The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-22
Is
 FARCE IN GEORGIA
Atlanta Business Men Say It Is
 Dead Letter
MoONSHINING IS GROWING
One Atlanta Man Says That if the Law Is Not Good One the En. forcement of It Is Quickest
 Way To Kill It.

Atlanta, July H.-(special.) 1.-The ques- ton is seriously presented as to whether i the Georgia prohibition law is not already very much of a dead letter.
 Two well-known Atlanta ministers who are leaders in the prohibition ranks ad- mitted in their Sunday sermons that the , law is being more or less openly violated in various places in the state. They were hitting more particularly at Atlanta and savannah where, according to common report, the initiated have no trouble in getting whatever they want in the liquor line
 pr. Len c. Broughton admits that the law is being openly violated under the cover of the sale of near beer which he says ought to be suppressed just as much as any other intoxicant. Dr. John E. White says there is more danger to the state in the nullification of the law through communities and classes wink ing at its violation than there Is in beer drinking or whisky drinking themselves.
 Both appealed for it's enforcement Dr. White says if it is not a good law enforce ment is the quickest way to get rid of it. But it begins to look very much as if, in certain communities at least, there is not going to be much enforcement The near beer of Atlanta has gradually become nearer" beer, until now 1t is generally known that there is no trouble in getting the real thing.
 The cities are not the only places where the traffic fiourishes as is shown by the reports from internal revenue officials Moonshining as a business has grown enormously, and the illicit distiller is reap ing profits such as he has never known before.
 These are facts which cannot be dis puted, and yet in the face of them Dr. White characterizes as a fake recent statement contained in these dispatches to the effect that, in the opinion of lead ing Atlanta business men the doom of prohibition is sealed. It may be they are not altogether correct in their opinion, but that such an opinion is entertained cannot be questioned
 That dispatch went on to state that it was not believed the open barroom would return, but that the legalized sale of liquors in some properly regulated shape would. before long, supplant the extensive and undoubted illegal traffic that everybody knows now exists.
 Not only do business men here, but some of the foremost ministers in Att lanta pulpits incline to the opinion which is forced upon them by prevailing con- ditions. Naturally they are not preach ;,,tr Ins4 fa- sons They want to see the success of prohibition, if it is possible to make it a success, and they do not want to be misunderstood.
 But they are painfully aware of the fact that prohibition as at present ad- ministered, does not prohibit. Leading brands of beer may be bought almost openly in Atlanta and there is not an old toper on the streets who does not know exactly where to go and get his dram immediately some kind friend pro- vides him with the coin. Some of the apparent efforts of the police to get at the blind tigers are amusing.
 detective in plain clothes stopped suspicious looking negro on the streets the other day and asked if he could get him a bottle of whisky. Certainly he could if the money was provided, and would the gentleman kindly hold this box of shoes until he could go and get the whisky? The gentleman did and gave the negro s2 bill. An hour passed and the messenger did not return. Un- easily the detective went to headquarters and investigated the shoes. He found in the box a quart of corn whisky.
 The enthusiastic prohibitionist has no patience with the financial argument. He does not consider as of any weight the widely held belief that if the sale of liquor is to be continued the state and the municipality should get a revenue from it.
 But there is another important consid- eration which, sooner or later, must in evitably impress itself upon the people Of the state, and that is the lawless spirit l that is bred by unrestrained violation Of | any criminal statute-a spirit whlch, cui- ] tivated. must lead to graver and more | disastrous crimes.
 ! Iaw-abiding people, whatever their views feel that as long as there is a 1 prohibition law on the statute books 1t l ought to be strictly and rigidly enforced. 1 But if it cannot be enforced-if the state | is too weak to exact obedience-then the l quicker it is repealed the better