The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-05
ENFORCEMENT IF
 PROHIBITION LAW
Court of Appeals Will Act on
 Question from Atlanta
LODGING THE CHAlNGANG
State Courts Do Not Give chaingana Sentence In Every case-Monu- nent to Samuel Spencer
 Will Be Unveiled.

Atlanta, April 4.-(Specia1)-A rnomen- tous question involving the enforcement of the prohibition law in Atlanta. now awaits the decision of the court of ap- peals.
 Recorder Nash R. Broyles of the mayors court maintains the right under a city ordinance to impose the double pen atty of fine and chaingang sentence upon any person in whose business premises there is found liquor, kept presumably for the purpose Of sale.
 In some 40 or 50 cases of this sort to date he has imposed the maximum pen alty of $500 fine and 30 days at hard labor in the city stockade. In addition to this he has turned the defendants oyer to the state court for violation of the state prohibition law.
 All of these cases have been appealed to the state courts and In no single instance except those of one or two negroes who lacked the money with which to make a fight. have the chaingang sentences been enforced.
 t7O AdA IoHC Oh tfic CGTliOTdT1 CAS6S ndNe been decided in the superior courts. but Attorney T. B. Fielder, in order to get at the matter more quickly, proceeded in the case of Samuel Loeb by the habeas corpus route.
 At Loeb's place of business the police seized 1000 bottles of beer and several cases of whisky Loeb claimed he had it on hand for fha antartai inpoant of u,,acte at his daughters wedding, and the seiz- ure necessitated his buying more when the wedding took place. The recorder |. did not take to this story and imposed the usual sentenoe-s5oo and 90 days.
 The principal point made by Attorney Fielder in the habeas corpus proceedings was that imprisonment in the city stock ade whepe shackles are put upon the prss- oners, is infamous punishment and can not be inflicted without trial by jury
 The city contends if it is unlawful to shaclkle prisoners In the stockade that n- stitution might as we'll be abandoned as they would all escape.
 Judge Reid in the city court decided the habeas corpus case against Loeb, and an appeal has been taken to the state court of appeals. It is there that the fight upon the city ordinance will be made
 What the outcome will be it is diff ficult to predict. But it will be interesting to recall the courts decision in a some what similar case from Macon, where it was held that the imposition of a large fine, together with chaingang sentence was excessive punishment, and the court was instructed to make 1t alternative This case, however did not involve the validity of city ordinance.
 While giving the benefit of the douht to the prohibition law, the court of appeals has rather tended to conservatism in its administration and in the inf1iction of punishment. T=4tss~
 The claim is made that the recorder S court sentence followed by trial by jury in the state courts, is double punishment The recorder, on the other hand, says If the city ordinance does not hold good blind tigers will run rampant in Atlanta, as the state courts seem notoriously inac- tive in the prosecution of violations of the prohibition law. - 45as
 If the ordinance is held invalid these cases will simply go to the state courts If, on the other hand, 1t should be held legal, and the penalties imposed under il justified, some 40 or 50 Atlanta near beer dealers and others who have been caught in the police net will have to spend a month at hard labor in the city stockade
 .4e Candidate for Office.
 Hon. L. H. 0. Martin of Ebert county for two terms chairman of the general ag- riculture committee of the house of rep resentatives, is the first formally to an nounce his candidacy for the office of commissioner of agriculture. subject to the state primary election of 1910. MT. Mar: tin will make the race whether Commis- sioner Hudson runs again or not
 All indications. however, point to the fact that MT. Hudson will be out of it. MT. Hudson iss anxious to go to Con- gress from the Third congressional dis trict now represented by Dudley M Hughes of Twiggs. county, who defeated Congressman F. B. Lewis last year. MT. Hudson thinks, his friends say, that "Dud" Hughes will be easy pickings " Then, too, congressman is a better job than commissioner of agriculture where | the salary is only s2O00 year.
 Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture R. F. Wright has already informed his friends and the public that he would be in the race to succeed MT Hudson, pro- vided MT. Hudson Is out of it. As Cap tain Wright also halls from Ebert coun- ty, 1t looks as If that community is going to furnish two candidates for the state, $ farm job.
 Other prospective candidates are J. J. Connor of Barrow president of the State Agricultural society, and T. L. William son of Jackson county. P
 The prospective retirement of Chairman J. s. Turner from the prison commission with the conclusion of his present term, within less than two years promises a free-for-all race for that position, just as was the case last year upon the retire. ment of Commissioner Thomas Eason There were no less than six aspirants in that race in which the plum fell 10 Wiley Williams of Columbus, and 1t Is said most, if not all of them, will return to the fight. Besides. 1t now seems there will be others. among them Judson Strickland of Griffin, who has already been feeling the public pulse In that direction. M H
 Monument to Spencer. '
 The monument to the late President Samuel Spencer of the Southern railway which will be paid for by fund sub seribed solely by the employees of that system, 1t is now stated, will be unveiled in the plaza of the Terminal station in Atlanta early. in August.
 The memorial was to have been de- signed by the late Augustus St. Gaudens but he had scarcely entered upon tho work when he died. It was then turned over to Daniel French. prominent New York sculptor, who has finished the de- sign and now has its.about ready for casting. N- .s- fl A-ri-ft ef~ ts-
 The shaft will stand on the present grass plot in front of the Terminal sta tion.e The base of the monument will be If GeOrQ1a Rranita and the redaat al