The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-12

| the cnlef executive Tn deVlaung rom tlle
 local option plank of the 1906 platform.
 The governor explains that when he was
 first approached to put prohibition in the
 call for the special session of the 190l
 legislature he declined to do so owing tc | the fact that he would have to go out
 side the bounds of his platform. But upon
 convention of the solons. he says, the de-
 that he could not withstand it, hence it's
 passage at that session.
 Judge Thomas G. Jones of the United | States court for the middle district Of
 Alabama at Montgomery is compared to a ''czar' in his administration. Federal
 courts are declared to be in the position
 of fast tending to usurp states rights. The governor hurriedly sketches the achievements of his administration during | tention to pensions, educational institu-
 tions, state institutions, state depart ments, taxation, good roads, immigration, schools and general features.
 In his message the governor takes, oc- casion to point out better understand ing between the whites and blacks, fact which he attributes to better education.
 Throughout the message is a cry for better protection of states rights. the governors hobby during the past four years.s. The message reads in part as fol- lows:
 To the Members of the Senate and House:
 In turning over the trust conferred upon me by the people of Alabama, there is lit tie need of extensive statement of the principles which have guided me in the discharge of my official duties Never before were policies so discussed be- fore the electorate nor more unanimously concurred In than these for which l stand. There was a distinct breaking away from the old thraldom that held our legislative assemblies and administra- tions. There was practically no disagree ment on the vital issues which the legis- lature enacted into laws. These laws, in trial by use, have proven constructive and have aroused the dormant energies of l the state and given the citizens the right to expect higher and better conditions. In writing the chronicles of the last | legislature, and in attempting a recitation of their conservative. aggressive and far-reaching import, their altruistic in tent, the catholic embrace of the vital questions of the state, I can without he's itation commend them; the provident care of the Insane asylum, the Deaf and Dumb institute, the Boys Industrial school, the Old Soldiers home at Mountain Creek, the old soldiers pension fund; the in crease in salaries of the solicitors chan cellors, judges of the law and equity courts, and judges of the supreme court, thus placing them all on a higher and better basis; the temperance laws, far reaching in their beneficent intent the public service corporations laws; the ad- vancement of the state along the line of | unenvironed and unprejudiced legislation | for the protection of the people and of the property; the tax qualification laws | and the advancement made in securing equality among all classes of property in carrying just assessment and burden of the state; the advancement in education; the upbuilding of the rural, high, agri- cultural and normal schools. of the Poly technical institute, the Medical college at Mobile, the university, the Alabama Girls Industrial school and the erection of many new and splendid educational buildings.
 Any of these cardinal heads can be pointed to as being the very highest and best For uniform accomplishment, the | legislature can point with pride to all it's wSrk and upon each and every part of it the blessings of God can be in voked.
 | Local Option
 The democratic platform in 1906 called
 for local option. The legislature met and a local option law was passed Under the
 law large per cent of the counties went dry, others on vote or limitation agree
 ment would have gone dry When I | gave notice for the extra session of the legislature in 1907, I was asked by many
 people to incorporate prohibition in the | call. This I declined to do, and in writ
 ten interview published at that time ad- | vised the legislature against it, stat ing that our platform had been fu...lied
 and local option was the law, a great part
 of the state was dry and it was best to
 give prohibition a fair trial before going
 further. On the assembling of the legis-
 lature the members, fresh from the peo-
 pie, passed an omnibus prohibition law | by a more than two-thirds vote. Pre- vious to this, nearly all the counties by
 their own vote had entered the prohibition | column. This bill was passed in large
 measure by the friends of the admins | tration-those who had stood by and with me in the enactment of all basic laws
 which form the underlying protection of the state and the people. The state- | wide prohibition bill was understood to | be the demand of the people. The leg- | islature had just returned from amona 1 them. It is true that several counties notably Montgomery and Mobile, would probably not have gone dry
 | It was contended that the liquor men ir
 wet territory were making 1t impossible
 to maintain dry conditions in dry terri. tory The liquor merchants were shipping and selling liquor in dry sections. Time and the courts showed defects in the
 first or Ballard prohibition law whicf
 made 1t impossible of enforcement. Al
 the second called session of the legisla ture the Carmichael. and Fuller bills were
 introduced and passed. These bills were
 called drastic and revolutionary. It is z
 pulling claim that prohibition law whicf
 carries with it enforcement should bs
 drastic, unsafe or non-conservative. Tn,
 text of these laws carried capable en
 forcement and this should be the inten of every law otherwise it should no
 be written. Blank cartridges are onl,
 used in mimic warfare; the real comba requires the bullet.
 It has been claimed by some that ou prohibition laws are impossible of en