The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-01
REVOLUTION IN SOCIETY
 CAUSED BY PROHIBITION
Also Np Gainsaying Disturbance in Business of City and State "Reminiscences of
 Departed Saloons.

For the first time since the fall or 1877. when Andrews Dexter came to the site of the present City of Mont eomery, with the deeds for land in his pocket and found wilderness of hills. guilies and river cane. the city VIII pass under a rigid prohibition law. | For the first time since the city was is now unlawful. ,
 Il means . great economic business and social change in Montgomery N means, according to the arguments oI 1 the men. who advocated prohibition . great moral change a belief which ts strongly combatted by those who op- posed the enactment of the law, but the enforcement of the law will prove which is the correct view. No one | do,abts that the new law. with itn radical changes. will unfavor- ably affect business Tn Montgomery Tor l awhile, but 1t Is believed, that in short time the lost ground will De more l than rcgained.
 1t will affect trade and business con ditions in Montgomery for one tning' because there are 10 saloons In Mont l gomery having licenses. well m 1 formed man said Thursday there were | m Montgomery 1900 persons directly | dspsnaent upon the saloon business Tor | a Livelihood These people are the ss~ l loon owners. the bar keep l CTS, the bookkeepers and their clerks. I Their salaries 1 none week foot up 70 l large round figures
 The closing of the saloons win effect ] but little and perhaps not at all m l the business district In the pusiness I district every saloon has already been | rented although 1t is said that some l of them have been rented at a lower | figure than that for which rent was T maid by saloon men. Tn the residence I s1istrict and the suburbs, 1t Is said, aii the saloon property has not yet been | rented.
 The city will feel a direct financial loss in the removal or numpsr ~ 1 ia-.s wholesale liquor houses. Mont- l gonnerv was well supplied with this | class of houses and a considerable sum was brought Into the general business of the city by them. This trade Will pc d total loss to the city. Most of the l wholesale houses have moved to Pensa- cola. Tn establishing themseives in business there.S their best asset 10 tne list of regular Montgomery ana ,' Aia- barna customers which they take with them. The proprietors, and the em- pioyes of these houses will be lost to the city. even as their salaries VIII pc foes to the city's business. Tnese houses in past months had sent out l number of travelling men, wno drew their salaries and made their homes ID Montgomery.
 The whiskey men have always claim d that the fact that Montgomery was 1 an sopen saloon town" had drawn vis- itors and business to the city. whether or not this is true does nos matter! But if 1t is true. 1t Is only
 another feature of the loss that VIII
 como to the city under the change
 Tbe prohibitionists--andM Montgomery has a number of earnest advocates os fthat remedy for social evils--insist that
 osher benefits will more than onset tne | possible temporary financial loss from
 tbs cIos,ne of the saloon. But hus- l mess men of Montgomery arc not clos. ing their eyes to the fact that until
 conditions have adjusted themselves
 Monteon1eryfs business will feel the ef- feet of the radical change ID the laws.
 Montgomery has never favored pro hibitiun. The earnest prohibttiohists thnt interested themselves in securing
 a local option election before the pro | hibftion act was passed had some am
 cuIty in securing the requisite num-
 her of stgners for the petition for the
 eiectfon. The most enthusiastic or
 these gentlemen did not hesitate 10 Esay that notwithstanding all the church and moral influences that could ba brought Co bear. the processions
 and the other things. that mark | To.
 cal option election 1t was douhtfni " prohibition could carry in Mont4om cry county. The opponents of proht-
 bition say that the county is normal ify to 1 against it and that even
 with the influences that get into pol Ittics when prohibition is up that if
 could never carry in this county. But | whether 1t could or could not does moi
 Tnhttar. because the Legislature never
 gave the people of the county
 chance to vote on 1t.
 The Liberal EIemeat.
 | rha fact remains, however, that
 Monteomery's population has always
 been considered as being largely made up of "the liberal element" The city
 ia old and established and old customs
 arc hard to leave behind.
 A considerable part of the popula-
 ton believe on prohibition as it did
 twenty-five years ago. But there IS
 In the city a strong sentiment for the enforcement of the law. sentiment
 which Is held as much by some form
 ST opponents of the law as by the ad-
 vocates of the measure themselves,
 The peace officers declare that the
 law will be certainly enforced. Ger
 tainIy there will be no open and flag
 rant violation of 1t.
 Facing the truth squarely and talk
 ing of life as 1t really was in Mont gomery it must be said that the law closes q number of places which have been a feature of the business and so- cial life of the city when the sale of liauor was recognized as legal and legitimate business. Montgomery had
 some of the oldest and most noted sa- looms in the entire State.
 There was Fleming's. for instance, 1 or Yung's Restaurant as t was later
 called. That saloon for nearly half | a century has been as much a land-
 mark in Montgomery as the old Ex-
 change Hotel.
 | Apropos of a political sensation that l was said to have had its birth Tn ] Fleming'R Restaurant, a bright Ala | bama editor delivered himself of this l apiKram, which became a part of the | states political afiairs:
 | 'No man ought to be held respon- sible for political declarations made in FIeminE's."
 The people of the State might not ike to believe it but 1t is nevertheless | the truth, that state ofKicials have
 been made and unmade in-Flemings: party lights have been shaped there: political destinies have been settled l and out of Fpemlng's new stars cave mounted the political skies. It has bee1 a great place for caucuses and | conferences And there are men in Alabama today who have become staunch prohibitionists. who recall Fleming's of the day of their youth. 1 the hours spent, tho men they met and