The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-14
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A0&W XA8 XxA&0 14VW VG OM8p The Montgomery Advertiser asks Does ether plan to keep saloons from doing faithfully carried out. Jon the part Of the s.s..s es; s ass coa smSsGs ae tss very thing. and that ts the only way # can be done. The agreement" plan will not work for 1t has been tried. Men have very little regard for ''agreemsnts." In our judgment the city where such an agreement has to be resorted to In order to secure the enforcement Of laws stands county constabulary departments.-Cha tanooga Times.
 That reply is all right. in theory, but we will vary the question little and ask The Times if 1t knows of any city or town where its theory Is fully carried out. We may. by straining point. ad- init that t could be done, but we have not seen. read or heard of the place where it is done. and we get our information from our contemporaries of the cities. It may be possible to entirely suppress the sale of liquor. on Sunday or any other day, in a small village. but if it is done in any larger town or city the newspapers slender their communities very much. Any one who reads the daily papers is compelled to note that the Sunday laws against sales of liquor are not enforced. The local columns of these papers and their court reports all show that drink ing goes on, and that means that some- body is selling.
 And, to get back to the main question. if "an honest, fearless and efficient police department" can prevent this offence why cannot 1t prevent or suppress all othersf Selling liquor on sunday Is . crime in almost. every place h this country. The same may be said of burglary. robbery, lassauits. and various other offences, but there has not yet been found any police department or other oficial force that can
 or does prevent these crimes. It matters not how perfect the police department may be the laws will more or less he
 violated.
 l We once heard an old and well-in- | formed lawyer remark that it is impos-
 sible to legisiate the taste of liquor out of mems mouths" and he was right.
 However much we may deplore intemper- ance, and however much we may depre- cate or condemn Sunday violations, we may as well settle down to the fact that 'ft is a condition. not a theory" that we must face If any police department in any city can, wholly and continuously prevent the sale of liquor on Sunday we shall be. glad to learn of 1t and to give that city and its police all the credit they desire. It will bs something new in municipal affairs.
 The Advertiser did not intend to com nit itself to the position that the only way to prevent violations of the Sunday closing laws is by agreement among the dealers themselves, nor to assert that such an agreement would be always ef- fectuai!h If men will violate the law they would probably violate any agreement made with each other. We took the position that such an agreement entered into by all .saloon-keepers, and strictly adhered to. would be more likely to sup press the evil than any other plan ws could think of, and we are still of that opinion. When The Times finds a city
 where liquors are sold all the week and
 none on Sunday it will please drop us a | line. z