The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-16

arduous labors OF attempting to nuilify
the bill Of rights and the constitution
OF the State.
Criminal and iawiess--the advo-
fcates of intemperance and immortality
you men who have written your name
high upon the brightest pages of the
States history, who have fought her
battles In time of war, who have pre-
served her civilization In time OF
peace. and I, whose Drawn and brain
and high civic virtues Alabama is in
debtej for good government for
material prosperity. for the advance
OF education and morality and for
terhood states. see before me
many who In the past obeyed the call
OF the State and illustrated on his
tortc fields of battle, the courage. the
heroism. and the dauntless fortitude
which has been made the name and
fame of the Confederate soldier i'm
mortal Many Of you are the same
men, who after the close of the con-
flict loyal to your paroles. when the
South was about to be subjected to a
humiliation greater than any which a
free and enlightened people had ever
endured, rallied your decimated ranks,
from the ashes of your homes and the
graves of your dead, and Drawing
Federal bayonets and Federal
prisons, stood in solid and dauntless
phalanx around the inner temples of
our liberties, determined at any cost
to preserve unimpaired the purity of
our race and the integrity of our
civilization.
| Call For Service.
The State again today demands
/ vnfyF aarvfNAa nraGarvaffnn m
that individual liberty and local self
government for which you SO bravely
fought when you followed the South
ern cross amid the flames TIE smoke
and carnage of battle.
| This conference Is not called for
the purpose of organizing a campaign
against statewide prohibition. Many
OF you sincerely believe that statutory
prohibition of the sale of intoxicating
| liquors is the best solution of the
liquor problem. Many of you also
think that local option. today the I'M
repealed creed of the party as express
ed In it's last platform, based on the
| fundamental doctrine of local self
government--local option, which backs
prohibition with the support Of a
majority OF the electorate in every
county where II is adopted-that local
option furnishes a remedy more in 40.
cord with individual right and the
fundamental theories of Jeffersonian
| democracy.
yet whether advocating local option
or statewide prohibition. - egardless
OF party affiliations. you ore all united
as one man in oppositicl to the un-
| wise. unnecessary ant unwarranted
movement to not only write a police
regulation in our organic law, but to
enlarge TO most dangerous and un-
precedented extent the police power of
| the legislature over the homes of the
people. and 10 make the free born
citizen of alabama the servile slaves
OF an irresponsible legislative
oHgarcby.
Amendment VIII Open Door.
| 'Ycd oppose this amendment because
1t would open wide the door of assaults
| on the Constitution-the citadel of the
Peoples rights. a Constitution secured
| after long years of patient and cease
less effort. framed by the representa-
tives OF the sovereign State of Ala
bama, REPRESENTING the free and un-
trammeied will Of our people--uninfiu-
enced by Federal power or the fear of
Federal Interference Constitution
which purified the suffrage, and which
without violating a single clause of
the Federal Constitution, forever re-
moved the menace Of a debauched and
corrupt suffrage. You oppose. this
amendment because the present Consti-
tuition after full. free and fair dis
cussion was endorsed and ratified by
the sovereign voice of a majority of
our people, and because under its wise
provisions our State had entered upon
a new era of unexampled progress
material. moral. social and educat ioual
! ment which has been ~ouIy~ohecked by
unwise and vicious laws. the result OF
numerous and unnecessary special see
sions of the law-making body.
you oppose this amendment because
| its submission was secured by grave
and reprehensible abuse of a high ex-
ecutive prerogative because no extra
ordinary occasion had arisen within
the plain and, conceded meaning of the
Constitution, to justify the converting
of the Legislature-because It was nor
proposed in obedience to any popular
demand but was adopted by a Legis-
lature, solemnly pledged to local option,
and was inspired by selfish political
am bition, the intrigues of a secret po-
littcal junta and fanatical love OF pow
err You oppose this amendment be-
cause 1t cannot give you additional
| force and validity to the prohibition
laws now on our statute books, be-
cause the claim that 1t will stop agi-
tation Is belied by the uniform and I'M
Exceptional experience of every State
where similar experiments have been
tried. and is the false and hypocritical
plea of political demagogues in their
desperate effort to arrest the swelling
tide of popular indignation at their
base and cowardly betrayal of the peo-
pies rights. You oppose this amend
ment because YOU still adhere to the
grand dogma of the common law that
every mans home is his castle, and
that though awe and majesty may
clothe the King, the humblest subject
might shut the door of his cottage
against him and defend from intrusion
that privacy which was as sacred as
the kingly prerogative.' You oppose
this amendment. because it declares
that nothing in the bill OF rights and
nothing In the Constitution shall inter
fere with the absolute power of the
Legislature to invade the homes of
the citizen, to subject him to unreas-
enable searches and seizures, to regu-
late his private habits. to surround
him with a swarm of spies,sand by paid
informers, and make the liberty of ev-
cry man subject to the arbitrary ca
price of some petty officer of the law,
enemy. You oppose this amendment
because private vengeance, false
swearing and blood money INSOFAR
able from the assertion and exercise
| OF arbitrary power. would be the cor
ner stone on which 1t was built. You
| oppose this amendment because the
I,egislaturc should not be invested with
absolute control and surveillance of the
home and private habits and individual
rights of the citizens.
May Reach to Home.