The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-20
MOORE TELLS WHY PROHIBITION HAS PROVED FAILURE First Formal Address Issued in the Local Option
 Campaign TO FILE PETITION IN NEXT FEW DAYS Points Out That Prohibition Has Been A Failure and Has Encouraged
 Contempt for Law and
 Authority

1 That the local OplloH cdHlpdiSh 10 ot in earnest was evidenced by the issu- ance of a signed statement of Jones G. Moore, chairman of the local option com mittee yesterday. The statement IS clear-cut and well defined and leaves no doubt as to the position of the locai optionists in regard to the prohibitions question.
 MT Moore is of the opinion, and gives bis reasons. that statutory prohibition ,s failure. that it's attempted en- forcement has bred a system of perjurers and contempt of law and authority. He deplores the fact that women ana young girls are engaged in illicit sale of intoxicants; points out the enormous loss of revenue to the city during the past four years, and comes out square ly and unequivocally for the high IT. cense and well regulated saloons as solution of the much mooted question:
 MT. Moore stated that the petition for the local option election would be filed with the probate judge within the next few days, and that the campaign and other committees would be ap- pointed about the same time.
 Will File Petition Soon The headquarters for the local option committee is on the second floor of the Brown Marx building, where the peti- l ton has been carefully prepared for presentation to the probate judge ana preparations are being made to conduct an aggressive campaign.
 Judge Stiles will have 30 days to pass on the qualifications of the signers of 1 the petition, and in the event that the required number of names are on the list will order an election to take place on a date which must be within 40 days from the time of making such order.
 Moores Address
 The address issued by MT. Moore Is as follows:
 Birmingham, June 19, 1911.
 ITO the Citizens of Jefferson County: when the campaign was pending in this county in 1907 upon the liquor question, I was an advocate of pro hibition,' believeing then that the law could be enforced. Nearly four years experience and personal observation of the system have convinced me and many
 other ardent prohibitionists that the plan is an unqualified failure; that conditions instead of being improved have been made worse; that while there | were formerly infractions of the laws | which were more readily subject to discovery and punishment, there now exist open as well as secret violations, | ,;ol, ie which it seems to me, unless change be made, will in time lead possibly to anarchy.
 The present conditions have already bred a disrespect of and contempt for this particular law, and has built up free masonry of perjurors who protect and safeguard law violators, and 1 continuance of these conditions will in- evitably lead to a desregard of all other laws and authority.
 "The illicit sale of intoxicating liquor has already spread to the residence sections of our municipalities and while formerly only men engaged in the traf fic now, shameful to say, women and young girls are engaged in the nefari- ous business. The police and criminal court records of our county sadly at test the fragrant violations of the law. We are expending large sums of money in fruitless effort to eradicate this evil.
 17O0 Blind Tigers Commissioner Lane was quoted only recently in the daily papers as having stated that the suppression of one blind tiger was seemingly followed by the opening of two more. The Anti-Saloon league law enforcement bureau, after a careful investigation, has gone on rec ord that in old Birmingham alone there are over 1700 such unlawful places of business. Imagine the numbers that must exist in the entire county.
 At the time of the prohibition cleo tion, there were no legalized saloons in Birmingham, which in the nearly four years under attempted prohibition would have netted the city handsome revenue, and gone a long ways towards averting the present large deficit; in other words, even though no additional licenses had been issued because of taking in Ensley and other suburbs, the revenue from that source for the | time would have been very large. These facts have demonstrated the futilty of attempting to enforce law having for It's object the controlling of the appetites of men. Our people rebel | a 1 1irt, |, <1.a11