The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-21
Great UpheavaI in Dry Counties
 is, Being Felt
10 STOP MANUFACTURE
only 22 Counties In the State Have Saloons and These May Be Wiped Out By Legislature Now
 In Session.
BY SMITH CLAYToN

eheii to The Age-Herald from authoritative sources.
 Members of the legislature declara +ha+ 'he state prohibition bill, now pending in 'he house of representatives Is the resnlt oi an upAeaval in the dry counties caused py the shipping of jugs or liouor from 'he wet counties into counties which have prohiplted the sale and manufacture of hquor within their borders. by elections under the local option law which hos 'eeii |" elieet Tn this state for a quarter of century.
 lhere are 145 counties in Georgia. Of 'iis number, 125 are dry by the verdict of popular majority vote under local option The remaining 20 counties. in which arc located the larger towns of the state. are wet. For more than two decades the wet counties nave been shipping jugs of liouor iheo che dry counties. And so the storm winch mas been brewing all these years In the dry counties, has at last burst in all It's fury, and the people of the arv counties nave sent a legislature to the capital to wipe out the liquor business Tn the 20 wet counties.
 War Against Cities IL IS simply a war waged against tba citles or the state by the country counties Ill the effort to make popular prohibition eHective in the overwhelming atoritv of counties which have declared for if
 The senate passed the state prohibition piii last week by a vote of 34 to I. There are A members of the senate. The bill was sent right over to the house and turned over to the temperance commit, tee. which, after hearing arguments for ana against the measure from deleeatio seht py the various cities of the wei , to"iities' mas reported the bill back to the mousse With the recommendations. that if do pass. ''ia' u
 desperate fight is being made against ene passage of the bill, but the prohibition phalanX in the house is standing like aaamant. The strongest opponents of the oiil admit that if the bill is defeated a tremendous change will have to be wrought In the views of it's army of sup porters. One of the leaders of the en- position tells me that the present outIool, IS mat out of the 1S3 members of the mousse, there will not be 50 votes against | the Dill. A constitutional majority is g. mere IS every indication now that the bill | Will get l45 votes. The bill will come up ih US regular order Wednesday, July 2f Governor Hoke Smith has stated that he will sign l 1t.
 | So 1t seems foregone conclusion that the liquor business in Georgia is doomed 1 The bill will go into effect January 1, 1907 The efforts of the leading business men and bankers of the state to postpone it's going into effect until January l. 1909 will fail, because the prohlbitionists are almost a unit against that proposition I asked the leading wholesale liquor dealer of Atlanta what effect the enactment of this state prohibition law will have on Atlanta.
 There are," said he "100 saloons. 20 wholesale liquor houses. 20 beer saloons and brewery in Atlanta, representing in all an investment of $1, 800 GOO. This entire business will be wiped out. "A million and a half will be lost?'
 "Yes, a dead loss of s1500.OOO That rep resents you understand, what the liquor men of Atlanta have invested in this bus- mess"
 Now. what does the liquor traffic of Atlanta amount to a year-that Is, to say, how much liquor is bought and sold in Atlanta?"
 He figured little and said:
 'The liquor traffic, or business done in liquor in Atlanta. will foot up in a year in round numbers s5,000, ,000."
 'So the passage of the bill will wipe out $6.500 GOO, represented by one business in Atlanta?"
 That's right" said he. "How many men now in the liquor busl- ness in Atlanta will be thrown out of em- ployment?"
 He figured again, then said:
 Fully 800 men will lose their jobs.' He added: "These will probably all leave the city to work elsewhere. but for every i liquor man who will leave Atlanta, at least three people, indirectly interested in the liquor traffic here will leave. Many men are already getting ready to go. working men who wish to get out and find something to do elsewhere before the crash comes in Atlanta"
 Effect on Breweries.
 The gentleman who gave me this infor- nation Is at the head of a liquor estab lishment which does a business of s75000O a year. Another gentleman, representa- tive of breweries in this state, said to me:
 There are four breweries in Georgia, at Atlanta. Savannah, Augusta and Ma con. respectively. They represent an ln- vestment of s1 100000, which the passage of the this bill will wipe out. An effort was made to get the prohibitionists to change the bill so that these breweries could simply continue to manufacture beer in Georgia, but sell it only outside the state They refused to do 1t, so the brew cries will have to go, too These brew cries sell 10000 barrels of beer a year.
 conservative estimate of the liquor business done in the twenty wet counties of Georgia including money invested in fixtures, etc. is about s10.000,000. It may be divided in round numbers as follows: Atlanta. SC. 100000; Savannah, sl ,5Oo.0o0; Au- gusta, s1, coo; Macon, Columbus, AL bany. Rome and other smaller towns. sl. 000,O0O. Ten million dollars will not in round numbers miss the liquor traffic in Georgia far.
 The passage of the bill will not only wine that out. but revenues of several hundred thousand received by the state from the sale and manufacture and sev- eral hundred thousand more in liquor taxes paid to cities in Georgia. Of course it is impossible to tell pre- ciselv how prohibition will turn out in Atlanta. But peculiar as it may seem, as far as can be ascertained, its imminent coming has not stopped building in this city. A rumor that building permits were heinz held up was investigated at the of- fee of the building inspector
 Here are some interesting figures: For inc first seventeen days of June, this year. 191 building permits were issued, amounting to s204, ,734 And for the first seventeen days of this month. July. 2l7 permits were issued, amounting to s3oo,- s21.
 This shows an increase of 36 building permits. amounting to something over s1o1 GOO just at the time rhen prohibition in Atlanta seems inevitable. Henry Grady always claimed that pro- hibition was a blessing. not curse when Atlanta had 1t before. Was he right?