The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-08
The Alabama Result.


 The result of the election in Alabama the voting down of the prohibition amendn.e ent l to the constitution. Is significant nf several
 public sentiment aganst putting a purely
 moral question in the organic law. While 1t means t1) that the people of haven't any confidence in mere statutory moral reforma- tions yet It does not mean (2) that there is any popular tendency to give license to In temperance or to sanction the return of the
 lawless saloon. It does not mean that the people of Alabama desire to encourage drunkenness or inebriety or that they ap-
 prove the old system under which the dives
 and dens of debauchery and vice thrived and
 Haunted their iniquities in the face of decen- cy and morality.
 a serious and solemn lesson to every friend of temperance whether for or against prohi- bition as to a means of achieving it. The issues In Alabama were manifold and not confined to the s.ngle question of prohibitfve legislation. There was widespread pro-
 tent against the mixing of the churches and the minglng of religious sentiments In a question that was in this case so closely Identified with an ambitious political move fully mix-not in their organized capacities;
 that much the people of Alabama have de- cided
 There was also very decided sentiment against putting an untried experiment in the organic law. The prohibition laws of the state have not proven satisfactory; they have not been observed by the very people who favored and promoted them. and, a con- sequence. they have not been enforced. A law that is neither observed nor enforced Is in contempt; the constitutions is respected. and the voters of the state simply did not intend that that instrument should be re-
 duGsd to the condition Of the ss9d sssseuse- ,, proposed amendment. The American citizen regards his home as his castle and that no of that principle the constitutions of every state exempt the home from seizure or search. except under the gravest circum- stances wherein there are reasons for oeliev- heinOus crime has been commit ted The proposed amendment opened the doors 10 any further legislature to mako the storing or keeping of liquor of any kind such A crime for the suppression of which the officers of the law might enter and search any mans castle" on the merest suspicion
 as has already been attempted under existing statutes attended by bloody consequences.
 The people of Alabama would not stand Tor this, as no American community VII; .h;r,., man that this question of temIerance legis- lation cannot be settled by radical fanatics
 8ey ral.ers auH dealers on the sther but that It must be settled right and by the sober. conservative thought of practical sim ment of a sound public sentiment. It may be that this s5und sentiment will De against
 a return to the open saloon CT 10 tne ncens- dpinlipr ,lacss but we are quite sure that the sentiment will be oyerwhelminsIy against
 the intoierable conditlons ehk .ehik,.i no" LII ritor, ana that some sane method must be provided to relieve that condition and re-
 move the menace of the rapidly growing tendency to contempt for all law.
 Thc ,yhtsLter interests must not take thls result in Alabama as meaning vote of confidence in their businessi II IS rather d note of warning to them that they must ac- ouiesce and that tco, without protest. In
 whatever pian a sound and rational public judgment shah fix upon as the measure l gS nrotr,t tton the public is entitled to against
 the destructive ane destroying possibilities ,f
 their business. Y thsy will not VelHntsri. sn srI | the tremendous aJority, not only in Ala
 bama but In other states. against radical Legislation to reckon with touching their
 own future existence.