The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-09
From the Mobile Item.

From the Mob1le Item.
 N LSEWHERE in these columns. will Ob) be found an article from Men- 0 days Birmingham Age-Herald, that able upstate journal, which includes a letter from Hon. Zel Gaston, pro- nounced prohibitionist, in which that dis tinguished jurist replies In caustic Ian guage-language that is plain and unvar- nished, to the Rev. Brooks Lawrences assertions made a few days since, In which the latter gentleman saw fit to crit icise the supreme court of Alabama, one of the most able, fair and impartial bodies that ever graced a woolsack, be- cause, forsooth, that distinguished body of judges had rendered a decision in favor of the so-called locker system" in Ala bama, made constitutional through the very identical legislature which thrust prohibition upon the whole state of Ala bama, without regard to pledges made by the bell-wether, the governor of Alabama.
 Who is Judge Zell Gaston? Ask any man who has resided in this grand old state for any length of time. and who has read the papers, and he will tell you there is not within the length and breadth of our state better citizen. purer man and citizen, a cleaner man in politics. and who. with all the honors heaped upon him by his constituents, can stand proudly in the open and boldly declare: 'T have kept the faith, stood by my pledges, and used every honorable endeavor to aid In the up- lift of my home. my state and my peo- >ple" Judge Gaston was an ardent sup porter of prohibition for Alabama For this, no man can find fault with him, be- cause he was sincere in his attitude, act ing as he thought was best, and favored the cause without hope or desire for fur- ther political preferment. and, best or all, without expecting or receiving pay for his services.
 On the other hand. who is Rev. Brooks Lawrence7 It is said he came from the Buckeye state, and he came into Ala bama as champion of prohibition, not through a spirit of patriotism, as The Item understands, but a missionary with a price for his labor.
 Judge Zeli Gaston admires the members of the supreme court of Alabama because he knows them to be high-minded, honor able men-men who lay proud claim to their citizenship in the state in which they have been so signally honored by the people. who, like Judge Gaston, had suf- fcient confidence in them as regarded their sincerity and integrity az to place them in the positions they 50 ably and honorably fill.
 The Rev. Brooks Lawrence, in ono of the most arrogant and presumptuous man ifestos that ever came from the pen of a man declares We are going to clean out
 the lot and put in judges who will let 'us
 dictate their decisions for them"
 Surely, if there was every just grounds for contempt proceedings against a per-
 son the supreme court of Alabama has
 sufficient in this anarchistic utterance from a man who not only does not con- tribute one 1.-the of his earnings as leader of the prohibitionists of Alabama to the administration of the affairs not a cent of taxes, nor has he vote in this al- '', When the Rev. Brooks Lawrence this astounding declaration in the s;..p. of manifesto to the people of Alabama, he drove long and strong nail into the coffin in which will ultimately be placed the remains of his party.
 And why this assertion?
 Because the good people of Alabama long ago learned to administer for them- selves, and many of those who were swept from their feet by a wave which was sprung unexpectedly upon them and joined in the following of the Rev. Brooks Law I renee, are beginning to tire of his dio- i tatorial verbiage. as has Judge Zell Cas- ton. It Is but a little while until, in stem torian voice, they will cry aloud: Cast him out, we will have no more of the Rev. Brooks Lawrence and his unwar- rantsd and inexcusable arraignments of our supreme court judges!''
 Never before in the history of Alabama