The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-11
JUDGE WALKER BARES SCHEME Eminent Lawyer On
 Amendment. SHOWS UP ITS HYPOCRISY Warns People of Alabama Against
 The Act. HuntsviIIe Jarist, In simple Bat Force- full Language, Revesls the Danger
 of Follewing Blind
 Radicalism.
SHOWS UP ITS HYPOCRISY

Huntsville, Oct. 1o.-(Speeial. )-The address of Judge Richard W. Walker. former Associate Justice of the Ala bama Supreme Court, at the organiza- tion or the anti-amendment Campaign Committee of Madison County Sarur- day, was so exhaustive and so full of profound thought on the subject that the opponents of the constitutions. amendment express confidence that 1t will have a great influence in snapins the opinions of thoughtful people on this important question.
 Judge Walker rarely makes a politi- cal address and his appearance as d campaign orator on this occasion is a matter of more than usual public in terest in this section. Ills arguments dea.t particularly with the legal phases of the proposition.
 A more detailsd report of his address. which was briefly outlined yesterday shows that Judge Walker delivered one of the clearest and most concise argu- ments on the amendment heard during the campaign. He said the meaning ot the amendment movement can best be explained by man to man talks rather than Dy dpptdt8 u thc pCORAC Ah PubAAS meetings and speeches.
 The object ot the anti-amendment or- sanizations, he said. is to present to the people the real meaning of the pro- posed amendment and the legisla tive tendency tkat 1t indicates. When the people come to know what 1t indicates. he believes that they will refuse to put any such proposition in their constftu- ton. He said the words in the amend -k. l. ~f Hlak ufA ftf,rs that the people of the State expect in their Legislatures. One cause of this he claimed, was that the Legislators now in office seemed to be under the impression that they were to enact ukases handed down from above, with out using their own judgment in the matter.
 Innuence sn Legislature.
 Tt is not a deIiberative body" he said, and their sole purpose appears to be to put their approval on what ever Is handed down to them by the lawmakers which Is composed of co terie of men outside of the legislative halls and having no representative ca pacity."
 All that any measure needed to meet with the Legislatures approval was for 1t to become known that 1t was an ad- ninistration measure.
 Continuing, he said:
 ."The people of the State sent the leg islators to Montgomery to make laws regulating the railroads. not expecting this wild carnival of incorporate laws that they have enacted. The Legisla- ture was pledged to take the local op- tion attitude. following out that old Democratic principle of local self-gov- ernment, the platform of Thomas Jef- ferson.
 'aThis Legislature was led to great extremes and In the passage of their laws did things in eontrav&ntion of the Fundamental rights of the people that have never been done iu any State be- fore.
 After finding that they could dc anything and pass anything they chose in the form of liquor regulation, they propose to go still further by, as their governor said in his speech here. building 6 fence around the laws so that no future Legislature can break in and change them. The language Of the amendment shows on Its face the lack of deliberation and foresight into the proposition that has been submit ted to the people. The amendment was dictated by the impulse to go to an ex- treme. It is so extreme that it's advo- cates are out among the people trying to convince them that the provisions of the amendment do not mean what tho words say.
 Doubtful Meaning.
 '.But don't the words themselves show what they are7 They are so strong that the leaders of the prohibitionists cannot stand up to them and they are claiming that the laws that would be allowed by this amendment will never be made. Nothing that has doubtful meaning should be allowed to go into the constitution of our State. The plain meaning of the first section of the pro- posed amendment Is that nothing in- toxicating in the nature of beverage can ever under any circumstances, be made or sold in the State of Alabama. Are the people ready to go to that ex- treme3
 All of us know there Is one pur- nose where the continued use of wine must prevail or the people must aban- don their settled religious observance. Not only will the people or Alabama be prohibited from making wine for their own use in their own homes. but they will not be allowed to make 1t or serve it in the sacrament. Is this wise to have this kind of a provision in the constitution of 8 free people? 1tplacea the stigma of vice or wrong on the making of wine for any purposes It expresses the conviction that the mak- ing of wine anywhere Is morally wrong. It don't prohibit wine-making ont of the State because 1t is beyond the poWer of the Alabama prohibition fists to do this. It is wrong. they say to make 1t in Tennessee and Ohio, where there. are many fine vineyards and where my friend Brooks Lawrence has his home. As we can't make wine. we must buy 1t from Ohio and If 1t Is wrong for the people of Ohio to make it. the people of Alabama ought not to be allowed to use 1t.
 .Is 1t not wrong to put prohibition on an article that Is used as sacra- ment by the church people of the State? Are you going to put 1t in the constitution of the State so that no citizen can make wine at his own home and that no company can press wine for use on the communion tablef
 "This Is going to an absurd extreme Isn't 1t simply monstrous to say the people cannot be treated so Tar as grown men to allow them to even make wine for their own purposes? VIII anybody stand for that?
 ''They say we can get wine from 'oth- . CT States. Why. because the interstate te commerce law allows 1t. But this leg islation Is part of the scheme to rem der it impossible for people to get wine anywhere.
 MeddIesOme Interference.
 'The frst appt arance of the prohi- bition party in the politics of Alabama was when its meddlesome interference caused the election of Hugh Dent to Congress as the successor of Congress-