The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-13
Prominent Citizen Thinks BiSh- ep CandIer is Going Toe
 Far in Remarks
MANY GOOD WOMEN ARE
 OPPOSED TO PROHIBITION
Believe That Prohibition Only Multi plies Crime Instead of Expressing It and Is Bad for a
 Large City.
To the Editor of The Aeg- Herald.

1 To the Editor of The Aeg- Herald:
 T would like to ask the question: What kind of a crowd of women I would get to hear me and what kind of a place would l have to speak in, If I wished to ad- dress the women who favor the other side of this question. Why. I don't be- lieve that my wife would let me speak in the place where such a crowd of women would congregate. And l want to say to you men, stop and consider, would you rather be on the side of these women here today, or on the side of the women who are for the sale of whisky"
 The above are the words of Bishop i Candler in his sermon to women at the First Baptist church Wednesday. The men who have openly opposed prohibit ton in Jefferson county and have given their reasons for their position, are get ting accustomed to being criticised and abused by the local leaders of the prohi- bition movement and by some of the min isters of the local churches. They have been accused of all kinds of motives for their actions. The heads of our great in dustrial companies have been charged with desire to make more criminals as to be able to hire more convcts, and their public and private utterances on the question have been rldlculed, distorted and vilifed These heads of large indus trial companies, who make and sustain the payrolls of this district, whose capital and industries form the real backboc@ of what we are and hope to be are denied the right to openly and honestly express an opinion on a subject which they at least think vital to Birmingham and Jef- ferson county. The property owners, the real estate men, the merchants, bankers, lawyers, doctors, and even the church members who oppose prohibition, both from d moral and business standpoint, are accused of being insincere, dishonest and actuated by purely selfish and sordi1 considerations. To all of this we are ac- customed.
 It remained, however, Nor a bishop from the state of Georgia to publicly proclaim in the pulpit of a church in this city as indecent and unfit for association with gentlemen the good women of this county the wives and daughters and sisters of some of the best and most honored citi- zens who agreed with their husbands. their brothers and their fathers upon this question and who have refused from high consideration to take part in a movement which they do not approve.
 If the prohibitonists want to attack the men of this community who disagree with them they are welcome to do so. The men who are fighting prohibition as impracticable, as injurious 10 the moral and the business welfare of this com munity, who have been willing to be guided by the experience of other com munities which tried it and who believe that 1t is a failure, are prepared to meet prohibition on its own grounds and fight 1t out, and they will meet 1t and they will fight 1t out. but they are very much surprised when fanatcsm so far forgets itself as to go outside of the state and bring a man all the way from Georgia for the purpose of viifyng the good women of this community, hundreds of whom have refused to attach themselves to this movement. There are plenty of noble, pure, Christian women of this community. as there are of noble, pure and Christian men. who resent and will bitterly resent the insult offered them in the language quoted even If it did fall from the lips of a minister of the gospel.
 To Bishop Cander, We have no hesi- tation in saying that there are hundreds of women in this city and district who are able to read and to understand what they read, who are able to see and under stand what they see, and who seeing and understanding have become convinced that prohibition only multplies crime instead of represslng it-that 1t creates criminals faster than it eradcates them that it has been abandoned in every large city where 1t has been tried, because it was utterly impracticable, utterly falla- eious and utterly discredted. Bishop Cander of Georgia may insult the men opposed to his peculiar views with i'm punity, but when he insults as good women as there are in this district with his statements. he will find 1t resented and deeply resented by thousands.
 E. l.. BROWN.
 Birmingham. September 12, 1907.
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