The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-07-29
PROHIBITION is
STILL AN ISSUE

court decided that people could store
liquors on their premises for their
use, and that for officers to destroy
these liquors was unconstitutional
This decision has been rudely interpre
ted to mean that the many sO-called
locker clubs in Birmingham and in the
ether larger cities of Alabama could
run without any interference from po-
lice authorities.
The anti prohibition element in the
neighboring state, which is large, was
in hiGh glee over this decision. claiming
that it is in the nature of knockout
blow to the prohibition cause in Alaba-
ma, and that the prohibition wave is
swing ng back into the saner lines, and
that the tide in reality has turned.
A few days agter this important de-
Cision of the supreme court was made
public Rev. Brookes Lawrence, who
has been the recognized leader of the
anti saloon forces in Alabama for sew
eral years., and who has been active
in working up sentiment for the pro-
hibition cause, came out in published
card in the leading daily paper max
ing a savage attack upon the supreme
court for its decision and using Of
fensive language toward the tribunal,
saying in part: THE decent citizenship
of Alabama is aroused and has been
wedding out from public office the men
who favor the liquor traffic, and they
| will continue to do this until every
Ii ,uor judge, solicitor, sheriff and po-
lice officer in our state has been laid
| out under political tombstone Of bal
| lots
I'VE will see to it that the courts are
constituted of men who will not work
! overtime in their efforts to protect
the liquor outlaws of Alabama. The
day of saloonke eper, gambler harlot
and pimp domination in government is
drawing to close in Alabama"
No sooner had Mr. Larence's at
| tack upon the supreme court been
j made than the newspapers all over the
state. many of them strong advocates
Of prohibition and temperance, jumped
On Mr.. Lawrence, many of them de-
Claring that his usefulness as we'll as
that of Anti-Saloon league, which he
! r. n Ano1 in lob
The fact that all of the members Of
the supreme court are temperate men
and several of them are understood to
be in favor of the closing of all sa-
looms in Alabama, if it can be done le-
| gally. made Mr. Lawrence's attack all
the more offensive to the people of the
state
The impression prevails among the
thoughtful and observant people of
the southern prohibition states that
| the attack of the head of the Anti
Saloon league on the supreme court
has done more to weaken the prohi-
bition cause than anything that has
/ tldllSpIrtd since prOnlDltl0n spread
over the south. 1t is further held that
the Alabama legislature will have
| great difficulty in overcoming the eff
| feet of this attack.
| 1t is understood that something
! like a quarter of a million dollars will
be expended in Alabama to prevent
/ any further legislation that will tend
] to drive out liquors from the state, and
| there is widespread belief that this
large amount, assisted by the bad
! Judgment of the head OF the Anti-Sa-
loon league in attacking the courts as
| well as by the fact that prohibition has
| not stopped a generous distribution of
! liquor in Alabama will make it a hard
| matter to get through the legislature
| any more drastic statutes affecting
pTchib tion than now exist