The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-23

the Fuller bill in the Senate was the | address of Senator Hamburger In which he answered the intoierant at. tacks on certain cities and classes in Alabama. The larger part of his ad- dress was devoted to a reply to the attack of . leading prohibitionist who among other things had alluded to poor degenerate Jew ridden Mont- l gomery."
 By request of . number who heard t Mir. Hamburger's remarks are pub Iished.
 Mir. Hamburger declared. that the bill should be entitled, an act to fur ther increase hypocrisy and evasion of law and to make of thousands of oth- arwise good citizens of Alabama liars and perturers and law breakers With the passage of this act" he said "thousands of men will be drink ing in secrecy. all in violation of the laws of the State they love. This measure and similar fanatical lave. will eventually make Alabama. the hutt of ridicule throughout the na- | tion, just as Maine and Kansas have been for many years, for prohibition has not only not decreased tntemper- Ance in communities where ma5or- ity oppose such measures, but has ac- tually increased it and statistics prov ed this to be true. How? Because 1t
 
 of light wines and beer to the use of alcoholic drinks, like rum gin and whiskey, which are easily hidden, re- curing no refrigerator and are so- cretely sold in utter defiance of the law. We are all agreed that drunk enness Is great evil; that the Amer tcan saloon as 1t has existed in many places, wirh its attendant evils and law jefying attitude. is doomed. as It | should be; that the abuse of liquor has been the cause of untold misery. but we are not agreed as to the prop or solution of this most complicated problem. You Senators, who favor this and similar drastic measures, assert that 1t will decrease drunkenness; declare that In the light of experience of other states. that 1t will not do so. but will make for perjury. disregard for law in general, and an abhorent state of affairs.
 'why look. you fellow Senators. at Georgia. the State in whose footsteps we followed onl ya few months ago. Over there the Legislature last week, practically nullified its prohibition laws. by licensing the sale of beer, 1t having already seen the futility Of trying to make men moral by the law of force. instead of by the law of love. It has well been said. that there are worse evils, than the drink evil; that
 
 character Of a people because more general and persuasive. less obvious and reachab1e. The drunkard Is usu- ally In evidence. He may be dealt with. It is otherwise with the vary. ing forms of personal and political corruptions. Virtue is self-resistanee to vice, not enforced obedience to dras- tic regulation. Morality is relative. That may be moral in one countrysl which is immoral in another country. Circumstances alter cases. Time an place must he regarded. The city is not the village, the hamlet not as the town. Sewers cannot be made to run pure water, nor boot-leggers pure drink; though, as experience has shown we are bound to have sewers. and we can nowhere, that Is nowhere in pro- hibition territory. neither in Maine nor Alabama not 10 speak of Kansas and Georgia, get rid of boot-leggers.
 Tribute to Russell.
 Mfr. Hamburger paid a glowing and eloquent tribute to Col. E. l.. Rus sell leader in Mobile agains this wave of blind passion. intolerance and pig otry, he declaring that Colonel Rus sell was the noblest man he had ever known. He had done more good for the people of Alabama and for the Southland, than q 9thousand cowpen fulls of Yankee agitators. who had contributed not one cent to the we'll fare of the State, but who had set back it's progress and prosperity for many years. "Right here. Mfr. Presi- dent, permit me to say to the Senator from Dallas that we have no objection to any man from any State or any country coming to Alabama to help us develop our resources. We want them to come, but we do object to agitators who come and array friend against onra In al and I say to the Senator that 1t is enough to make the spirit of John T. Morgan and Edmund Winston Pettus to cry aloud in solemn protest from the grave that q man from their county should stand here in defense of bigot who has assaulted the Supreme Court of Alabama by declaring 1t to be dom- mated by gamblers, boot-leggers and pimps.
 The Senator from Marshal (Rev. Sam Phillips) takes me to task Tor criticising the preachers. l have the greatest respect for the clergy re- eaPdless of creed. My criticism is di- rected to those fanatical preachers who drag their calling into the mud and mire of dirty partisan politics, and who show their intolerance and bigotry as does the ditor-preacher-politic or this paper, The Ozark Tribune. which contains the meanest, most malicious, most vindtctiye article nave eFer seen--directed to the good people of Montgomery in general and the Jews in particular. There can be no criti- cism, and there Is none of church peo- pie, taking part in politics, but there is a pronounced objection on the part of well thinking men everywhere Of the church as an institution, partici- pating in partisan lobbying or petty politics.
 The other day, while we were de- batting the educational bill, two Sem ators who favored that measure, the Senator from Bibb and the Senator from DeKalb, referred in glowing terms to the intelligence, the industry and the progressiveness of the Ger man people. 1 asked them to repeat their complimentary allusions and those present thought I did 1t as joke be- cause of my Teutonic name, but my purpose, MT. President, was to re- mind them as do now. that Germany, first and foremost among the nations