The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-14
DR STEELE TALKS
 0N PROHIBITION
Thinks Blind Tigers Will Cause
 Less Evil
USES MAINE STATISTICS
Says Alabama Had 1oo7 Killings in Four Years, While Maine Had But Forty-two During Same
 Period of Time.

But Forty-two During Same
 Period of Time.
 The Rev. pr. I. D. Steele preached at the First Cumberland Presbyterian church last night in reply 10 the literature of the Good Govern ment committee taking lis text from Mtthew 11l:10: The axe is laid unto the root of the trees; every tree that bringeth mol forth good fruit is hewn down." and Habak ll;l0; Woe to him that giveth his neighbor drink and maketh him drunken. The pastor spoke in part as follows:
 It is claimed by the Good Government committee that il is working for the good morals temperance and good gov ernment of this city. 1 give them full credit for good faith and honesty. They do not claim that the saloon is good, but that to close the saloon by law is 10 create worse morals, worse gov ernment and more drunkenness The plea is that prohibition is by far worse than the saloons. Let Us take up the records of both saloons and prohibi- ton and examine them, and then pro nounce judgment.
 "It is said that prohibition laws are violated in every state, and should for this reason be repealed. If this be true then I cannot see but what God Almighty made q mistake in giving his laws of righteousness, for they have been viloated in every state, every and every town in the world. If it be d good reason for not having saloons because someone will violate the prohibition laws. then why have laws against gambling, false swearing, stealing, robbery and murder, for they are violated Why object to pro hibition law because it is not perfectly kept? No law in the world is perfect In stopping crime. Every honorable citizen knows that the one great ob- feet of all such laws is to make it more difficult for one to go wrong, and make 1t easier for boys and young men to go right.
 What Mining Men Did.
 "If closing the saloons will hurt the iron and mining interests in Alabama would like for someone to explain why it was that the iron men in Ten nessee years ago insisted on having law passed to prohibit saloons rom coming nearer than four miles of the furnaces. This has been the law Tor years in Tennessee, that outside of cor porate towns a saloon must stay four miles out of the way. The iron men secured this Tennessee law.
 some people seem to be dreadfully afraid of the blind tiger if the saloons are closed. little boy at an animal show could not be more frightened by a live tiger than these friends seem to he of the blind tiger. This county has more blind tigers in it today than there are open saloons. It is claimed that tbere are 12O saloons in this city, and so others in the county, making zoo. There are more places licensed py the than there are saloons There are 4S0 whisky tigers in Jeffer- son county. and 2SO of them must be blind TOT lntIe dlt oiii9 -N' This does not include certain element of both races who sell on the sly with ont any license. The police catch this crowd every month. If we had prohi- bition and 2SO blind tigers what a howl there would be.
 Statistics from Maine.
 "Our saloon friends have for years been weeping like pump over the crimes of prohibition Maine. They uray that our state may not follow the example of Maine, for they say that Maine, last year, took out 6fS government licenses to sell some Kind of spurious liquor. Let the number they claim be unchanged at GAS. Take open saloon Jefferson county; we have 2S0 bling tigers licenses In nine months of the year Take the popula- ton of the county at 200,000 and null tiply it by and you have 60o,oo0, not quite equal to the population of Maine. Multiply our 2S0 blind tigers by and you have S49 blind tigers in our county against 64S in Maine. This would give Jefferson county 192 more blind tigers than Maine, if both had the same num- Der of people. Then we would have our 200 open saloons on top of all this We have more blind tigers in Jefferson county per capita than Maine, and in addition to our blind tigers we have 200 open saloons. If we ever get pro- hibition and find 2S0 blind, tigers in Jefferson county then listen for the howl the saloon supporters will raise. want to make some people sick of Maine and the saloon record.
 They did not say a thing about the number of state prisoners in Maine and the number of saloons in Alabama. Maine should have more state prison CTS in proportion than Alabama for Inc committee claims that conditions of lawlessness are worse In prohibit tion states. Maine has 1S6 state pris oners. and if that state were as large us. Alabama it would have 55S prison CTS but unfortunately Alabama has more than her share. having 2600 state prisoners, when it should be only 55S. our state is four times worse than Maine in the number of prisoners, in proportion to the population.
 Comparison in Murders.
 Let us look at crime in Alabama and Maine. Take murder. Our state at torney. in his report, shows that in
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