The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-22
OPPOSING VIEWS ON LOCAL OPTION LIKE OLD TIMES Nearness of Election Makes This One of County's Livest Topics REPORTERS ASK FOR
 GENERAL OPINIONS Of Those Seen Yesterday It Was Either Straight Out Prohibition
 Or Open Saloon-Not
 Dispensary

| While the proposed bond issue is a sub-
 iect of general discussion among citizens
 now, the fact that the local option cleo.
 tion is to be held so soon makes that
 question one of the livest if not the most
 important before the people of Birming. ham.
 My position on the prohibition ques
 tion is so well known that it is hardly
 necessary for me to say how l stand,
 said Capt. T. c. Mcdonald.
 q might say, however that I an
 heartily in favor of the plan suggested bS
 Mr Moore in his frank and open state
 ment recently issued to the voters of tho
 county, and believe it to be the solution
 of the present situation.
 Tn this connection 1t will be remem.
 bered that during a former campaign ]
 was one of a party that went to Kansas
 and Maine to investigate conditions in
 those two dry states. We sent back a
 number of photographs of drink em-
 poriums that were run openly in some in
 stances and under cover in others. Some
 doubt existed in the minds of certain
 people of this great county at that time
 as to the genuineness of the pictures.
 have been frequently told by these same
 people that since prohibition went in eff
 feet in Birmingham their doubts had been removed I think the people generally
 much prefer liquor sold openly under SUI pervision of the constituted authorities
 than illicitly in dwellings by women and children, as is now being done" T am unequivocally and unalterably opposed to the return of the saloon regime under any guise or any form whatever" said Dr. T. A. Johnson ot
 Ensley. Admitted, for the sake of argu-
 ment, that there has been whisky solo | illegally, I challenge anyone to success | fully deny that the amount thus sold is
 one-tenth of the amount consumed under | the old conditions. As to the charge that prohibition laws cannot be enforced, the present results of the putting on the
 lid by Judge Lane refutes and condemns | that falacious argument.
 Words are entirely inadequate to ex- l press my loathing of the liquor traffic an6 | it's attendant evils and as long as I pos
 sess the power I shall fight against the | return of the legalized sale of liquor ir
 this great city and state now and at al
 times.'
 When asked as to his views on the ap ! preaching local option election, w B | Hillhouse said T have given this ques- | tion much considerati tion and have studied | it from various standpoints. The Ameri- can people have never submitted to laws they deem tyrannical. Moral laws can | only be enforced when public sentiment ic in Nrnf nf them trial it seems to me that prohibition is a failure. as the law never has been en- | forced for any length of time during that period. To drive the so-caled blind tigers from the business sections of the city to the homes certainly makes a bad condi-
 tion worse and yet this has been done. "I shall vote for the return of the high
 license, we'll regulated saloon, believing
 it to be the best solution of the present
 deplorable conditions.
 The following was received yesterday:
 To the Editor of The Age Herald. The oracle has spoken, we must all fall prostrate and worship the golden calf or lose the little pittance of license
 revenue we are to receive in exchange for the damnation and destruction of
 souls and bodies. MT. Jones G. Moore
 claims to be prohibitionst who is opposed to prohibition, because, as he says, prohibition fails to prohibit; when | is prohibition not prohibition, when it fails to prohibit, and why, because such | as MT Moore and his followers are not prohibitionists? The trouble in enforce | ing the prohibition laws has been caused by the sophistry of certain | parties who have posed as prohibition | ists when at heart they were just the | opposite and in lieu of enforcing the | I oil in hai T | to bring the law into ridicule and con- | tempt.
 | Mr Moores position on the prohibi- | tion question reminds me of what the | Rev. Sam Jones often related as tc when the devil wanted to invade the
 enemies camp he always selected g
 church member to accomplish his pur- poses
 MT. Moore seems to be laboring un- der the impression that at one time | (and only one time) he was a prohi-
 bitionist. once a prohibtionists always
 prohibitionist Prohibition prohibits
 when it does not prohibit there is nc
 prohibition.
 | Upon trip the writer made to Okla l homa during the canvass for statehood I while an effort was being made tC
 place prohibition in the Oklahoma state
 constitution, I read while en route oi
 the train an item in newspaper, tha 1 Anderson county, Kansas, had prohi- | bltlon, not in name, but had prohibi-