The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-10

l coming nervous wrecks. People who en- l ploy negro help notice that former good servants are becoming unreliable, ner- vous, exctable, quarrelsome and they are ] actually afraid of them. Those who have 1 observed the downfall of a white friend l from the use of opiates and have seen ] the best friend become a cocaine fiend, i gradually, until finally the brain power
 seems to be paralyaed, and the friend be- comes a nuisance, can imagine what it means to a community in which thou
 sands of colored people are going the downward road through the use of a soft drink that looks innocent and tastes good, but has the same effect that morphine has on the white man or woman who be- comes addicted to it's use. That is one of the most serious questions that now 1 faces the eolored race today in the south, the uee of cocaine, not by going and buying 1t at a drug store, knowing what
 it is and what it will do to them, but having it smuggled into the system un- der the disguise of an innocent soft drink
 But maybe the Almighty Is solving a question that agtates the whole south. the question of frequent assaults upon unprotected women. If the cocaine in
 soft drink will knock the cussedness cut of the negro, by causing his nerves to be so shattered that he will mind his own business, and not have sand enough to go prowling around where he has no right to be- and prevent him from committing crimes that are unspeakable, some good will have been done to the white people of the south, even though the use of the drug makes him unable or unwilling to work and lands him in jail or the poor house. The white people of the south had rather support a large proportion Of the crminally inclined blacks in sale quarters than to have too many of them run at large
 Under the old local option laws. sa- looms in cities were regulated better than
 the soft drink joints are now. Then sa- looms were not allowed to have tables and chairs. or serve a lunch with drinks, and no women were allowed in any room connected with a saloon. the men being compelled to stand up to the bar take it or leave it." and the saloons had to close at an early hour nights and remain closed on Sundays if I am rightly in- formed Now the soft joints are open all the time, tables and chairs are al- lowed, and women and men, regardless O, whether they belong to each other, or ever saw each other before, sit together and enjoy the soft stuff, and eat and drink until they have to be helped up from the table, if a kindly barkeeper is wise to the wink the man gives him on the sly and puts in a thimbleful of dope.
 In addition to the other troubles in dry cities, nickel theatres spring up where saloons go out of business, and are crowd- ed with men. women and children, who swill soft stuff and laugh at stale shows that are bawdy, and the photograph plays We won't go home till morning. and they don't. They say. even nickel theatre jag is pretty bad.
 And now, what is going to be the re- suit of prohibition in Georgia? Already the people are getting tired of it, and men Iac Inr fcla afflrn country counties arc being retired, pr beaten at the primaries by men who are for local option, but not statewide pro- hibition, who believe In allowing large city to decide whether it shall be wet or dry and not allowing a county to de- eide for a city what it shall do. Some counties in which there are large cites can vote a city dry, that is the voters who live far away from a city, in the same county, can make the city have no voice in it's own affairs Already the coun- ties of Campbell Cobb Hall, Newton and Terrell have voted for others than the members of last year who balled things up by being prayed and sung into state prohibition when the people only wanted local option and the people all along the line are talking about going back to local option They know there is something serious the matter with Georgia, its bus mess and prospects, and if it Is prohibit ton that has put the state asleep at the switch" they are going to find It out and remedy it. Savannah is in very bad shape, her business which was so great up to a year ago, is so crippled that the people are actually frightened at the out look Savannah is one of the greatest shipping ports in the south, and was for merly the busiest city to be found any where but it feels the trouble and all business men wear an anxious look, in stead of the care free loo Of old me Savannah Chamber of Commerce has taken up the question of prohibition, and has issued some resolutions on the liquor question which are too long for this ar ticle The resolutions call upon the bus mess men of Georgia to rally against prohibition as it now exists in the state, says that "the present law of Georgia unwsely and unnecessarily operates against the welfare and material inter ests of the state in that it forbids the manufacture and sale O. malt beverages and domestic wines;" and then the last resolution says, that in the opinion of this Chamber of Commerce our state laws should be so framed as to discriminate against dnalt and fermented beverages on the one hand and distilled spirits on the other, so as to permit of the manufac- ture of beers, ales and native wines, un- der proper regulation as to their purity and WhOleSOmeneSS, WILL proniDltiiS dii distilled spirits and liquor- or every kind,' etc.
 That iss the sentiment that is taking root in Georgia today Let beer, ales and i wines in, bar the low saloon and bar rooms, keep whisky away from the ne 1 groes, and let every man be put on his | own good behavior, personal liberty | such as all Americans swear by People who six months ago were prohioitlonists l of the dryest kind. now say, well, what ! is the matter with little good beer or
 domestic wine? They never did harm anybody. Let the farmer of Georgia raise 1 hops and barley and corn and rice and grapes and not so much cheap cotton
 and let us see how wine looks and tastes made from Georgia grapes, and how beer
 will act made from our own hops ano l barley and 1 guess we will all feel hap
 pier than we do now. With all the picker | ing and quarreling over our appetites
 show me wet place and l will go and
 take one drink right now, by gosh."
 heard 50 men at least in Atlanta wht favored prohibition a year ago, say ir effect, I've were made to believe that W.
 would save the negro from getting liquor
 but he can get it better than ever, whils
 we go about wanting a drink occasionally but ashamed to take one and our throat: are parched and we are cussed hypocrites and now we favor good beer and wine and to hell with nigger whisky and whit, man whisky; and hereafter l will vote fo beer and would not be afraid to see negro drink beer, because instead of driv ing him crazy it makes him smile, ant puts money into the collection plate q his church, while whisky makes him wan