The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-07
JUDGE WEAKLEY
 ON SMITH BILL

The prohibitionists held a large and jou theatre yesterday afternoon from 3 till o'clock. But four speeches were made. Those spaeking were Charles Rice, the secretary of the or ganization, Judge S. D. Weakley, Rep resentative Brindley of Etowah coun- ty, and c. P. Beddow, the head of the prohibitionists
 The theatre was packed, in both or chestra and balcony, and in spite of the intense heat quite an enthusias- tic meeting was held. The meeting was called to order by MT. Beddow. After a song the meeting was invoked by Rev. A. R. Moore, who prayed for divine guidance and aid in the strug- gle.
 After the invocation, the chairman of the meeting read a little piece of what he called Scandinavian poetry" This told of the defeat of Jones Moore, Isadore Shapiro,' and the rest of the anti-forces. It ended up with after August 25 we'll hear no more of the fine old fellow Jones Moore" After this the chairman introduced Charles Rice, the secretary.
 MT. Rice stated that he was exceed ingly gratified to see such large and enthusiastic audience, and that he felt that nothing but success would follow their efforts. He said that the day was the Sabbath, and that it was no time for bitterness, but to do the Makers will. This, he said, was to down ''king al- cohol."
 "To do His will is to stamp out the great whisky curse,' he said, but this great work cannot be accomplished with out funds" He stated that although spirit and effort could be procured free, Uncle Sans stamps could not
 After telling of the effort which was going to be made, he stated that the help of the preachers would be necessary. He requested that the preachers cooperate with the prohibitonists, and with their | aid together with the w. c. T. U.. he said, he thought that victory could be easily gained.
 After delivering very graphic descrip- ton of the last campaign be gave statis- tics as to where prohibitionsts were and where there was dry territory The audi ence was somewhat amazed by the statis- tics.
 Following this he took up one of the appeals made to the voters by the op- position and criticised it severely. He read the first line, which stated that the people must decide a very serious issue | on August 2i He corroborated this state ehA A,,II vote on the right side. After this critf- | cism he took each part in detail and stated that it was a weak effort to in- fuence the vote of the far-seeing citi- zen.
 After speaking to the audience and en- thusing them in his statements he asked | that cards be distributed requesting con- tributions to carry on the great war against king alcohol" Quite a sum was subscribed. Following, Representative Brindley of Etowah county was intro- duced to the audience. He stated that his constituents had voted for prohibition and that they had not changed In their ideas He stated that the "liquor people, were unable to get even enough names on the petition to call for a local option elec- tion He exhorted the people not to give up the fight for, he said, they should win. He ended his speech by saying that three years from now would come the big fight, for then they were going to elect ''real' man for governor.
 The chairman then arose and stated that he would introduce a man who would tell everything about the faults of the Smith bill, and why the whisky inter- ests" were trying to enter the field here.
 Judge Weakley responded to the intro- duction and began by saying that the Smith bill does not have to be condemned, but that 1t condemns itself. He told how. in his estimation, the Smith bill was the weakest bill that had ever been passed by the legislature. He said that although 1t looked very stringent and forceful it was very weak. There Is joke clause in every article" he said, that makes every provision under that clause void and null"
 After speaking for over an hour and a half Judge Weakley wound up by giv- ing prohibition a great boost and giving fine exhortation to the audience to help win the fight. He was warmly applauded
 The meeting closed after a short speech by Mr. Beddow, who announced that meetings would be held on following Sundays at the Bijou.