The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-07
HOW THE SALOONS
 ARE "ON THE RUN''
William White Allen On The
 Movement
ANTl-SAL ION SENTIMENT I
In Spite of Fourteenth Amendment Persons and Corporations Are Deprived of Property with
 out Due Process of Law"

I In the March American Magazine, | William Allen White. writing of various reforms of the past few years, sums up i the progress made by the temperance movement as follows:
 Tn spite of the Fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, persons and corporations having millions of dollars invested in many of the states, are being deprived of their property with out due process of law. Tine closing of the race tracks in Missouri and New York which has been followed by slump in race track gambling all over the coun- try. has deprived thousands of people of property which they considered just as sacred as do the railroad holders of coal mines in Pennsylvania, and probably with about as much equity. And when one es- inmates the amount of property destroyed by the growing sentiment against gamb- ling in every American state during the ten years now passing, 1t Is hard to real ize that the Fourteenth amendment should stand idly by and all this wrong done, when it is so active in be- half of the public service corporations! But the greatest destruction of property in the country without due process of law has been done in the brewery and saloon business
 .The anti-saloon sentiment of the nation seems to have gone to work about ten years ago, and worked without much re- suit for half decade. But since 1904 re- suits have been coming regularly. State wide prohibition now prevails in Ala bama Georgia, Mississippi. North Caro- lima, North Dakota, Oklahoma. Kansas 1 adopted prohibition in 1880, but did not en- | force it rigidly in the larger cities until ' 1906, and Maine has galvanized her old law into new efficiency. Prohibition has r now abolished the saloon in q majority of the counties in Arkansas, Missouri, Tex as, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illi- nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky Louisiana, Nebraska. New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and 1 West Virginia. In every one of these states excepting, New Hampshire and Iowa, where prohibitory laws were re- pealed in 1903, there is strong movement for statewide prohibition. indorsed more or less by one of the ruling parties. In 1 the election or ly0S the anll-SdloOH lieluS gains In New York, Illinois, South Caro- lima. Washington, Idaho and Ohio. The movement is strong in southern Califor- mia, and is moving rapidly up the coast. ! In Colorado the saloon has been abolished from 93 towns within the past two years. | In Massachusetts in five years there has been a gain of 110 towns for the anti ], saloon territory, and Worcester is said to 1 be the largest prohibition town in the world In Michigan there are now Il pro hibition counties and 700 prohibition 1 towns. as against counties and 400 towns i five years ago. In Minnesota live years have seen the prohibition towns grow l from 400 to 1,611. In New Jersey where ! there has been warm contest for four | years, the temperance people have secur- ed Sunday closing And a statewide cam paien for county prohibition is waging in Pennsylvania.
 s"The movement against the saloon is gaining headway in every American state. 1 And sentiment now differs from senti- ment thirty years ago. there Is little emo tionalism in this movement. It Is subject to no reactions The people seem to feel that the saloon is a law-breaker; that It is a business extravagance, and that It corrupts politics, and keeps the people from accomplishing their ends. Hence, capital invested in the liquor business Is not restricted as capital invested in pub lie service corporations, not divided as all l capital Is divided through the tax laws or the state but destroyed without due pro- cess of law, and without recourse or dam ages from the state"