The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-17


gins to your representative. TT is little
short of tragic to see the way some of
the counties of the state resent putting
upon them laws which they believe un-
wise.
I'm Madison county we had Is saloons,
which were closed when our dispensars
opened. Now we have SO soft drink
stands where I am told you can buy
anything you want. 1t used to be against
the law for minors even to enter our
saloons. Now 16-year-old boy can go
into a soft drink stand order a coca
cola, wink his eye and get bottle of
beer.
"In Madison county we have county
Judge who is a strong prohibitionist; the
solicitor is a prohibitionist; the sheriff
is a prohibitionist; the jury commission
ers are prohibitionists appointed by Gov
ernor Conner, and they prepare their jury
lists with a special view to enforcing the
prohibition laws. Now, under these cir
cumstances, If we cannot enforce the
law in Madison county, what must the
situation be in counties where officers
are not in sympathy with it?
"I believe in prohibition as a basis of
operations in the state, but give each
county an opportunity to say what 1t
wants. Upon the opening of the legis-
lature | shall introduce a bill providing
for dispensary in Madison county with
out submitting the matter again to our
voters. do this because the county
las already expressed itself SO strongly
IN favor of 1t. For instance the people
OF my county knew my views on the
subject and they reelected me without
opposition.
..When we elected delegates to the state
convention we placed above our ticket
tie information that these men stood for
local option and dispensary for Mad
ison county. The majority for the low
est man on our ticket was 100 and the
highest man got over 1000 majority. Our
voters could hardly say more plainly that
they want our dispensary re-established
And why shouldn't they? Our dis
pensary promoted temperance and 1t
gave the city and county magnificent
source of revenue. The dispensary closed
at 6 o'clock. Young men do not plan
with malice aforethought to get drunk.
They do not go in the daytime and buy
a bottle of liquor and save 1t until
night to get drunk on. Such drinking as
they do, they do In the evening, ana tney
do it principally when the liquor is con-
venient and constantly before them.
do you know that three-fourths of
the business done by our dispensary was
with negroes? They are going to have
their LIQUOR in some way. no matter what
law you make. Because of this trade,
this shiftless class of people who never
contribute a cent of taxes to the city
or county are made to pay their share.
AS 1t is now or under saloons, they pay
out their money the same way, but the
city and county get none of 1t.
II am not prepared to say whether a
djspensary is best for other counties,
hut know 1t is best for Madison. We
should be allowed to have what we want
here and the other counties should be
given the same privilege.
II will say this about dispensaries:
Some of the trouble with them in the
past has been caused by friction between
the CITY and country. The country peo-
pie have not been treated fairly by
the cities. And where the country peo-
ple have voted out dispensaries 1t has
generally been due to the fact that the
city tried to claim everything. In Mad
son county we divided the net proceeds
from the dispensary equally between city
and county. As : result. the couItry