The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-10
GOVERNOR PECK ANALYZES
 PROHIBITION IN GEORGIA
BY GEORGE w. PECK.

| 1Former governor of Wisconsin, who Is
 travelling in the south studying the pro-
 hibition question for The Age-Herald and
 the Milwaukee Sentinel)
 Atlanta, May 9.-After doing Tennessee
 and watching it's thousands of express
 packages marked Glass. handle with
 care" and seeing the packages placed in
 the extra cars, I got on the same train
 and rode to Atlanta fearing all the time
 that if thef ront end of the train should
 meet another train, those express cads
 loaded with liquid dynamite would tele-
 scope our chair car, and I would be cut
 with broken glass and drowned in squirrel | whisky and be carried home smelling like | a reotifying establlshment;/ but nothing 1 happened and I got into a state that is all l dry according to law, but quite damp
 in places, owing to the kindness of neigh boring wet states. On January l Georsla | became dry, by act of the legislature; | every saloon and bar was closed, and all liquor was shipped away the day before ! or hidden for private use, and sort or l paralysis seized the whole of one of the i greatest states in the union, the Empire | state of the south" And what a grand
 state it is with it's splendid rich soil tn It
 will grow anything that is planted, us fruit, its manufacturing, it's timber, It's l naVigable rivers, it's entrance to the ocean l at Savannah, where ocean steamers wait to be loaded for the ports of the Woflu' Panic. prohibition, political preachers, low price of cotton and other ills have made the people of Georgia sit up ana tahe medicine and no one is very eheerlui' all are hopeful of a change, and they are | ,ffa1 lx after the presidential election, hophls things will be better. but fearing that they will be worse.
 Prohibition came to Georgia ike clap of thunder out of clear SKY ihe
 state had local option. which many brewers and liquor men thought was
 not a half bad idea, because country ooun1nities which could not afford much police protection coulc prohpl' the sale of intoxicants to those who misused the stuff All was going along smoothly; cities that could regulate the sale and protect the people from III jury at the hands of those wh, would drink too much were open ana wet and then the legislature met. Ine members of the legislature had not been instructed to pass a prohibition law and none of them thought of such
 q thing when they left their homes and convened in session al Atlanta year ago. Suddenly bill for entire prohibition in the state was introduced and soon the trouble began. Though
 there is a state law against lobbying
 in or about the capitol building, the prohibition forces took possession or the legislature, men, women and chil-
 dren. They held prayer meetings Tn the building and even in the egislatiYe halls, sung hymns and buttonholed the members until life became burden to the poor lawmakers. They were labored with, men and women got on their knees before tine memi CTS and implored them to vote dry: children were brought in and they sang and i cried; preachers and congregations camped on the trial Of the poor rep
 resentatives, escorted them to their boarding places and back to the capi- tol, and being somewhat emotional as most southern gentlemen are, they wound up by passing the dry law, so that nevermore would there be drink of budge or foaming studs in dear old Georgia. The members went home kick ing themselves and the drys sang and prayed on the streets, and gave the people of the late wet cities the merry "ha-ha,' and Georgia began so chew on what the fanatics had bit off for
 them. Saloons and bars were closed, or kept open for the sale of alleged sOll uElnhS, DOlleQ GEES ana otHeF nOI- intoXicants, drinks containing cocaine it is sad are sold freely to negroes and ehil9ren. and iknd of beer cnn- tainirg so little alcohol that it wouldn't intoxicate a rabbit are allowed to i foam out of a beer bottle and it is drink all the time, rattle stomach pep or any old thing, with an occasional squirt of old rye injected in by the bartender, if he knows you, and knows a fnr oil I saw printer taking down his neck a bottle of near beer or bereine, which looked like the old stuff and l asked him how he liked it. oh, il is sort of filling" said he, as he wiped off
 his moustacte with his shirt sleeve, but it seems to lack the conversation. 1 With good glass of old lager I can 1 hold my own talking to my wife but l when l drink this beerine she taIks l all around me and l haven't cussed word to say. l just stand up like a i dog begging for a lunch and try to bark but l cant utter my thoughts
 and l go out doors and lie down on the
 mat"
 had more faith in a prohibition state being actually dry while ago than I do now. l had a friend who had been drink ing to excess a few months ago and some 1 of us decided to send him to a Keely i cure, but he begged off, saying the hu- initiation of going to jag cure would Kill him, and happy thought struck me
 and l suggested to his friends that we i send him to a sure enough prohibition
 state. That met with his approval and | the approval of his friends, and so we sent him to dear old Georgia, where I
 had been told you couldn't get drink in l the whole state for love or money |
 thought he could enjoy the lovely spring l climate and not being able to get drink d he would soon be a credit to his friends
 and family. So l wrote to some friends
 at Atlanta and told them he was a friend
 of mine who wanted a nice dry climate
 to brace up in. l got :. telegram while
 in Chattanooga from the friends I had
 sent him to, that l better hurry down
 as my jag friend needed aid and coun-
 sel. When 1 got here he was the worst ; looking specimen l ever sawl his collar
 gone, his shirt soiled, his eyes red and
 he was trying to walk straight, but
 couldn't. He took me to his room and
 there were over 40 bottles he had or
 dered by express from Tennessee, and
 he said 1 was mistaken in the prohibit
 tion that was supposed to exist in Geor-
 gia. He said all a man needed was the
 price and he could be drunk all the time
 and l could readily believe him. He was
 given ticket to Dwight, Ill., and guess
 he has had his first shot of the gold
 cure before this.
 And that is the trouble about the ne
 groes, that such laws are supposed to
 benefit. They know that white men ear
 get all the liquor they want in a dry
 state, by sending out of the state for it nd ttaxy fAa l,at tl,ox ,ct arT