The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-15

vent the ownership by thea same per
 son of capital stock of different cor | porations, operating breweries or dis
 tilleries."
 Prevents Chain of Saloons l What objection can. be found to this provision it Is difficult to understand. The purpose of the law was to prevent one
 person from operating a chain of saloons l n the state, or to have any interest in
 the liquor business in any other town or city, but not to the extent of prevent- | ing the ownership of capital stock of dif-
 ferent corporations operating breweries or
 d:stlleries. So all of MT. Bowie's argu- l ment is built on clear miSconception
 Of the law.
 Even if one man should be wealthy
 enough to purchase all the leading hotels | in the city and concentrate their own ership in his hands, it is doubtful whether I under the provisions of the Smith law he could operate a saloon in more than one
 town, but even conceding that one man
 should undertake to purchase all the ho- I tels in the city and could operate saloons i 1T. them, is not this a rather far-fetched source of danger?
 There is little possibility that a hotel | trust may be created. but even if it is created and they operate good hotels and sell pure liquors under the strict and severe regulations of the present law, it l is difficult to understand how the pub | lie could suffer injury, or the great and | terrible dangers which MT. Bowie con- I ceives could really exist
 l MT. Bowie says that a single individual may, through the ownership of major l ity of the stock concentrate in his hands
 the entire business of those corporations
 authorized to retail liquors. As the only
 corporations authorized to retail liquors
 arc those operating hotels and restau- | rants. it would be necessary for sin l gle individpaI to acquire millions of dol | lars worth of property, and the acaui- l sition of this immense amount of hotel property is possibility extremely re- mote and uncertain.
 It Is evident that single individual could not concentrate In his hands the ownership of all the social clubs of the state, because there is no stock of so- I cial clubs on the market. It is true a single individual might join all the so- cial clubs in Alabama and have the priv l ilege of drinking at all of them, but it I Is difficult to perceive how that would
 endanger the welfare or overthrow law and order in the state.
 | In his desire to find objections to the I Smith regulation bill MT. Bowie allows
 his fervent imagination to discover dan gers and pitfalls in the most harmless provisions. There is nothing good in the law in his judgment but behind even the
 
 dangerous meaning, and some insidious effort to fasten upon the people the rule l of the rum seller and open wide the | doors to lawlessness and crime. | AppIicants' Qualifications l MT. Bowie is very much disturbed be- cause he says the law contains no pro- visions prohibiting the grant of license | tc those who may have been engaged in the illegal sale of liquor since 1907. The
 law contains most stringent provisions as | to the qualifications of the applicant, and provides that the excise commission shall
 grant license only to those who in their
 judgment are best fitted to carry on the | business.
 It is not to be supposed that an excise comm ssiOn will grant a Ii- | ccnse to . man whose record shows | that he has been persistent or l notorious viOlator of the law. Mir. Bowie ought to cOncede that the l excise commissioners would have l some patriotism, decency and de- 1 sire to enforce the Inv.
 His whole argument is based upon | the assumption that the excise com mission will be composed of men who | will deliberately refuse to carry out the spirit and purposes of the law to
 elevate the liquor traffic and to pre- vent the sale to minors, to drunkards,
 or within prohibited hours.
 1 Mr. Bowie says the commission | might refuse a license to a bad man.
 and yet that same bad man could &C., Fquire the ownership of a majority of
 the stock of the hotels and restaurants l in the city and thus operate saloons. | It Is true that If a bad man possessed | such enormous wealth that he could acquire all the hotels and restaurants i in a city like Birmingham, he might | get license to operate saloons, but if | these saloons are operated contrary to | law, if he made a single sale to minor
 or to a drunkard his license could be l suspended, and for second offense would be entirely forfeited.
 1 Worth While to Obey. Law The Smith bill makes 1t to the | interest of even a had man to obey the law. If he Obeys the law his l license automatically continues. This license is an asset of great value. especially in a city of tho wealth and population of Birming- | ham, and man, whether he he n good or had man, will deliberately forfeit q privilege which has so great a commercial value by keep ing . disorderIy house, by selling | impure liquors. by selling on Sum day, within prohibited hours, to minors or drunkards.
 But Mir. Bowie Is very much alarmed d
 because he says the whiskey trust or the brewery trust could singry col | lectively buy up the control of many saloons In the city through the scheme of stock ownership in private corpora tions. That his fears are absolutely groundless is shown by the fact that no corpora tion can operate saloon un- less that corporation owns a hotel or
 restaurant, or operates a bona fida so-
 cial club, and hence the terrible possi- bilities which have alarmed Mir. Bowie
 and caused him to conjure up the most frightful conceptions of the evils that
 might arise could not possibly occur.
 unless some whisky house had wealth
 enougil<to buy all the hotels in Bsr-
 mingham. or acquire a majority of the stock of each of those corporations. But aside from these considerations q full, complete and conclusive an
 swer to the proposition that a corpor- ation could establish and operate a chain of saloons in the same town or city bX the acquisition of the capital
 stock of hotels and resta is found in Section Is, Page 260, of the regulation act. as follows:
 That not more than one license shall be issued to the same indi~ vidual. firm or corporation during any one year, and when a license
 is issued 1t shall carry the right to conduct the business only in the place which the applicant has specified in his application" Ie the critics of the Smith bill would carefully read the act they would find an answcr to many of their cOntentiOns in the act itself. Absolutely Prohibited uow then in view of this plain and s;mple provision of the law, can 1t be clairaed that the same corporation can