United labor bulletin., 1910-02-11

| Nov. 29th an attempt was made to make
an amendment to the state constitution
providing for statewide, prohibition. The
amendment, after exciting contest,
was overwhelmingly defeated. Mr.. Ball,
in his chapter on prohibition in Alabama
in our issue of Dec. 23rd, followed very
carefully the practical working of local
option in Birmingham. Absolutely with
out bias, he made his fearless investiga-
tions in Alabama, and found in many in
-, stances that local option was not work
| ing as satisfactorily as was hoped for. He
demonstrated through his own expert
ence that wet goods could be obtained in
Birmingham if one knew the channels.
| The first chapter ended with DIR. Law
rence's (head of the prohibition move
ment in Alabama) red-hot card dealing
with the decision of the Supreme court
of Alabama, which decision stated that
a man in Alabama might own and keep
as much liquor about his place as he
chose provided it was legally secured.
DR.. Lawrence's card attacking this deci-
sion said in part: The decent citizen
ship of Alabama is aroused and has been
|
men who favor the liquor traffic. They
will continue to do this until every liquor
Judge, solicitor, sheriff and police officer
in our state has been laid under beau
tiful political tombstone of ballots" Mr..
Balls second chapter of the prohibition
story takes the facts up from this point)
Atlanta Dec. 10, 1909.
int cd
as an attack on the courts of the state,
particularly the Supreme court. AS Judge
Zell CASTOR, a prohibitionist of Birming-
ham. put it in card in the Birmingham
"Age-Herald" of July 5th: 81 say to the
gentleman from Ohio Uawrence), he
has pitched the gage of battle, and he
will find plenty of us Alabama-born men.
who love her history and her institu-
lions. who propose to maintain the honor.
integrity and independence of our courts;
who will meet him and his kind before
the people of Alabama and expose his
red-handed anarchistic teachings. And
we fear not the results. for the people
of Alabama are law-abding and have no
patience with an anarchist. bigot or
fool" Practically every newspaper in
Alabama took a shot at DR.. Lawrence.
In later card he declared in effect, I'VE
never said it; we've been misconstrued,"
and so on. Two strong prohibition news
papers of Birmingham, the News and
the Ledger both deplored DR.. Law
rence's reference to the Supreme court.
Ned Brace" who is the Hon. f. w. Bar
rett, editor of the Birmingham "Age-Her-
add" said. July 4th, II do not believe in
the make-believe prohibition that is ex-
stent in Alabama. 1t is leading more
boys and men to the devil than anything
that has ever occurred. = Whiskey
Is everywhere. . Liquor is upon
| every hand and the poor fellow who
makes $40 or $50 per month buys from
the blind-tiger and gets stuff that will
drive him to fight anything he sees which
might disagree with him. Think of the
situationl The police cannot stop
1t. It would take two hundred times the
number we have to do So"
There are from hundred to a hundred
and fifty so-called locker clubs in the
city of Birmingham In the majority OF
them the shelves Of lockers are kept only
for show, liquor being served exactly as
in the open bars downstairs. all over the
city 1t costs about IS cents to join
locker club; sometimes nothing at all. A
friend of the writer, arriving at his Of
flee earlier than usual. found his young
under clerk shutting on his desk what
the employer thought was deck OF
cards. The boy was admonished not only
for carrying around a deck of cards in
his pocket, but for having them displayed
in business Office at $3.50 a. IN. Good
ness gracious, Mr.. A." said the boy. this
is not deck of playing cards, They
are my membership cards to the locker
clubs | belong to-" Mr.. A. took them,
counted them, and found the boy was a
bona-fde member of 80 locker clubs in
Birmingham. There are hundreds Of
boys like that one in the "Pittsburg of
the South"
In the month of April. 1909 go days),
the coroner of jefferson county. Alabama,
was called upon to investigate 40 violent
deaths and homicides. Twenty-three
proved outright homicides. The worst
record in the history of Jefferson county.
During the "a hours OF June 18th, there
were reported to the coroner of Jeffer-
son county nine violent deaths. Now. no
one would say that prohibition had any
thing to do with those deaths; but II the
county was under high license. would we
not possibly have heard that whiskey had
something to do with them,
Judge s. d. weakley, who is the coun-
sci for the Alabama Anti-Ssaloon League,
in a speech delivered in Montgomery,
June 18th, outlined what the prohibition
lists expected from the extra session of
the legislature, which the governor
agreed to assemble on July 9th: