The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-23
BOWIE AND PRICE IN JOINT DEBATE
 ON AMENDMENT Speakers Meet Before Great Crowd At Annisten and
 Thrash Out Question AMENBERS WItL MEET
 DON QUIX0Tt'S FATE Bowie Plays Second Section of Amend. ment-Price Argues That Present Prohibition Bills Have No Part
 In Campaign.
By J. E. STANLEY.

l ham for the antis and Kyle B. Price of Elba for the amenders, held at the new Noble street theatre here this afternoon, 1 proved to be the biggest thing by far yet pulled off in Calhoun county since the adoption of a prohibition amendment to the constitution was proposed
 Both speakers have been stumping the state for the sides of the question they represent and while MT Price was prac- tically unknown in this section of the state before he took the stump he has gained considerable reputation as a speak CT since. MT. Bowie is and has been for long time we'll known.
 1 The debate today was the result of con- siderable agitation on the part of MT. Price for division of time with an anti amendment orator of prominence, 1t hav- ing been reported after his recent speech here some time ago that challenge had been sent MT. Bowie for a joint debate accompanied by an offer of $500 if he would consent to meet him.
 It is the consensus of opinion among those who heard the debate through that MT. Price is or ought to be pretty well satisfied. It was stipulated in the agree ment between the two county commit tees that no personalities were to be in- dulged in, that discussion of the amend ment was all that was to be expected.
 MT. Bowie opened with a talk lasting one hour and ten minutes. Mir. Price fol- lowed for one hour and 35 minutes and MT. Bowie closed with 20 minutes
 The meeting wal, presided over by ex- Mayor Thomas E. Kilby, who introduced the speakers, and the theatre having a seating capacity of 14Oo was overtaxed to accommodate the crowd hundreds being turned away. People were standing in the aisles, on the lower floor and the two balconies and the stage was almost full. A conservative estimate places the num- Der of women present at about 150.
 Mir. Bowie Opens.
 MT. Bowie, in his opening remarks, re- ferred to the report of the challenge that had been issued to him to meet Mir Price carrying with it an offer of money run ming from $50 to $500, and stated that the only way he had ever heard of the chal-
 
 no bonafide challenge had ever been of fered him. Generally speaking, he did not favor joint debates and made 1t rule never to issue challenge, but never to refuse one when it was made In an hon. orable way. as this one had been. He has been at public life ever since he was 21 years old: had taken part in all important issues and in his opinion this was the most important that has ever come before the people. He had no in tention of -alluding to any public man. but he was here to discuss the issues of the present campaign.
 He declared that it was a mans duty l to vote against the amendment If in his ] mind there was any doubt about 1t being I right, and said that regardless of the as- l sertions of the amendists that it's adop- ton would make prohibition perpetual I the amendment has no value without l statutes, and the present ones were sub ject to repeal by future legislatures. He spoke of constitutional prohibition | in Iowa South Dakota and Ohio as be- | ing in sense the same as is proposed for | Alabama and showed the ineffectiveness l of 1t In all the states. He mentioned most l every state east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio that had tried prehibi- | ton in their constitutions and had re- | pealed it.
 MT. Bowie suggested that Rev Brooks Lawrence sweep in front of his own door step before trying to innoculate morals in to people in other sections. He denied that the issue Is one of saloons and ex- | pressed the hope that the open saloon would never appear again in Alabama. He would be just as ready to take the | stump against their reopening as he was to take it against this amendment. He read an extract from Don Quixote and compared the amendists in their present charge for the amendment to the chargt | of that chivalrous knight against sorle 90 old fashioned wind mills and deciare, that their fate would be the same or | November 29. -p
 Majority Should Rule.
 The speaker opposed the adoption ol the amendment, first, because the card ipal principle of free government is that the majority rule, which it had nc chance to do in this case because oi the non-payment of poll taxes. He saic that majority of qualified voters a the present time can put the amendmen i in the constitution but they cant re l peal it because representation is based on population and the majority must, O necessity, be greater when the question l of repeal would come up, if ever.
 The whole thing narrows down to com mon fairness and MT. Bowie used the ex plantion of Senator Bankhead about thu failure of so many to pay their poi taxes. He said that the leaders of thi, 1 movement insisting on the election he ing held this year had violated the pledge of honor agreed upon by the constitu tional conveption that no white man 1T | the state should be disfranchised excep' for crime. He declared that a propos tion thta can't stand a test of l5 months for such the conservative people want 1 ed to give it when they. asked that th' matter be settled next year. ought no to go into the constitution of the stat' | and said that the finger of scorn vii always point to them for the infamou outrage perpetrated by stealing the vote of from bOooo to 100000 young men O the state.
 "Alabamians have built up great stat 1 by themselves and we have fallen amonl | strange and evil times indeed when : | man like Lawrence can put on or cal off an election at will," said tn speaker.
 MT. Bowie described and gave defni tions for the words manufacture. alec holic and beverages and said that if i was right to use wine for sacramento purposes it was right to manufacture for the same purpose. and if 1t was la N l full to sell alcohol for medicinal par ] poses 1t was lawful to manufacture