The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-03

1 never return to the open DarrooHl. IL
 was that against which the prohibition
 ists raised, the greatest outcry. But when they got in power they felt their
 oats and swept away everything at one
 blow.
 Losses of Millions. l But Atlanta business men believe
 that sensible Georgians everywhere Tn
 the state will soon come to see the folly
 of continuing a condition which year
 after year takes millions of dollars oaf
 of the state without mitigating any CT
 the evils complained of.
 Up in Tennessee, and to some extent l in Florida, the fact that Georgia had adopted statewide prohibition was made an argument in favor of local op- ! ton. The increased business of Chat I tanooga on the one hand and Jackson vile on the other, and the commercial boom whl~,- has come upon these cities, were pointed to as one of the beneficial l results of the Georgia anti-1iquor law. Those and other cities in the two states
 where liquor is sold were the strong holds of the respective local option can
 didates for governor-Gilchrist or flor- 1 ida and Patterson of Tennessee. The action of those two states, par
 ticularly at this time when the prohi-
 bition question has been most ag1tated'
 is looked upon as settling it for some-
 time to come In other words Chatta-
 nooga and Jacksonville will remain | Georgia's s booze market until the state, 1 in desperation, decides to regulate fh'
 stead of prohibiting the sale.
 The forlorn hope of a national law
 which will prohibit interstate shipment
 of liquors into dry territory will, 1t $ believed, scarcely be followed much fur-
 ther. Conservative prohibitionists arc
 putting little hope in such an enact
 ment, and even if congress should pass
 it. which is considered doubtful. 1t IS thought the courts would declare it un- 1 constitutional.
 1 The Battle Line. l So Georgia. between the devil and inc deep blue sea, Is getting plenty 5f 1 both, Chattanooga is building new mo- tels and skyscrapers, and Jacksonvilie Is similarly thriving on Georgia money The express office in Atlanta, specially fitted up for the liquor trade, present1 l picture of New York bread line every time the bottle train comes In. Atlanta alone is paying Chattanooga and other points something like $2O0.- 900 n month, nor will there be any diminution.
 And so it is the action of Tennessee on one side. and Florida on the other, have revived hopes of modification of Georgia's prohibition law which. 1t Is row believed, will not be long in com l ing.
 There will, of course, be no such modification during the next lAree years. Hoke Smith will be governor for one year longer and then there Will Do l two years of Joseph M. Brown, both of | whom stand pledged to veto any act or | the legislature looking to modified l tion of the law such as will let down l the bars to the sale of liquor in any 1 shape or form The next legislature, already nominated, will be about equal lv divided between wet and dry, but
 not sufficiently strong on the wet side to overcome an executive veto. Two More Years.
 Rut the next campaign will be-. on | two years from now when, 1t is pre- | dicted by business men and politicians | alike. the issue will be squarely pre-
 sented with the chances, under the con ditions stated, that Georgia will again
 legalize the sale of liquor in some form | or other.
 1 Conservative belief now is that Geor- l gia will return to regula ton of of the
 sale eith CT in the shape of high licensed
 wholesale houses or on the dispensary
 nlan. with. a local option feature and l with whatever improvement can De
 made on the South Carolina system.
 The eradication of the barroom and
 a law which will have the effect of re-
 stricting the shipment into counties dry
 under local option, will satisfy large
 element of the more conservative pro-
 hibitionists who see the folly of per-