The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-11-29
MAY
VOTE HER DRY

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state. The anti-amendment followers
are also Waging a hard fight and have
spent large sums and employed more
than a thousand public speakers.
Under the statewide prohibition
law passed by the legislature, Ala
bama is already as dry as the pro-
verbal bone. These statutes are the
most stringent ever adopted by any
state, and every possible bulWark has
been raised against the liquor traffic
BY today's election, it is hoped that
these laws will be made permanent by
a constitutional amendment.
The prospects are that the consti-
tutiOnal amendment will be adopted
by considerable majority, but it will
have to encounter the influence of a
large amount of money turned loose
by the liquor interests which are max
ing a last desperate stand in Alabama
territory.
The laws which went into effect
short time ago bid fair to revolution
ize the social conditions of the state
which have been in vogue for CEN
fury The traditions of hospitality
for which Alabama has been famed
almost ever since it was settled by the
white man are being overturned, and
an entirely new order of things in
entertainment has been introduced.
Cub life in the state is particularly
demoralized. The clubs are almost
deserted, and many of their members
are talking of disbandng. This in
al, Nv, al, he hnn
clubs and shooting clubs, as well as
the leading social clubs in the cities.
The locker club system, which has
f1ourished in the larger cities as
substitute for the saloons under
decision of the supreme court re-
garding the state wide law that Ii
quors could not be seized in places
where they were stored, unless it
was proved that they were so stored
for the purpose of sale, has been put
out Of business under the new laws,
which make it practically impossible
to engage in this character of bust
ness without conviction. Where there
were over two hundred locker clubs
in Birmingham alone, there are now
none. They are closed tight and the
citizen is handicapped in getting Ii
quors to his home, as the law puts
the local deliverer out of business,
and prohibits the railroads and ex-
press companies from delivering this
class of goods c. O. D.
Nothing like the present laws were
thought to be possible in this state 9.
year ago. Today they are being so
rigidly enforced that prohibition
lists acknowledge that they are COM
pletely routed
At this time the entire state is dry
as the desert of Sahara. Not a drop
to drink can be obtained at any Of
the Clubs while people are afraid TO
risk the social glass even in their
places of business, which are under
the ban. Son,o of the thirsts are as
pitiable as others are amusing, but
nobody seems willing to risk tricks
or winks or other means Of gettinP
around the law The people are talk
ing the dearth good humoredly as a
rule. and the situation has settled
down to one of grin and bear it.
The new laws we e framed bY TOT
mer Chief Justice of Alabama Samuel
D. Weakley. one of the ablest lawyers
in the south. He worked the ran
bits foot on en- figuratively speak
ing. bv the use of such verbiage as he
found in the laws of other states
which had stood the tests before me
higher courts, and so far as possible !
followed the verbiage of the fedora
statutes themselves. He stakes ms
that they cannot be sue
cessfuIly attacked by the hlgher
courts.
The Carmichael law and the Ful'er
law. the latter ponderous affair." Il
600 words long. contain the CHIEF pro-
bibitiye acts The milk in the cocoa
mt is found in two provisions. or"
making the maximum of alconol III
beverages that can be sold one-hai
of 1 per cent, and defining places
whore liquors and beers cannot DC
sold or exchanged or given away sho
the other making the possession OF
federal license prima facie evldenco
of guilt and throwing the burden %
nroof on the accused. This reverseS
in a sense the existing system OF lega
Jurisprudence and makes escape ex-
ceedingly difficult.