The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-17

bell boy in every .hotel in. Birmins- ham into a walking blind tiger. Thus whisky could be sold in bottles which contain less ihan the usual average drink and which could be easily handled and sconcealad and the number of illicit sales would alarmingly increase and the city of Birmingham would enter upon ia reign. of -lawlessness such as would make even the present miserable conditions look ideal in comparison.
 Revenue
 But the last, and which Br. Bowie no doubt conceives to be the strongest argument in ia xer of the ,dispensary IS the statement that 1t has been conserv- atively estimated that the annual prol- It's from a dispensary in Birmingham alone would amount to $1,O00,000 per annum. He draws a most alluring plc- ture of the immense benefits which would accrue to the educa tional sys- tenn and the financial millennium which this system would establish; the people would be practically relieved from the burdens of taxation, the old soldiers would receive increased pensions, good roads would be established without im- posing any burdens upon the people. and everybody would be happy and rich. Yet in South Carolina, where the state dispensary was established, the same roseate predictions were made, but how sad and disappointing the result
 It is now admitted that the state
 of south Carolina did not receive as
 much revenue from the dispensary
 as it had received from the licensed
 saloon. It never at any time
 ceived as much as $1,000,00O, and
 yet the state of south Carolina con-
 tains over a million and n half of people, while the city of BirmiBg-
 
 and 133,OO0. stAat
 If a dispensary in Birmingham would yield million dollars year from it's net profits, then the dspensaries in South Carolina on the same ratio should have yielded over s11. .000,000, and yet in truth lit never produced anything like that sum. t-N
 Mir Bowie overlooks the fact that ese statictics of the United States govern ment show that the highest per capita consumption of whisky in the United States has never exceeded a gallon .and a half Assuming then that the people of Birmingham consumed as much whisky las any other section of the United States as the population of that city is only about 132, 0o0-its per capita consumption could not exceed 19S,000 gallons, which would require profit of $5 gallon in order to net the city MT. Bowies one million dollar revenue a year. How could such a profit be possible under the pro- visions of the Smith, bill,l which limits all profit to 75 per cent of the invoice price, /, Assuming that the. whisky cost on an average of $3.50 per gallon the net profit would only be S2.62 gallon which would make. the revenue less than half a million dollars. even assuming that every man who purchased or used liquor In Birmingham bought only from the dispensary, and that it could be operated absolutely. without cost or expense to the city. Even including beer. under no con- ceivable condition. unless Mir Bowie ad- mits that the people of Birmingham would drink about twenty times as much as the people of any other known city in the world. could he figure out million dollars profit.
 Furthermore MT Bowie overlooks the fact that dispensaries can not be estab- lished for revenue The supreme court of Alabama has held that the only prin- ciple upon which the creation of a dis pensary can be justified is upon the the- ory that it will result in lessening the consumption of ardent spirits and thereby Increase temperance among the people.
 In the light of this decision, it
 is the opinion of many able lawyers
 that the provision found in the ex-
 isting dispensary law which author-
 1Zes tne hQIc or nQuOr ny The drink
 renders the entire law unconstitu-
 tiOnaI.
 MT. Bowie declares that the sale of liquor by private individuals builds up and perpetuates the most dangerous bus mess ever prosecuted or tolerated by mankind We are unable to understand why liquor sold by dispensarys cannot create as much drunkenness and crime as liquor sold by a well regulated saloon. IT sis tr1,a that fbe dispensarv system fs indorsed by the Saloon Opposition league and by many ministers of the gospel, but even that fact will not relieve the spirit ous liquors which they may dispense of its intoxicating effects, nor will the grace of their sanction convert it into a harm- less and innocent beverage.
 If people did not drink liquor, the
 saloon man would soon go out of
 business. As long as people drink
 liquor it makes no difference where
 they get it, whether from saloon
 or from . dispensary or from
 blind tiger.
 Some men will drink to excess and under It's influence commit crime. It iD idle. therefore, to attribute all the evils of the liquor traffic to the liquor dealer. If there were no consumers of liquor there would be no liquor traffic, and if the bus mess is dangerous in the hands of a pri- vate dealer, and is, in the language of MT. Bowie, the most dangerous business ever prosecuted or tolerated by mankind,' 1t is equally as dangerous when conduct. ed by a city or state.'
 The people of Jefferson county know that the dispensary system wherever tried has been repudiated and discredited. They also know that the we'll regulated saloon which, under the provisions of the Smith bill will be better regulated and controlled than the saloon in any other state in the union, Is the best, wisest and most sensible method for the regulation and control of this traffic, and hence will, fin my opinion, so declare by an overwhelming majority on the 2th of this month. JONES G. MOORE