The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-13
High License and Regulation

= AduOI DuslHeSS Sildli De udiiuiSu hSlS- e abouts by dspensaries or by dealers . on the payment of high license.
 The Smith regulation act may have :, imperfections, as many good laws l have, but on the whole it is an eX cellent law and safeguards the pub lie well. Prohibition leaders have a habit of speaking of the Smith law [ as ''iniquitous," and in the next
 breath putting in strong plea for the dispensary as the ''lesser of two evils" yet the dispensary is a part of the Smith regulation law.
 In some communities the Smith dis pensary system would doubtless prove entirely satisfactory. Any law could be reasonably well enforced if local public sentiment favored it. On the contrary no sumptuary law will be well obeyed or well enforced when public sentiment is strongly opposed to it. Human nature is about the same the world over, and certain it is that the experience of Maine and the experience of Alabama would be the same in the long run when it comes to puritanical legislation.
 If the Smith dispensary regulation had contained a clause providing for licensing the sale of beer and light wines, and confining strong beverages to state or county traffic Birmingham might have been well served. But there is the If" We have the strictly reg ulated dispensary in the Smith act, and where it becomes county plan for the lawful handling of liquor one may not get even so much as bot. tie of mild beer except from a dis pensary. Birmingham has a popula- tion of upwards of 150,000, and boosters are pleased to stress the metropolitan character of the city. Now, everyone knows that metro politan" and prohibition" do not fit together, and those who are best ac- ouainted with Birmingham know that this town is too large and too cos mopolitan to get along satisfactorily with the dispensary as provided in the Smith regulation law.
 If Birmingham is a metropolitan community, or would be so considered, visitors must be able to get glass of beer or a glass of wine without be- ing inconvenienced or without violat- ing the law. The public sentiment of Jefferson county, no matter what it
 was regarding liquor in 1907, is over whelmingly against prohibition now. Not only did it give large majority
 against the prohibition amendment in 1909, but large majority in favor , of the prohibition candidate for governor in 1910. It will doubtless give still larger majority against
 the dry side at the approaching cleo
 tion. But along with its changed sen-
 timent growing out of the failure of prohibition and the loss of revenue to the city of Birmingham, temperance sentiment genuine temperance sentiment-is as strong today, if not stronger, than ever. Birmingham, in the old saloon days, had the reputa- tion of being very bad town, but under the reign of the blind tiger it still witnesses great deal of drunk enness and other crimes.
 Memphis, under an excise commits sion before Tennessee adopted pro- hibition measure, had model saloons. Many prohibitionists admitted that if liquor had to be legalized at all in Memphis their opposition to the traf- fife was greatly minimized by the policy and practice of the excise 
 board. And it will be that way in Birmingham. The Alabama law pro- vides large powers for excise commits sions. Without such powers it would be better not to have any excise com mission, but instead to let the already constituted municipal authorities issue l licenses. The very fact that the law | provides for an excise commission with l broad powers and makes it imperative
 that the commissioners give strict at
 tention to the liquor traffic assures ? decent conditions. As between the open saloon and the dispensary and , blind tiger in Jefferson county, a l sound, practical view cannot be other , than on the saloon side.
 
 Improvement of the Warrior River