The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-28
LEADERS OUTLINE
 PLAN ID HANDLE
 LIQUOR PROBLEM Repeal Fuller and Carmichael Laws and Retain State
 wide Prohibition SPECIAL BILLS TO SOLVE QUESTION BY COUNTIES Bill for Jefferson Provides for Beer and Wines in Cafes-High Licenses Will Be Placed on Whole
 snlers and Retilers
BY BURR BLACKBURN

The livest subject in the minds of the
 people of Alabama today, as it was two | years ago, is the liquor problem Real | izing that the state is yet far from I solution of the question, the people are eager to learn just what the attitude | of the incoming administration will be and how the legislature will carry out the local option plank in the democratic | platform.
 All over Alabama members of the leg | islature are busily discussing the matter
 with their constituents, and it is proba-
 be that a half hundred bills, local and general, bearing on the subject are be-
 ing drawn.
 | The leaders of the party, the men who stand close to the incoming administra-
 ton, prominent members of the legisla-
 ture and the speakers who are canvass | ing the state have already come to an agreement on a general plan. Oppose the Open Saloon | They affirm that they will try to carry out absolutely the pledges of the Mont gomery conference and will oppose the | restoration of the open saloon in Ala bama. In the first place, they do not | believe that the people of the state | want the open saloon, and in carrying | out the platform pledge of local option there is little danger of giving them what they don't want.
 l It is gathered from the powers that be
 that their effort will be to leave the
 state in the same condition, as far as |
 the special session of the Conner legisla-
 ture.
 | The plan, briefly, is to repeal the Car
 michael and Fuller bills, but to leave
 the Ballard statewide prohibition bill,
 which was passed in August of the sec
 ond session, just as it is. The sale of
 liquors in Alabama will then be the ex- ception to the. rule. It will leave pro-
 hibition In every county in the state.
 There will be no general bills passed. | If the people of a county desire a
 change they can accomplish it through
 their representatives in the legislature
 by a special bill, and providing what
 ever they want, whether 1t be high
 license, dispensary or what not
 Criticism on Legislators 1 If the legislators do not follow the
 will of their people the criticism will fall
 on then, and not on the administration | or the democratic party Members of
 the house and senate, being subject to | the voters of their counties, will be in
 the best position to advise with them and give them what they want. But If
 not they will soon be turned out and | xr,t ct nd o1O to ha xUf1
 of the people.
 The principal object is to remove the
 issue from politics as much as possible,
 do away with continual elections and let
 prohibition grow in those communities
 where public sentiment will back it up.
 Thus it will be made a purely local
 issue, and where the people want to re- main absolutely dry the force of public
 sentiment will give some semblance to an enforcement of the law. Present Conditions a Farce | Everyone is forced to admit that the | present condition is sham and farce.
 In Montgomery a half dozen modern bars remain open all day Sunday, beer and
 whisky being served over the bar to any man who comes. Even bad Birmingham | has never come to that, for on election
 day the doors of her blind tigers are
 sealed with the words, Closed for Elec-
 tion Day" By whose orders one may guess.
 But the whole sentiment seems to be
 in favor of carrying out the Montgomery pledge against the open saloon, and Mo-
 bile county is probably the only county which will make a fight for open bars, but the representatives there will have to answer to their people.
 | In this the Anti-Saloon league leaders will be sorely disappointed. Their hope. openly expressed, is that saloons be put | back all over the state and the lid be | taken off entirely, so as to open up a reign of lawessness which might result | in another reversal of sentiment and a swing back to prohibition extremes. | But against such the powers are deter mined to guard, and there is little dan- ger of the saloon ever regaining it's lost | position in the state.
 Bill for Jefferson County | The special bill for Jefferson county will probably provide for the sale of wines and beer in high-class cafes in re-