The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-28

New York Herald,
 Out in Missouri. the Governor Of the
 State, a police court judge and a grard
 jury Investigator are reforming hun
 dreds of drunkards every day by coiii-
 polling them to sign temperance
 pledges backed by the authority Of the
 law to punish them with prison sem
 fences If they violate their obligations
 to keep sober
 Men have been liberated from the
 penitentiary on the condition that shey
 abstain from drink police court ae-
 Pendants have been permitted to retaln
 their liberty without the blemisn CT
 conviction upon signing tsmperahee
 pledge. and grand juries have relusen
 to return indictments against men WHO
 bind themselves to drink no more. Ihe
 experiment of political reform which
 started less than four years ago has
 taken such deep root and it's practl-
 ca1 benefits have been so far-reachlng
 that discerning men have reached the
 conclusion that If q state. can be're-
 Formed through the influences Of law
 bibulous individual can be saved from
 hlmself and for his family by the same
 agency.
 The Sunday Hid" has decreased the
 total crime 20 per cent in the three
 principal cities of Missouri. The rec
 Drds of the police courts of St. Louis
 Tor the fiscal year ending prior to the
 Enforcement of Sunday closing show
 hat more than l2.00o persons were ar
 rested for being drunk and disorderly hnd causing disturbances in the streets.
 Carefully compiled statistics prove that B0 per cent of the convicts in the Mis- Fouri penitentiary. owe their downfall directly or indirectly to drink.
 Two years and half ago Judge Wi1-
 jam Jefferson Pollard was appointed police magistrate by Mayor Roiia Wells for the Second District of the city of St. Louis. Day after day his docket was filled with the names of defend-, *catton and petty crimes they had com Emitted while under the influence of #iquor. Judge Pollard is a kind-hearted
 nan and a total abstainer When ne ascended the Bench the atmosphere of zSt. Louis was rent with the cry of po- #iticai reform and he was reformer Himself.
 The drunkards gave him the most Trouble and he was anxious to find some
 method of dealing with them that would be best for themselves and so- spiety. They caused him many a sleep-
 less night. Should he. like his prede- zcessors. go on sending them to the Svorkhouse to break rock, while their Families faced starvation, or should he attempt to reform the individual drunk 3hrd and place him beyond the reach of 5ntemperapee? Many drunkards were #uch hopeless sots that he knew, he eouid not help them, but there was flass of offenders he thought he could Feforfn. It was at least worth while &o try Judge PolIard's idea was to give in- l fbriates a chance to sign a temperance | pledge, and. having once signed 1t, | Force them to keep 1t under penalty of being sent to the workhouse for the l crime which brought them into the po- | lice courts as defendants. He looked | through the records of other courts for | D precedent. but could find none. But | before him was such a splendid oppor- | l tunity to do good that he determin cd | 10 try the innovation. During the last | wo years hundreds of men have signed | l he temperance pledge in Judge Pol |ard's court, which is one of the largest | police courts in the world, and less | han two per cent have violated it. Soon after Joseph ". Folk became Governor of Missouri he began issuing | pardons to men who owed their trouble To drink, making it a condition that if l Ihey ever got intoxicated again they 'nust return to prison and serve out the | hnexpired portions of their sentences Bt. Louis grand 1uries, under the direc- flOu anu HktpAe eAA4 ANGyOAttttlGEAQ4tlOfl Ql Colonei Richard M. Johnson. the assist lnt circuit attorney, are also giving lrinking men who have committed lrirnes a chance to reform Bills have been ignored againstsa number of per Ions who in drunken frenzy committed Irimes, upon signing an ironclad tenn berance pledge.
 The pledges are seldom broken, be- lause the strong arm of the law is back of them. To the convict released rom the penitentiary upon his promise To abstain from drink the Governor lays: If you get drunk again you Will have to return to stripes" To he defendant in the police court the l, magistrate says, If you drink again lou will have to go to the workhouse Ind break rock" and to the man |harged with felony committed while : Trunk, the grand, jury says We'll live you a chance to reform. but If you ake another drink inside of a year ven return an indictment against lou"
 The restraining power of pledge