The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-25
By Will T. SheehAn

, CT may be interested, no attempt is made to argue the dispensary good thing. If perchance the impression should have a leaning toward the dis pensary it Is to be borne always in mind that those who were responsible for these same impressions are wedd5d to the dispensary idea.
 For instance, a banker and leading eittzn of Southeast Alabama discussed proudly the dispensary and the changes that 1t had wrought.
 Tt is the solution--the true solution, of the whiskey question" he averred stoutly. 'It is the cities and the coun- ties which are doing the work. The State is yet to get any credit for 1t" Now what is dispensary? It is simply the regulation by government authorities of the whiskey traffic. Far and near, everywhere. the selling or whiskey has to be regulated in some way. The very nature of the business demands laws and restrictions that are not placed upon any other business Now, contend that it is an evil trade, whether you are willing to agree to that proposition or not The fact that counties, State and municipalities bind it down with more adverse laws, the fact that they charge a higher H. censeh the fact that the peace oficials watch or should watch the business more than any other occupation, is, submit, evidence that even the govern ment. which Is supposed to have no favorites and no prejudices. regards it as an evil business
 This being true, which is the best way to regulate it? The dispensary. we say confidently. Take our town here for instance, 1.-the speaker was at Dothan. We had six saloons be- fore the dispensary went Into effect. The saloons were no better and no worse than the saloons of other towns of Alabama. Our place was new town and like all new towns we had some rough people to come in and the civilization of some of the territory of the town was to say the least, a little crude. These conditions helped along materially by the saloons were responsible for some scenes of disor- der which gave the town an ooca- sionaI undesirable fame"
 But the saloons went out and the dispensary came in. The men who were behind the dispensary movement had to cope with two different factions in It's establishment. First of all the ardent and earnest prohibition men were bitterly opposed to 1t upon the proposition that the town as to go into the whiskey business and help make urunkaFdS. Tne second opposition came from the saloon men and their friends who were using every effort to have the saloon doors kept open Rather a queer combination wasn't itl The sentiment for and against the dis penssry was very nearly evenly divid- cd in Dothan when the law was passed authorizing us to have one. Now. the dispensary has practically unanimous sentiment behind 1t. If there are any outspolken enemies of it do not know them. I may say that some of the man who most earnestly fought it are now among its staunchest admirers"
 The Moral Side.
 Suppose we consider the moral. the ethical side of the dispensary. for that consider Is its most pressing claim to favorable consideration. The dis pensary strips the tinsel and the gla- mour from the buying and drinking of whiskey. There are no wide ex- panse of mirrors. no array of shining counters and brass roads, no rattIing lively music, no tables. no chairs filled with "good fellows" There is no song no music about the dlspensary.e It is anything else in the world but a poor mans club. No flood of light streams from ont of its open doors. no burst of laughter floats out on the street and 1t has no obvious invitation of