The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-09
Has State Dispensary
 Bill Passed.
DOES NOT HURT LOCAL OPTION
Amendment to Except Lafge Cities
 is Turned Down.
AasAor of Measure Makes strong Tn'k. sThe More Attractive Is The { saloon, The DeadIier,"
 He Declares.

After struggle of nearly ten years Senator Frsnk s Moody yesterday had passed through the Senate the State dispensary bill with which his name has been identified. So strong was the Senate on the subject of temper ance that the bill was only accepted and passed after assurance had been given the bill would harncnize and not conflict with the iocsl option meas ure which had been passed by the House
 An earnest but unsuccessful attempt was made to except the cities of Mont somery. Mobile and Birmingham from the provision of the bill. The light which was conducted by Senators Teas- ley, of Montgomery, and Miller, of Montgomery. was to so amend the bill that those three cities should be con- sidered each unit, and that in vot- ing for or against dispensary only the voters of the cities in question would be counted in the election. But the Senate rejected the proposed amend ment. Only five votes were cast for it and three of the votes were east by the senators from Montgomery, Mobile and Birmingham.
 The bill in effect provides that wherever there is whiskey sold. the people of the county will have the right to say whether It shall be sold by a dispensary. or through the open saloon: There Is nothing retroactive about the bill. It does not apply to those coun- ties in which prohibition has been es- tablished by law. The dispensary and the open saloon fight is to be conducted and none other.
 In Accord With Local Option.
 There was no fight on the bill. It ate was assured 1t would not conflict with the local option bill advocated by the Anti-Saloon League. The sin gle fight was made on the amendment first proposed r. Senator Teaaley and later further amended by. Senator Mill Ter, of Jefferson. As introuuced by Sem ator Teasley, the arnefidment provided that cities having a population of more than 10000 should be excluded from the provisions of the bill in so far as those provisions applied to the unit, The amendment provided that dispen- sary elections could be held in the cities, but that tne unit was to be the city itself when such an election was held.
 Senator Miller amended the amend naent so that it should apply only to cities hav.ng more lnan 20,OOO. He pleaded earnestly for the amendment.
 Tt creates only three additional units,'' argued Senator Miller. "In- stead of having sixty-s seven units, you will have seventy units. It provides that only three large cities of the State shall have the right to say whether the dispensary or the open saloon shall prevail"
 Senator Gardner opposed the amend nlent.
 "why should we provide fo. a fav- ored class of cities" he argued. If we close the saloon in one city, why should 1t not be closed in other cities. My boy may go out from my city, where there is no saloon. I want to know, that if he goes to any city of Alabama he will not be subjected to the temp tatiqns of the saloon. 1 come from a city in which there is dispsnsary, and any man that has lived in dis pensary town is always in favor of a dispensary"
 Senator Moody also opposed the amendment, and moved 1t be tabled . This was done with only i've dissent ing votes.
 IiOody Talks Fer RMI,
 Senator Moody spoke for nearly two hours on the bill, giving the fruit of his long experience In temperance agt- tation. He was given the closest at- tention by his fellow senators, for they recognized he vas an authority on temperance and dispensary legisla- ton.
 He reviewed the history of the leg islation against the use of intoxicants. from the time of \ -ah down until for- ty or fifty years ago.
 He said the people of a generation ago suddenly realized that some re- strietion should be put upon the traffic. The first was that a special license of sl0 should be charged for that partic- ular business. That prevented a few of the places from doing business few years more, and in some of the places the license was raised to $50. That shut out still more places. Then the license was raised again and in time only eight or ten places sold the stun in some of the cities. The number was further re- duced by a still higher license.
 Mfr. Moody pointed out one of the vi. tai results of this policy. It was to build up handsome and enticing sa- looms as competition vanished ana pro. fits increased. He described the fas- cination of such a place beautifully and tastetully furnished, cooling fans