The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-28
Mt. Sumter Dlays BaH
 Heye 10 StuaIy Probibihon
Tour of the Southern States For Lesles WeeyLterary Work Has Attracted Widespread Attenton-Former
 Resident of Birmingham
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE.

Into the visit to Birmingham of Mir Sumter Mays Ball of Atlanta is infused much local color, not only on account of the fact that MT. Ball formerly resided here, and has many friends who are in- terested in him and his work, but also because of the fact that he Is here to study the conditions surrounding the pro- hibition movement, which is of great im- portance throughout the country, and particularly in the southern states.
 Mir. Ball comes to Birmingham in the interest of Leslie's Weekly, a periodical widely read and very popular. This mag azine has arranged with MT. Ball to make a thorough Investigation of the history, progress and present conditions of the prohibitory laws in several of the south ern states, including Alabama, North Car olina, South Carolina Mississippi and \ Georgia.
 Neither side of the question is advo- cated by the writer, who comes to re- iort conditions absolutely as they exist. II successful results are evidenced then tleir success will be chronicled; if, on tie other .hand, prohibition has been a failure, again the writer will report such
 That prohibition is a subject that is in telesting the entire world is an undis- pued fact, and when periodicals of the standard quality, such as Leslie's Week. ly, deem it expedient to employ the best anu most capable talent, like MT. Balls, to investigate and produce the facts in the situation, it is needless to say that the subject is one of tremendous pos- siblities.
 The attention of the literary world was drawn to Mr. Balls article on "Prohibi- tion in Georgia" which appeared in the March number of Putnam's, and the subject was we'll handled and concisely presented from an absolutely unbiased point of view, which is what every reader of such subjects desires when probing such conditions.
 In this article Mir. Ball gives first the history of attempted, and finally success ful, prohibition legislation in Georgia.
 Among other things this article says
 Years ago. by means of local option, all of the 146 counties in Georgia, eX- cept those having large cities as county seats, had succeeded in closing their open saloons. Some counties had done away with the whisky traffic entirely; others a few only-operated 'dispensaries where nothing less than a pint or quart of any alcoholic liquor could be purchased, and none could be drunk on the premises. This necessitated, of course, the renting by dispossessed saloon-keepers of vacant property next door to the dispensaries, where liquor could be drunk; still the . saloons had been closed. In many in stances the income from the few dispen- saries in the state more than supported the county government, schools, etc.. and the project seemed to work very satis- factorily to all concerned. Under local option in the sos Atanta-the capital had attempted prohibition-between cleo tons, so to speak. The experiment was a farce. Prohibition was killed by an overwhelming vote at the next elec- ton.
 For years every time the legislature of Georgia met in annual session there was introduced a bill for prohibition through out the state. These bills came from the representatives of dry counties; their arguments being that prohibition would close the whisky depots in the large cties which were nullifying the dry sentiment and dry regulations in the country dis tricts by shipping liquor thither in great quantities. The conservative city mem bers of the legislature answered that,