selling.
 l take 1t that tAe~e is not town in ] Alabama that 1t IS not against the law l 10 sell whiskey on Sunday. and dare say l that there are not ten saloon keepers in | Alabama that do not at some time do so violation of the law that occurs right under your honorable noses every week. and yet how many convictions do you have? l only know from personal expe- rience l have been Mayor of Attalla for about seventy Sundays. and l honestly believe that we have not had dry Sum day yet and I am surS 1t is not my fault We have had several cases in court, and one conviction, and I convicted that fel- low on just about the slimest testimony admissible But while this is true we have had much less of it. even in propor- ton to the number of saloons since we have had high license" Why? Simply because We had fewer number of places to watch. and fewer number of saloons to sell. and with a limited police force. We could keep better outlook for violators of the Sunday law. You know that it | takes two policemen. and two good ones, | to even see a saloon man on Sunday Now nine-tenths of the people. though they l may take q drink. do not like to see Sun