The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-17
EXCISE BOARD PAYS VISIT ID BESSEMER Shopping Section to Be Ex-
 empt From Saloons INSPECTION IS MADE Commissioner Wilkinson Says Saloons Will Not Be Permitted at Jones'
 boro if People Do Not
 Want Them
INSPECTION IS MADE

Bessemer September 16.-(SpeciaL)-
 The initial visit of w. c. Agee, Syden- ham Moore and E. Wilkinson, the ex- else commission of Jefferson county, to this city this afternoon at o'clock for the purpose of looking over the sit- uation, prior to granting licenses Tor saloons here. created considerable ex- citement and very much curiosity among the townspeople, and, although no official announcement was made, 1t was conceded that Nineteenth street will not be- restricted from the retail sale of liquor. No saloons will be To- cated south of the Alabama Great Southern railroad tracks and the shop ping district: Second avenue, between
 Nineteenth and Twentieth streets will be free from saloons.
 The commissioners accompanied by
 George Bodeker chief of police of Bir-
 mingham, and Edmund Webster Booker,
 judge of the woodlawn civil and crim-
 inal court, were met at the city hall
 by a number of prominent citizens Tn
 accordance with a request expressed In
 a communication from Chairman Agee
 to Mayor Lewis. reading as follows:
 Mayor Lewis, Bessemer, Ala.
 Dear Sir-Our excise board expects
 to visit, Bessemer on Saturday after
 noon for the purpose of looking your
 city over with view to granting H.
 censes for saloons and we would be
 very glad to have you and any other
 of your prominent citizens meet us and
 aid us in this matter We want to To-
 cate these saloons to the mutual inter-
 est and mutual satisfaction of all parties concerned. w. c. AGEE, Chairman. The commissioners, with Mayor Lewis, George Ross, president of the city council and Lee Moody, well known real estate dealer. made tour of the sections of the city where prospective locations for those already filing applications were designated. The itinerary included Nineteenth street to Carolina avenue. to Twentieth street, 1 to Second avenue, up Twenty-first street to First avenue. to Third ave- nue and then to Nineteenth street l Upon their return, the local applicants, | their representatives or persons inter ested in keeping saloons off certain streets. collected and all three mem ters of the board were soon engaged In
  claims.
 The commission unanimously agreed that the saloons should be eliminated from the shopping district on Second avenue, that saloons on Carolina ave nue would be too far from the heart of the city for regulation and that Nineteenth street, being a thoroughfare of the most traffic, especially of the influx from the mining camps of the district, should be supplied with H. censed saloon for the blind tiger would again arise should the means of obtain ing liquor be removed. The legality of granting a license to an exclusive negro saloon will be decided next week and at that time the Bessemer licenses are expected to be determined and awarded.
 In regard to locating saloon Tn Jonesboro. Mir Wilkinson said: Should the majority of the public sentiment there be against putting saloon in Jonesboro we will certainly not do 1t as we desire to please the greatest
 number of people who live in the com munity concerned"
 After spending abous 45 minutes here the party left in their automobile for
 Birmingham