The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-02

 city Here he finds cheap whisky that has crime in every drink, nude pictures that appeal to the primitive animal in him, games of chance that foster his love of idleness, associations with the suG- sestion of iewdness and crime poisoning the very air that he breathes. Can any man of sense and conscience justify the putting of such temptations in tho way of a people only few generations from the jungle life of sav- ages?
 Here in the Birmingham district We have the race problem in a more acute form than anywhere else, perhaps, in the entire south For here about our mines and great manufacturing plants are thousands of negro laborers who ur- der the influence I have described are simply reverting to barbarian. If it is rue, as the representatives of certain in 1ustrial interests assert, that a class of skilled labor will not live under prohi oition lava thing do not believe-I an- swer that your saloons are absolutely -uining your negro labor, the only kind we have in the south. It is common that the negro is becoming more and more inefficient as a laborer. He works three days in the week and spends the other days loafing about the lives The farmers are in despair be- cause he is leaving them. and the em- oloyers at mine and plant are In de- spair because of his idleness for days liter every pay day. And yet labor con- iltions here demand the saloon The po- Ice court records show that there were I ,173 arrests in the city during the year ending last May.
 We have it by authority that 75 per 'ent of these arrests in the city of Bir- nngham are caused directly by whisky n other words. to exact S379 That state nent alone tells the whole story,~~and should be enough of itself to close the ,ase against the saloon.
 we have a responsibility for this child ace in our midst that takes on terrible significance when we consider the fact hat we white men make and construe md enforce the laws. It is the white mans saloon. legalized by white mems votes and protected in it's nefarious traf- ic by white mems laws, that is demor- alzing the negro industrially and damn ng him morally. The United States gov protects that other child-race, he Indian, from the rum evil but the negro we deliver over to the unsuitable ,ultures of greed.
 Matter of Dollars.
 You tell me that the whisky traffic is | matter of dollars, and l tell you that 1t S more than that-it is a matter of law md order. I tell you that the saloon IS md always has been and ever will be an outlaw You tell me that a prohibition aw will not prohibit, and I tell you that he saloon flagrantly and definantly has persisted in breaking every law that leexs to control 1t. It never keeps any aw 1t can safely break The law says t shall not sell on Sunday. and yet, under Tn assumed 'be good policy, when the ,ery life of the saloon is at stake, this aw is not kept. The law says the sa- oon shall not sell to minors and con irmed drunkards. and everybody knG"s hat this law is made a farce in its non Let the saloon learn first o keep the law and then we will talk bout the possible violation of a prohib;- ion law. I charge the liquor traffic with loing more to lessen respect for law and ,rder than all other agencies combined. esent it's posing as an advocate of law md order, prating about the influence on public morals of prohibition law that on't prohibit But that is not the first ime the devil has turned preacher.
 Many-Sided Question.
 Gentlemen. this question has aspects S many sided as are the interests of fife, but the one phase of 1t that touches 'ou and me. our homes and our business, ,ur community and our state, our har- )lness and our characters, most vitally Is that your committee represent ng so-called commercial interests dare lot touch upon except with ludicrous so- fact that first of all su- ,remely it is q moral question. He who lnew life in the utmost reach of it's reeds and powers, said, Man shall not ve by bread alone.' Righteousness COIL itlons the life of community even more ruly than do pay rolls There are hings, as, for example, the virtue of the aughters in our homes and the manllness f the boys who are growing up about us. or which there is no possible price of restitution.
 Think of the Boys.
 "One of the younger business men of UT city, who has succeeded in making
 fortune, was approached tine other day y an industrial magnate who said: I ear that you are for prohibition. Why, nan, what arc you thinking about? Have ou thought of your financial interests ere? Yes said the gentleman ad- rcssed, I have thought about this. But I ave seven boys, and l have thought bout them, to- When I heard that I aid, I thank God that there are left ome men who can see beyond a dollar When the history of this fight is writ en, l want my boy, now too young 10 what it is all about, to know hat his father, with a prayer to God in Is heart, voted for his manhood and is future I want to be able to meet " neighbor's boy at the judgment and to ,ok him in the face and to answer God pr his keeping"
 pr. Montague Speaks. pr. A. P -uontague spoke fin part as blows:
 Some years ago. when in the city of ix- la Chapelie, in Rhenish Prussia. I sked the proprietor of the hotel Inn erial Crown, upon my arrival, if the 'ater there was good. His reply was: indeed, sir. l do not know. l have not isted it for fifteen years
 "Time and again that man would spend n entire afternoon sitting with other len under the trees In his yard, playing ards and drinking beer and wine Many men. calling themselves experts, eclare that the almost constant drink lg of beer and wine on the continent of .urope does not impair the health of le people; but I simply do not believe leir statements, since the taking of ny intoxicant, mild or powerful, is con 'ary to nature. and, persisted in, 1t ust affect the stomach, the brain cells nd the nervous system; it must lead to le deterioration of physical forces: and
 assuredly dulls the moral perception nd CT ervates, if 1t does not destroy, the pritual in man.
 "No sane man, '-aless hs is a seller of quor or a lover of drink, can be found !, state that <ntoxicants do not injure
 healthy person.
 A man. even slightly under the in-