The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-12
.Sol lution of Liquor
 Traffic Ls Dispensary

instancs be cited in this state where saloons have displaced the dispensary. On the other hand. they tell of recent Instances where saioons succeeded pro- hfbition. sss
 But be that sas 1t may. prohibition has worked good in this city as well ss others that have been visited.> It Is freely admitted that whiskey is being illegally sold here. The tigers. how ever, arc not 70 numerous that as much liquor is sold or consumed as when evidenced by the figures of the police docket and the testimony of reliable citizens. ThouEh the oity was once strongly committed to the dispensary, and might now vote for its return. it's more reasonable advocates have to acknowledge that since prohibition there have been fewer jags. that there eraiiy sinoe the city went out of the business. The drunkenness as summed up in the Mayors Court shows de- creGse of about 50 per cent. Other ar rests have decreased approximately. Mayor. Faulk says he is not nearly as busy with court duties as he used to be. He attributes it t0 prohibition.
 Thus far there hae been no serious financial embarrassmsnt to tho city on account of the dispensary's removal. The city fathers had wisely reserved . surplus of funds from the rich years going before and with this bridged over the year of 1908 which gave so much trouble to other towns that had fat tened or iiauor profits. And. too. the city has been helped by acouiring own ership of the water works which. 1t is estimated. win bring annually not less than $12.0o0 to the city treasury in the form of net profts. However, ac- cording to; the city clerk, the income from the water works Is being applied on the payment for the works system and revenue pinch may Dc In wait ing yet This remains for the future to disclose.
 Judge H. B. Foster of the city Court of ruscaloosa. says that there have been numerous convictions in his court for violating the prohibition law. There have been also many admissions of guilt. He uses his discretion about adding hard labor to the heavy fines l which he usually fixes for punishment
 of the blind tigers. If q tiger plies his trade. deliberately and with intent to violate the law. the hard labor Is given. Also there seems to be 6 dis position on the part of Juries to con- vfct whenever the evidence ts strong enough. There are several jury, con- stctions on record. This is attributed l to the long established reputation sof l Tuscaloosa County for law-abidine community. The vote on prohibition was only few hundred in It's favor In
 the county and this might have been expected to land prejudiced citizen
 on the jury. but for the deep sense oi
 duty rooted here. s
 l History of Northport.
 < Apparently the best results from prohibition are in Northport. across the river from Tuscaloosa. The his X tory of this town Is unique on the l,HquoY phase. Here the dispensary
 succeeded long reign of dry. That is rare in this State. if. indeed, 1t has
 parallel instance. But 1t came
 only after bitter light in the City Council. The argument which brought the majority of the Aldermen around
 to the idea was the wet condition of Tuscaloosa, If the county seat, only a mile away, had . dispensary. they l eontended the contagion would spread 1 to Northport and the latter municipal l ity would be getting all the evil of the I drink and none tof the revenue. So of l vent the lid and in came the dispen- sary. the Aldermen exercising the op'
 tion given in the special legislative I act applying to Incorporated towns and cities of the county. M
 But leading merchant of North l port, speaking earnestly on the sub
 feet, told me that the argument fol
 the Northport dispensary derived sup. l port from the rade-attraction theory
 Almost logically it would seem that a | dispensary at Tuscaloosa would preju-
 dice the trade of Northport If that towr 1 was dry meantime. In other words | fl. has ever been argued that if whis. I key Is sold in one of two towns Sc | closely situated as these. to the ex. l elnsion of the stimulant in the other
 the later would suffer. This prevailed somewhat with the Northport Alder. men and by narrow margin the dis. pensary went in.
 Now as to the strange result. IT | May, is07,' because of a revuision oi
 local, sentiment. the Aldermen voted
 the dispensary out. It had made goot
 money, had helped build good streets and roads, and done better than ths 1 saloons had ever done. But prohibit tion won out and it Is hardly possible 1 to soon displace the dry" One req.
 son for the removal of the dispensar, was the failure of the people to be. iieve so much of the contagion idea
 Another reason was that only few l merchants stuck to the loss-of-tradt | theory. .
 On the latter point leading mer' | chant gave this significant testimony I .rwhen the dispensary. was first agi. tated for Northport, I was in favor oi