The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-07-17
PROHIBITION ISSUE
 IN THE BLACK BELT
Broader Attitude Taken To-
 ward Question
SOME WANT DISPENSARY
The Smaller Towns Want to Regulate Their Own Affairs and Are Will ing to Concede Some Privt-
 Iege to Neighbors
BY WALTER HARPER

BY WALTER IA M GN
 Demopolis, July 16.-(Special. )-More than one strong prohibitionist In the black belt of Alabama has confessed to me that prohibition Is a practical failure. A ma jority of them are openly advocating the establishment of dispensaries.
 A prominent planter in Perry county said to me yesterday: When we had a dispensary at Uniontown we had much trouble with the negro help on our farms on Saturday evenings. These negroes would come to town on Saturday, stock up on liquor and get drunk. Monday morning they were unfit for work. But after Monday morning they were all right and we got good service again until Sat urday.
 q voted for prohibition, believing, like many another prohbitionist in Alabama, that prohibition would put liquor out of the reach of the negro.
 we were sadly mistaken in this re- spect. Prohibition has served to put liquor, and the vilest quality. into the hands of the negro.
 Now, instead of trouble at the end of the week we have trouble every day. Every large plantation in this section Is a blind tiger and I feel safe In the asser- ton that the same condition exists throughout the cotton growing belt"
 Much Dissatisfaction
 AS far as I have been able to investi- gate this general charge is true. There is much dissatisfaction through this sec ton with the present conditions.
 A dispensary was operated for two years at Uniontown and Marion in Perry county. At Uniontown the dispensary was managed by C. A. Terrell. the present mayor of the town The entire proceeds went into the city treasury and were not divided with the county.
 During the life of the dispensary law was adopted by the legislature requiring d division of the net profits with the county, but no legal demand was ever made on the Uniontown dispensary oni- cials. Oral demand was made, but was refused, and the matter was dropped.
 The annual net profits of the Uniontown dispensary were about $12,0C0, which went to the support of the schools and the i'm provement of streets and sidewalks.
 Judge Tayloe Talks Judge w. H. Tayloe, president of the Canebrake Loan and Trust company, Is strong prohibtionist. He was member of the board of control of the Uniontown dispensary. He said: ''I am for prohibi- tion I think the conditions are better than when we had saloons or the dispen- sary But I will say that the dispensary is better than the open saloon. But the dispensary should be well and carefully managed It should not be run for finan- cial profit. It should be operated solely with the view of reducing as much as possible the evils of liquor drinking. The laws and regulations should be so f1xeo that nothing but pure goods could be handled through the dispensary Init was one of the bad features of the Un- iontown dispensary.
 while I believe prohibition has bene- fited this section, I am also quite certain that more liquor Is being consumed in Alabama than before prohibition went into effect"
 In DemopOlis
 In Demopolis I am told that the prohi- bition laws are being very we'll eeforcedl though there are complaints of trouble on the plantations In Marengo county, as in Perry.
 Saloons operated in Demopolis up until they were closed by the statewide prohi- bition law.
 There has never been dispensary here, but there Is already well developed sen timent favoring the establishment Of thai system in Demopolis. This plan Is being advocated by men who supported and voted for prohibition.
 Want Prohibition
 A majority of the people in smaller towns like Cuba, York, Faunsdale, LN- ingston, Eutaw and other towns of vary ing local conditions want prohibition of hod nrnhthfttOu for almost or quite quarter of a century, and desire to be allowed to continue as they please Some of these towns can and have enforced their local laws witf reasonable success when not interfered with from outside sources. These places ask to be allowed to take care Of their home affairs and they are now more than ever before willing to allow other sections to enjoy the same privilege. In other words, the democratic principle of local option is growing in strength even in the most radical prohibition sections.
 These Communities Suffer
 These towns and communities where prohibition had prevailed for years pre- vious to the passage of the statewide law and the consequent agitation are suffer- ing more now from violations and the ef- fects of whisky drinking than when sa. looms were operated in adjoining counties of the state.
 This may appear to the casual reader as a distortion of facts, but 1t can be more than sustained by the evidence of prohi bitionists in those very communities.
 Disregard of law is one of the most in' fectious diseases in the world. It le as bad as measles or the cattle tick. Per jury breeds more perjury, and crime piles upon crime. The disease spreads into ad- joining territory and cannot be quaran. tined.
 A prominent business man of Birming- ham. and by the way, pronlpitlonist' remarked to me few weeks ago: If the present conditions are allowed to continus much longer in Alabama, we will haW' open anarchy"