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

 good, gray-haired old lady. the veteran of many another prohibition fight, with the light of hope beaming from her eyes, pleaded for motherhood and invited all the women to attend the prayer meet ings on Tuesday afternoons. She is the president of the Women's Christian Tenn perance union
 Walter L. Sessions, chairman of the central committee, also made a short talk, which was strong in it's devotion to the prohibition cause. As the audience filed out white ribbons were pinned on every coat by the young ladies of the un- ion.
 Following is pr. McCoys address: pr. McCoy's Address.
 AS minister of the gospel, and as citizen of the great county of lief ferson, I have never been more con- scious of the approval of God than in lifting my voice on this occasion for law and order for the schools and churches, for the women and children of our community, indeed for all that be- longs to the better part of our social life, as against a predatory business whose one unblushing excuse for eX- istence is the dollar it puts into the pockets of the men who fatten on tn 0 , weakness and woe of their fellows. Our opponents chose the only possi- ble ground on which they can make their fight when they presented to the community an economic argument that is as vulnerable as it Is labored. There is a dollar back of every word that can be said for the saloon-and gen erally that dollar. either directly or in- directly, Is headed to ward the pocket of the man who makes the argument.
 "The victims of whisky are not it's champions in this contest. Many of them in their despair are with us. We have got to fight the only men whom whisky ever helped-those who sell whisky and these who profit by saloon rentals and those who imagine that the traffic adds to the general prosperity and that tie revenues from 1t reduce taxes. It Is inconceivable that sensible men should seriously argue for the saloon from any other premises.
 Between God and Mammon.
 "Shamelessly and in cold blood this city has been asked to make it's own prostitution matter of dollars and cents. In order that one hundred and fourteen houses occupied by saloons may continue to pay abnormal rentals, and in order that the public expense may be borne in part by the license money, we are asked to allow these one hundred and fourteen mills of crime to grind out night and day their grist of crime and poverty and despair.
 Ladies and gentlemen, let us un- derstand the situation. It is an issue between God and mammon. That is Joined in Jefferson county. And this struggle, what time it Is deciding the fate of the saloon, will also judge and reveal men. No man can serve God and mammon. We must oh oose between the two-and in choosing submit to the Judgment passed upon us by our choice.
 Economic Question.
 "Is the whisky traffic an economic question? It Is. And I do not hesitate to say that if the issue were confined to this one phase, we should be able to meet and defeat our opponents on their own ground. The saloon is economi- cally unjustifiab1e because 1t Is always a consumer and never a producer.
 When a log passes through a saw mill 1t comes out humber and adds to the wealth of the community; when n boy passes through the saloon, he comes out drunkard. his earning ca paoity gone and he himself a tax on the public, and the community is i'm poverish ed In the process. The money that passes into the till of the saloon
 
 munity.
 'It is only stream that is diverteN from every legitimate channel of trade.
 "The saloon is commercial parasite. You would as well talk of building up man physically by putting verrain on him, as to talk of building up a town by allowing the saloon to feed upon It's commercial life.
 "It costs the saloons of BIrfiHs sam about half a million dollars annually to pay their running expenses. If their profits average annually s200 each, then 1t costs this community directly in dollars and cents to say nothing of the incidental tax of their conse- quest crime and poverty. about three quarters of a million dollars annually.
 Wage-Earners Pay.
 Now where does this money come from? From the pockets of the wage earners directly. Indirectly from the till of the grocery merchant and the sh oe merchant and the savings bank, whether it would flow if not thus directed.
 By so much as the saloon prospers. do other legitimate lines of business suffer. By so much as it's business is curtailed is the general volume of bus mess increased Permit concrete case by way of illustration: You have heard a great deal and will hear a great deal more to the effect that prohibition in Maine has proven a failure. Yet even the enemy will have to admit that in producing widespread prosperity, 1t has been an amazing success.
 Compare Maine with the whisky sodden states of Ohio and Illinois, and you will find that in Illinois the say-