The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-09
Letters to The Editor
QUESTION OF THE HOUR:
 WHERE IS RESPONSIBILITY
Writer Declares That City and County Omcers Want to Do What is Pop-
 uisr. Not What is Right.

tie citizenS last nlSht, put dld Hot capable occupied the time, but in as much as one or two important points were left out of the discussion, 1t
 It Is well to trace things to their source If. we would get at the root of them and correct what is wrong. It IS a fact. known and read of all men. this city where into intoxicatins R liquors are sold This business Is carried on in open defiance of the law of the State Who Is responsible for that fact? The at the doors of these places. They know perfectly well what Is going on in them; Why don't they stop 1t? Sders Tsey so p%hse their as tell them to do. only this and nothing more. But why does not the chief Of police make them enforce the law? He lice. like the police themselves Is a man under orders. He does what he is told to do and refrains from doing what he Is told not to do. Who, then, concerned, for the continuation of the liquor business in the city? It is sim ply the person or persons who give the to say, the Police Commission. There Is where the trouble is; that honorable body composed of the Mayor and two Commissioners, has this matter in AahA BCs AA0 tHcy ATc ISopOnSAptC AOi the condition of things.
 If we trace the matter further and enquire why the Police Commission does not order the police to arrest these yiolators of law, then the echo answers, Why? These gentlemen all swore that they would execute the law, or they never could have gone into office.. but Tbsyr. TTby di 'ae mot ths daHt want to. That Is the whole matter in a nutshell, and they don't want to because they. pander to public opinion office by majority of the voters Of the city and they are simply doing what that majority wants done, and not what the law, says must be done. . the County officials. These gentlemen have sense and also courage to execute the law in what pleases them, but they know which side their bread Is butt tered on and they have simply, allowed these fragrant violations of the laws of the land to go on without any att tempt to. ferret out their perpetrators. by saying that they would not be sup ported by public opinion.
 :, But these officials didn't swear that they would execute the law according proceed in other matters. When a house has been entered into or other crime committed. the Sheriff has no (his trusty b1oodhounds) upon the trail Of such criminals, but when 1t comes to gambling and whiskey selling, he must wait the formalities of law and the dictates of public opinion.
 And so We have 1t that responsIbil- ity for these violations of law are shifted backwards and forwards from the Sheriff to the Mayor and the Mayor to the Sheriff. and both of them to public opinion" while In the meantime the saloon men are reaplng a rich har- vest without license and without fear of molestation.
 It goes without saying that whenev- CT the people that "do thinss"-that run the elections and manage the pol itica of this county and city. utter their hours, and the swarm of gamblers thai lnfest this city will find more com fortable quarters. elsewhere or less comfortable quarters Inside the jail
 In the second place. l wish to ask if the law against the sale of whiskey Is ever to be enforced, how is that en- f9sement n3sen d, to take tsa place It will take summary punishment of the men who violate 1t. But how are these men ever to be convicted and punished2 An tribunal, and upon the presentation of sufficient evidence. But how is that evidence to be obtained? Tn the case two ways in which evidence can be ob- tained. Either evidence must be fur nished voluntarily by citizens who have bought whiskey or other, beverages be obtained by detectives who have been sent there, eithr by the officers of the law or other persons interested in the enforcement of law. It is prac- tically impossible under existing con ditions for these men to be convicted by the voluntary testimony of citizens The man who goes into bar room and takes a drink generally prefers not Q Rt1f hA a willing to make 1t known on other ac- counts. the prevalence of a false sense of honor" in the community Is so pow fers to see the law Iof his iand tramp led under foot than to incur the odium heaped upon him by vitiated public sentiment when he acts the part of a so-called "spotter" and informs against the man in whose crime of breaking the law he participated when he in- cited him to sell the whiskey to him.
 The only other method of obtaining evidence against these men is by de- tectves. either professional or private. The employment of detectives to fer ret out crime is resorted to by all the they are not discounted for so doing, strange to say, In any other work ex- eept that of obtaining evidence in the matter of selling whiskey. The United men engaged in this business all the time. They are not considered dishon- orable men for doing this work. The Postoffice Department has large mum bers of them. Every railroad in the country finds it necessary to employ them, and the police departments of our larger cities would be almost inn potent without them. But when it comes to whiskey. the men who ferret out this matter are held up to public scorn by men who are sensible enough upon other subjects, and such is the height of disfavor into which these detectives have grown, at least in our midst, that a mob Is allowed to form. overpower and beat these men shame fully, right under the shadow of the
 What does this mean? If 1t is not an expression of a prevalent public opinion that 1t Is scandal and an port the violations of the law as re- gards the sale of whiskey then 1t means nothing. This sudden onslaught against these men was not the result of a sudden outburst of passion on their part. It Is simply the exponent of a widespread sentiment throughout this community and country that the whiskey business shall not be put ter to attempt 1t. And that any man who acts the part of a detective lays himself liable to scorn and contempt if not indeed to maltreatment If these men did not know that they had the backing of a considerable portion of this community, they never would have perpetrated the crime of yesterday and 1t remains to be seen what will be done with them.
 We have fallen upon strange times but 1t is fact that In the Capital City of Alabama on the principal streets streets trodden by the Governor and the Supreme Judges and the Mayor and the Chief of Police and the Sheriff and his deputies. these places where the law is broken openly and notoriously are allowed to continue month after month without molestation at the hands of the officers of the law. I re-