The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05
MUCH INTEREST IN
 THE LIVELY BILL Said to Be Solution of In- temperance Problem MERCHANT MARINE Will Be Built Up Easily if Naviga- ton Laws Are Amended, Says
 Frank Clark-About
 Civil Service
By JONATHAN WINFIELD

that the supreme court of Georgia had islature prohibiting manufacture of alco- hol, has given fresh impetus to the advocates of the bill introduced in the | House of Representatives by Represen- | tative Robert l.. Lively of Texas to | amend the statute under which the com
 missioner of internal revenue, through collectors of internal revenue, issues spe- | cial licenses for the wholesale and re. 1 tail sale of liquors. The Lively bill, which is now before the ways and means committee, Is indorsed by the temperance people throughout the United States; and during the past few months members | of Congress have received thousands of letters and petitions from temperance so- cieties in every state in the union urg- | ing the passage of the bill, which. they assert, will solve the temperance ques- | tion.
 | For many years advocates of prohibi existing laws of the government Many states have prohibition laws; some ap- plying only to counties and others known as local option. But in no state has a prohibition law been uniformly success l full, because of the fact that the fed eral government, through a collector of | internal revenue, will issued a federal permit to sell liquor anywhere. The records show in states where prohibition prevails the arrest of many offenders, but the offenders, because of the posses
 sion of Il federal license. manages to es- cape imprisonment by paying small | fine. The Lively bill would, it is be- lieved, effectually put stop to boot
 logging" ' blind tigers "speak-easies'
 and 'cozy corners A man who takes the risk of selling liquor in forbidden | territory without a federal permit if
 caught, would be tried in the federal court. No man who violates the pro- 1 hibition law of his community would
 care to run the risk of mixing up with
 the federal authorities for he knows a conviction in the federal court for selling | liquor without Uncle Sam's O. K. means | a heavy fine, confscation of his liquot
 stock and imprisonment.
 | Representative Lively was. elected to fill the unexpired term of Represents
 tive Gordon Russell, who was appoint ed a federal judge last summer by
 President Taft. MT. Lively has taken
 no particular part in debates in the House, but has made record for com
 mittee work and for attending to the business of his constituents. He has
 a pleasing personality, is well read
 and possesses a large fund of valua-
 ble information, which he ungrudging- ly gives his colleagues when called Ia m n- | ing of his bill on the statute books at this session there Is every reason to
 believe he will read it in the law be- | fore the expiration of the next Con- gress, although it's enactment may re-
 duce receipts from internal revenue taxation. But as the bill is the public solution of the temperance question
 which has agitated the country for
 more than half century, the demand
 for It's passage by the, temperance peo- | pie may not go unheeded.
 There is one sure way of building up our merchant marine and restor- | ing the United States to the commercial position it held before the civil war,
 when we had almost the bulk of the shipping of the world" said Represen-
 tative Frank Clark of Florida, one of
 the democratic leaders of the House.
 ''The way to bring about this much
 desired result" said MT. Clark "is
 to amend our navigation laws so as
 to allow American register of all ships owned by American citizens and cor
 porations. no matter where such shlps were constructed. I do not concur Tn
 the statement that American shipbuild CTS cannot compete with foreign ship builders; I regard such assertions as
 pure subterfuge. The day has long since passed when foreign manufac-
 turers can turn out manufactured ar t!cles superior to ours. This is demon strated in our consular reports, which show that the American manufactur- 1 CTS successfully compete in the mar
 kets of the world. And what l do not quite understand is this, that an Amer l ican citizens can purchase abroad many
 articles of American manufacture 5 tc l15 per cent cheaper than he can at home. There is no reason to doubt that this same condition can be found
 in the ship building industry. The day
 that American register is granted to
 the foreign built ships, all owned and
 managed by American citizens, from
 that day will begin a new life in Amer
 ican marine, and 1t will be but few
 short years when America will again
 be mistress of the seas"
 l It is an old saying in Washington that
 a man who really possesses ability
 makes a great mistake by accepting em- ployment in the executive departments, unless his purpose is to avail himself of the splendid educational advantages of l Washington, and learn profession by at- tending night classes. There are many n- stances where bright young men from various sections of the country have se- cured appointments in the executive de- | part,nents, and, atfer serving Uncle Sam | for few years, have resigned to enter upon a professional career. This is the | case of Representative John w. Langley of the Tenth Kentucky district. MT.
 Langley came to Washington little over l 20 years ago and obtained small clerk | ship in the pension office, through the Influence of friends at home. MT. Cleve- land entered the White House as Pres- ident in 1s93 and following the change of administration Langley was soon relieved | of his official duties. When the time for taking the census for 1900 rolled around l President Mckinley remembered Langley, and he was given first-class office ln l the census bureau In the meantime MT Langley had graduated at law school here. He kept in close touch with the
 leaders sof his party in his district and four years ago he concluded to come to l Congress. He went home before the be- I ginning of the campaign, and to the sur prise of the machine Langley, before | the .'bosses'' realized it, was in control
 won the nomination. and carried the dis l trict by big majority. He was renom- | mated and elected. He was one of the few 1 members of the present Congress who was able to weather the November po- litical cyclone. for he was reelected. MT
 Langley Is popular with his colleagues During the famous filibuster over the
 omnibus war claim bill he was called to