The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-15
IS NUT WRONG ID CRITICIZE COURTS Anti Prohibitionist Expresses
 His Views SILENCE IS DANGEROUS Takes Mobile Item to Task for Asser- ton That MT. Lawrence Should
 Be Prosecuted for Con-
 tempt of Court.

ing company, who declares he is against prohibition as the proper solution of the liquor traffic, believes there has been an exaggeration in the charges of improprie- ty in criticising a decision of the su- preme court of Alabama. He writes: To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 Your issue of July contains an article. evidently an editorial, from the Mobile Item, in reference to a recent letter of the Rev. Brooks Lawrence regarding the prohibition question. This is only one of a dozen such criticisms that I have read in the past week and, while 1 have al- ways been an anti-prohibitionist and voted against prohibition. such cheap, slandering articles as this arc enough to make any man change his views on the subject.
 The Item states that MT Lawrence pre- sumed to criticise the supreme court of Alabama and should be prosecuted for contempt. Heaven help us! How long has it been since every paper in the south published a very severe criticism of the supreme court of Tennessee, by very high official of that state? How many times has every paper In the United States seen fit to criticise the President. vice president or any other official of this country? Do you remember the bill Governor Pennypacker of Pennsylvania put through the legislature of that state which prohibited the publishing of car toons of the officials of that state and the howl the papers raised against this bill, as 1t restricted the freedom of the press? The papers were right in this, but you must admit that any private citizen should have the same right that Is claimed by corporation. I beg to quote the following from recent speech by Judge Gaynor: "If there are short-com- ings in political administrations there are also errors in judicial administrations. To think of the courts as incapable of lapse is on par with the exploded theory that the King can do no wrong.
 Tn law the judge Is delegated to act for the King With us the courts act for the people. And AS the people are at times wrong, so may judges also be wrong.
 "It Is Ldicrous for judges to set up the cry that the courts must not be criticised by the people. Moreover. 1t is a strange and evil notion.
 "The courts must be watched, criticised, regulated and restrained by public opin- ion. Free criticism is the one safeguard against an arrogant, slipshod and dis honest bench. For its own good court should welcome criticism, not repress 1t. We abide by the decision of our courts, but the man who thinks he has been wronged by a court should have the priv iege of saying so"
 
 Lawrence? Most noble paper, what brand of dope have you been taking that has enabled you to slumber so blissfully for the past year or two, because we anti prohibitionists of Alabama have very good reasons for knowing who he is?
 The Item states that MT. Lawrence came to Alabama from the Buckeye state as champion of. prohibition, mot through spirit of patriotism. as the Item understands. but a missionary with a price for his labor" Here again we have the old, cheap argument which you so often hear used against the church that preachers work for pay. No doubt the Mobile Item Is run purely for pa- triotism and we presume that all the pat ent medicine advertisements are pub lished free. simply to save the people of Alabama from all the horrible tortures they will suffer if they don't take Dr. Fakes anti-death tonic.
 The Item uuoteg MT. Lawrence as fol- lows: "We are going to clean out the lot and put in judges who will let us dictate their decisions for them" Tho honorable editor of the Item, with his massive brain and eagle eye, has been able to see many things in MT. Law rence's letter which I have been unable to find, and I wish he would send me copy of MT. Lawrence's letter with this passage marked in ink, in order that I may be able to find 1t.
 Admit for the sake of argument, that MT Lawrence said little more than he should have said. or, at least, that what he said was worded in such way that 1t could easily be misleading, isn't it remarkable how quickly everyone, including many leading editors, jumps on him and raises howl such as we have not heard in many moon. How closely he has been watched and yet, the Mobile Item asks, "Who Is he?"
 It
 Here. again. We see the little mole nili. like walter Wellman's balloon, inflated to such an extent that 1t overshadows the north pole and makes Mount Everest look like a measly hill of beans. dried up by the scorching rays Of prohibition.
 The Item states that when MT. Law renee made this astounding declaration he drove a long and strong nail into the coffin in which will ultimately be placed the remains of his party. If leading democrat should make statement detri- mental to the party would the Mobile Item claim that he had prepared conin for his party? So now we see what the Item is driving at. It doesn't care espe- cially what MT. Lawrence said' put IL sees a good opportunity to jump on pro- hibition and the article testifes as to what advantage the Item has taken-of A1e opportunity.
 Have we seen any scathing editorials condemning the attorney general Of Ten- nessee for severely criticising the supreme court of that state on account Of their decision in the night rider cases. But, then. of course. that had nothing to do with prohibition.
 The Item states that the good people of Alabama learned long ago to administer for themselves, but 1t seems to forget that 1t was these same good people who brought this long drouth on themselves, after giving the matter due consideration. In one breath the Item says that the peo- ple can run themselves and in the next 1t states that they were all fooled about this prohibition business If they can all be fooled SO easily. how can they run themseives7 Tho Item evidently means that the people know how to run their own affairs as long as they do it In accordance with the ideas of the Mobile Item.
 As I stated above. I am not and have never been a prohibftionist, and l am not writing this in defense of MT. Lawrence, because he doesn't need defender. pe- ing well able to take care of himself. I know. however, that he Is not what the Mobile Item would have us believe he is but is just as good, just as honest and doing his duty as he sees 1t. just as well as the man who wrote that article in the Mobile Item. The fact that he gets paid for what he does has nothing to do with 1t, because every preacher in Alabama gets paid and they would have fine time trying to live around here if they didn't For the love of heaven let us who do not believe in prohibition be fair and square and not try to take ad- vantage of mean little technicaiitfes. So far I have been unable to see this mat ter from the prohibitionist's point of view, but I am stfll willing to admit that I may be wrong and he right, because.