The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-05
THE BATTLE IS OVER.

From the Marion Standard.
 The result of Mondays election was an overwhelming victory against the adoption of the constitutional amendment.
 The majority was far beyond the ex- pectation of the widest optimist.
 The Standard felt sure from the hour that we sounded the first signal of warning to the prohibitionists that they were Going too fast which was re- verberated throughout the state that they would be rebuked by the people at the polls
 Like nearly every. good cause, the politicians sought and obtained the leadership, and seeing only their own selfish interest did not hesitate in their mad rush for the goal. They were shrewd enough not only. to hoodwink the ministers of the gospel and the wom- en who are wives of wise and noble men. but many good men of all classes were led victims into the snare.
 The real issue involved of liberty and individual rights, principles dearer than life itself to every true American citi- zen, was hidden by the wild cry of whisky or no whisky, saloon or no sa- loon, and the brewery slush fund This slogan was heralded from the pulpit and stump. But the thinking man who paused to consider for himself saw the danger. He saw 1t was not 8 moral but political issue pure and simple. He saw it was neither prohibition nor tenn perance but the unsatiated thirst for more power by those who have already oppressed the people by czarish and fac- tional ruling-by extortion, prohibitive li- cense, unnecessary litigation, increased official salaries, multiplication of offices, and the depletion of the state treasury by over s2,0oo,ooo to satisfy the ire and ambition of one man. He saw developed men as leaders who were grasping at the very vitals of the church to secure peliti- cal offices. Men, too, who knew no friends. extended neither sympathy nor charity, and recognized no favorttes but those who would do their bidding And men who would sacrifice the home, tho church and the state to satisfy their fnOrpld pOiltlcdl HmDltlOu, LHclr Nou6c- ance and their prejudices.
 But the avalanche of votes tells tho story and closes the scene. The people now see that the clink of the glass, the reeling drunkard, the brutal father, the sourming reptile, the home of poverty and want and the thin and hungry chill dren as pictured on the canvass and played on the stage in the campaign just closed, was political hypocrisy and a play to the galleries
 The Standard believes tho ministers, the good women and hundreds of honest voters were conscientious in their sup port of the amendment. They believed they were voting to further the cause of temperance, when in fact they were be- ing led like sheep to the slaughter by po- litical mountebanks. The men who won this fight have promised and will give you prohibition and temperance. The saloon will never be legalized again in Alabama And we assure our good wom- en anew that they will ever reign the queens of our hearts and homes, and although defeated in cause many of you believed was right, your fathers, your husbands and your sons who felled the political Goliah hold not to the pagan faith, l tt "The dog. the woman and the walnut tree,
 The more you beat them the better they be.-