The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-16
Birmingham Men Purchase Specimens of Whisky in
 Prohibition Kansas
IN SHIRT SLEEVES MEN
 WERE BUSY BEHIND BARS
Visitors Find In Kansas Some Demor- alizing Conditions and Dlsrespect for Law That Were Found
 In the State of Maine.
To the Editor of The Age-Herald.

To the Editor or The e-1erald.
 During this day Sunday We have visited the two Kansas Cities and Leav- enworlh Kansas, In Leavenworth we learned there were at present time from 30 to 40 saloons, all wide open. We visited eight of them and bought and sampled whisky there and they were as open as the Peerless or any other saloon in Birmingham on a week day. They were all in the heart of the business district of that city; five were situated on the principal street and the other three were on side streets not one block from the principal street We saw many boys under 21 in the saloons we visited drink ing and some of them were drunk. On the outside and immediately in front of one of them we saw a corps of the Salvation Army performing religious serv- ices, during which many persons passed in and out of that saloon While in one of those saloons, a young man-the son of a respected citizen of Birming ham--recognized Captain Mcdonald and addressed him in this manner: Hello chief. am glad to see you. Isn't this Mlll u Wuppp. 0llH ItSPtCb to wide open saloons and whisky drinking on Sunday, Captain Mcdonald makes this special statement:
 'T never saw in Birmingham on Sun day, even in her boom days and before she was incorporated, which would begin to compare with what saw in Leaven- worth today
 al xyIqi day and bought and paid for five bottles of whisky, at five different places, all of which we have in our possession and which we shall take back home with us. After finishing the two Kansas cities we visited Kansas City, Mo, and called at Il saloons, all situated In the business district, every one of which was closed tight and majority of them had the doors locked with pad locks on outside.
 While in Kansas today we were in formed by many persons that the attorney general had been most active for several months past in extra effort to make the prohibition laws of that state ef- feotive, and your readers may judge for themselves from the facts we have given in this communication how well he has succeeded bearing in mind that it was Sunday we made the test. We had no one to guide us in either of those cities, but like hundreds of others we went right in and obtained what we called for. except we failed to get the brands Of whisky we called for in some places. We would add that the bartenders in Leaven- worth had on their white aprons and were in their shirt sleeves, just as they are in cities where the business is licensed and regulated by law. In no place visited by us did we tell our business until we were waited on and secured what we called for; but the amount we took as samples was so small that 1t ted suspicion in several instances and the bartenders called attention to it, and when they did we told them our mission; but they were too busy waiting on their customers to pay much attention to us
 For 25 years the saloons in Leaven- worth were fined regularly every month. and that was the rule np to few months ago when the attorney general of the state decided to enforce the law. The revenue derived therefrom by the city
 
 annum put for the past few months they have paid no fines, and yet there is just as much liquor sold there now as before
 If prohibition cant be made to prohibit now when the whole country is thorough 1y aroused on the subject of a strict en- forcement of all laws, then we would like to know when 1t will be made so We have here the same terrible and demor- slzing lesson taught which we found in Maine, d shameful disrespect of law. The law is strong enough, for 1t makes the attorney general dictator; and we don't believe the people of Alabama will ever submit to such dictatorship as that lodged in the attorney general of Kansas or the Sturgis commission of Maine.
 r. C. MDONALD,
 C. l.. DABBS.
 Kansas City, Mo, Sunday, October lS,