The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-18
Cites Negro Suffrage Amend
ment As Example of Mis-
taken Zeal During Passion
NJ )NSTROUS PROPOSITION
Is WHAT HE TERMS PLAN
Famous Albanian In Conservative In
terview Gives His Reasons for
Advising Voters to Reject
Amendment Next Month.


Navy for four years in Clevelands second
administration, expresses himself strongly
against the proposed amendment to write
prohibition in the constitution. In an in
teryiew in the Montgomery Advertiser of
yesterday. in response to request that
he state his views, Colonel Herbert said
in part:
IF this were an ordinary controversy
about local policies,S he replied, Il should
keep quiet, because ! have warm friends
on both sides, but l look upon the ques-
ton as one which is SO profoundly to af-
feet the future welfare of Alabama that
/ feel that my friends are entitled to
my views fully, however little they may
be worth.
Passion peplorahle.
I'm the first place the heat and passion
that have come into the canvass are de-
plorable. Preachers and Christians have
a right to take part in the controversy
and urge that the amendment should be
adopted or rejected for moral reasons, and
on Christian grounds. In point or faet
these have been at work, to my certain
knowledge, for so years, and they have
their aid, year by year. DR.. Eliot, the re-
firing president of Harvard university, re-
Gently declared that he had been very
moderate and occasional drinker for years
but that science had convinced him that
liquor was injurious even in small guam
titles, and that hereafter he would totally
abstain. The great worlds medical con-
vention at London recently recommended
that physicians should hereafter prescribe
alcoholic stimulants much less frequent
ly than heretofore. And my observation
has brought me to the conclusion that
there has been for years a steady and
marked decrease in the consumption of
liquors. 1 have attended numerous BAN
Quets and dinners where wines were
spread. The number of total abstainers
is constantly increasing and In the last
II years l have not seen a. single man
get drunk at a dinner. 1t has gone out
of fashion and would now be disgrace
full. Morality, science and Christianity,
working hand in hand, have done much.
"But while moral and economic and
Christian reasons for or against the
amendment cannot be too strongly urged,
those whose duty 1t is to minister in holy
affairs should keep in mind (Which fear
they are not all doing), ST. Paul's adj
monition to be moderate in all things
Colonel Herbert's Objections.
My objections to the amendment itself
are in part as follows
'Such a provision Is out of place In a
state constitution. An American state
constitution is intended to prescribe tho
framework of a government which shall
guarantee to the people of the state the
right of self-gevernment, subject to very
general limitations; that is to say, they
ought to enact such laws as may seem
good to them and to repeal or modify
these laws from time to time as expert
ence may dictate To secure this right the
war of the revolution was fought. The
recent legislature had the right to pass
itS prohibition legislation because this is
self-governing community. If the state
of Alabama Is to continue to be a self
governing commonwealth any future leg
islature will have the right. after IT shall
have before It, the lessons of experience,
to continue or to modify or to repeal these
laws. But in evident denial of this propo-
sition those who wish to inject mere po-
lice regulation into the Alabama consti-
tuition, making an argument which re-
solves itself into this, viz: they are wiser
now than we will be when we come to
elect the legislature two years from this;
or even than those will be who shall be
voters hence.
1--WE have now statewide prohibition
and what we fear is that at some future
election the people who are then voting
may be silly enough to think that ex-
perience shows they should elect a legis-
lature that will modify these laws. There
fore we will take advantage now of the
machinery of the constitution to tie our
own hands. so that we will not have
and those WHO come after shall not have
the power to correct mistake If we are
making one. At this point, however.
many of the advocates, perhaps, will say,
But you need not fear that we are max
ing any mistake-we are infallible.' The
whole theory of successive legislatures
under a free government is that every
legislature, acting on the suggestions of
experience and observation, shall have
power not only to pass new laws. but also
to modify or repeal existing laws. And
yet there are men In Alabama today
bold enough to tell the people we want
you to pass this amendment now so that
If you should conclude In the future to
repeal or modify statewide prohibition
your legislature cannot do so no matter
how disastrous or demoralizing the law
may be in any part of the state
Monstrous Proposition.
ITO my mind this proposition is as mon
strous as was the action of radicals, who
in Congress took advantage of the pas
sions and prejudices of the war to force
through the fifteenth amendment, giving
universal suffrage to, the negro.
"The Anti-Slavery Society of America
met in New York In April. 1870 to cele-
brate the adoption of that amendment.
Their work, they concluded, was finished
and so they dissolved, congratulating each
other that their wisdom and philanthropy
was crystallized into the constitution of
the United States: and 1t was, they then
thought perfect work. Now those men
were philanthropists and absolutely hon
est with themselves. But alas, what
mistake!
I'm Alabama we had six years of mis-
rule, of spoliation and degradation and
still negro suffrage was with us. To pre-
serve our civilization we were absolutely
compelled to commit frauds at the ballot
box and our Christian people condoned
tho crime because 1t was necessary. Those
frauds were degrading and demoralizing.
and, to put an end to Them we secured
at length, a new constitution. This new
constitution wisely left us the right of
self-government Let us not deny this
right to ourselves or those who are to
come after us. In my opinion. the oppo-
nents of the amendment ought to boldly
meets its advocates on their own ground.
and when they say they are afraid of fu-
ture legislatures, let the answer be: We
still believe in popular government. Let
future legislatures act in the light of the
future.
There are hundreds of thousands of
- \ ~rJx e. h.