The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-12


 | There can he no doubt of this fact. | There are a few men of what is here | regarded as unusual scruples who were occasional patrons of the saloon. and now obey the letter of the law. They still take their toddies, but take them at home rather than put themselves in the position of aiding or abetting vio- lations of a statute. This portion of the public is rather small. however. and 1t Is a we'll known fact that men | of prominence and probity in business life unhesitatingly drink away from | their homes.
 Social Clubs Absent. | Unlike Birmingham and Jefferson County. there seems to be no demand here for social clubs. The Probate Judge does not recall the giving of | charter to a single new social club I since prohibition went into effect. | There is evidence of a few of the old social clubs reyivlng their charters and certifying to new officers as If to in- dicate the beginning of new activities. | But the most popular device Is the soft drink stand. In most instances. the soft drink stand Is taking the place vacated by the old saloon. As stated. | the 175 licenses of this sort are pay | ing at the rate of $l50 annually into the city treasury for the privilege of conducting business. They are paying | 1t, however, In quarterly installments, and the final test of their prosperity will not come until more time rolls round. If they begin to default in their license payments, 1t may be taken | as q sign that they are not doing the business that they anticipated, or that the, public generally suspects them of doing.
 The saloons were paying to the city . retail liquor license of $20o in the | Ia ok nf thAfr nvId at nd nf these there were 16S. There were sev- enty-eight beer licenses issud in that 1 last year.
 The whoIesalers' licenses were. of course. dead loss to the city. There were . dozen of them Tn 1908 paying at the rate of $200 each. The wiping away of the wholesale houses, of course. knocked many men out of em- ployment In Mobile, and prohibition naturally made a few enemies of | substantial character in this way. Men who lose their jobs by legislation. aside from the moral phase of the question, do not afterwards make the best supporters of such a law.
 There was probably a net loss to the city in saloon license revenue of $25. 900. This is taking In account the soft drink licenses as being paid for the full year current. To partially make up for this decrease the City Coun- cil raised other licenses on the average about 26 per cent. So that City Tax Collector D. D. Langan tells of col lections so far in licenses amounting to about $90.000 to date. He also told narrowing tales of bowling merchants. l kicking industries and sore men in the vacations of the city. His troubles l were many in collecting the additional license tax.
 "Carpetbagxer Bond Tax.' far hot ha v nf Mobile is still struggling under ear petbagger bond tax of about five and l-one-h half mills and that for general support of the city government the tax payers are forking over another six mills in addition to the regular State and county tax. they would naturally be expected to resist the increase In licenses on their business enterprises Yet, be 1t said to the credit of the Finance Committee of the Council, property is bearing a bigger proportion of the taxation burden here than in the average city of the State. There was not the increase in license tax here that marked the coming of prohibition to other municipalities But there was good deal of protest against the in- crease.
 As to the effects of prohibition in Mobile, 1t is more perplexing than in , other places visited. To get at con- l CluS10n, you nave tO dbSuiHc tion and they maintain that there is ! so little of the real brand in this city. It was intended to investigate the ef- fects on the laboring man. the wage earner, the merchant, the shipper, the steamboat captain and his crew. the various other business interests of the port. But the inquiry was always stoped short with the thought, Is there prohibition anyhow?
 One fellow with wry face aSd rusted hair was approached on Royal Street by an anxious inquisitor.
 what has been your experience with prohibition?" he was asked.
 Spring onions if eaten in haste will remove the smell of ice cream from the breath" was the reply. And so 1t goes. The inquiry is hardly pertinent. Prohibition, even if 1t existed in fact. is only a little over two months old in ths port. It Is hard to note differences Merchants small and large. complain of dull business. The business barom- eter Is certainly unreliable because of the panic that has not gone. Fran tic opponents of prohibition attribute the falling off of business to prohfbi- ton. There are some leading business men who also lay the blame for hard times on prohibition.
 Prohibitionists' Claims.
 On the other hand. the prohibitionist points to some Improvements which he attributes to prohibition He cites it to further prove the wisdom of pro- hibition, for if the law Is loosely en- forced In Mobile and beneficial results are noticeable. what if there Is more earnest effort to enforce the law?
 The prohibitionist-in this instance a big wholesale grain dealer--says that now the dives have been done away with and consequently the few negroes that are in his employ drink little or no whiskey. They are more constant in their work. more efficient and less rowdy. The man very next door tes- tifed that he could see no difference. that his negroes were getting liquor from some source and were drinking 1t just as freely as If the saloons were running.
 A half-dozen street car conductors were approached for their experience with passengers under prohibition. They said they could see no difference. They collided with as many stubborn cases as under The wet reign and smelled whiskey as often. One of them did relate. however. that he saw fewer cases of disorderly drunkenness on his car, but said he attributed 1t to the heavy fines of the recorder.
 And that brings us down to the Re- corder's Court. Here. as in most other places lately gone under prohibition the policy of increasing fines for
 A oAN cd