The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-09-25

in Alabama, and that the prohibition
laws are the best on the statute books
and are being enforced.
''In July 1914 there were, in Birm-
ingham, 321 arrests for drunkenness.
In July of 1915 there were just 81
arrests. On Labor Day, 1914, there
were 106 arrests in Birmingham, and
on the same day in 1915 there were
just eleven arrests. In Elmore couTLy
there were, at one barbecue 5000 per-
sons in attendance on Labor Day and
not one drunk"
Judge Weakley arraigned the liquor
dealers of Pensacola for shipping
whislxey into Alabama, and other dry
states, and for the activities of the
mail order houses in sending out wet
goods and literature into Alabama
and Georgia, and dry towns in Flor
ida. Judge Weakley said that he had
been appointed one of committee of
Alabama citizens, of which he was
chairman, to go to Washington to
make fight against this business,
and that these men had raen to a
number of public officials, and to
President Wilson himself, and had
presented Alabama's case against
these men who were sending opt this
literature from Florida, into dry ter
ritory, and that they were going back
in December and stay there, until a
bill was passed prohibiting this work.
Judge Weakley spoke Of the anti
| advertising bill, and declared that
since the passage of this bill the
NEWSPAPERS of Alabama had had very
little to say against prohibition. He
showed copy of Puck, demonstrat-
| ing that all literature sold in Alabama
| must be expurgated of liquor adver-
Using, before it can be sold on the
news stands of the state. He cited
the recent statement of John Sharp
Williams, that he has changed his
mind on the question of national pro-
hibition, and stated that if there were
any young men in the audience with
political aspirations, they had better
get on the water wagon, for that
the water wagon-unless it was the
Ford automobile.
He quoted from an article from the
Birmingham Age Herald which said:
eff anyone thinks that prohibition in
Alabama is not a success so far as
/ prohibiting is concerned, he has an
other think coming to him. He quoted
from a Birmingham News article,
which read, Increase in business
causes increase in department store, +"
citing the increase in the business of
one store in the past twelve months
twenty per cent, and since prohibition
had gone into effect, forty per cent.
Answering the query as to whether
/ Birmingham stores are vacant, he
gave figures to prove that they were
not only not vacant, but were being
enlarged to take care of their increas-
ing business. He spoke of one of these
enterprises, a new $4,000 restaurant
being put up in Birmingham, and
promised, if Pensacola went dry, to
try to get one of equal importance
and value here. Judge Weakley
spoke of the Davis bill, and declared
that the liquor traffic cannot be regu-
lated.
Judge Weakley called the roll Of
the southern states in the dry column
Virginia, West Virginia, North Caro-
lima, South Carolina, Georgia, Ala
bama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklaho.
ma, Arkansas, part of Texas, and cited
the fact that in Minneapolis fight il
going on at this time for prohibition
as we'll as in other parts of the middle
west and west.
Speaking of education, he cited the
, increase in North Carolina in the pas
few years, from 100000 for educa
ton in 1918, when prohibition wen
into effect, to $4,000, 900 at the presen
> time, and the fact that there hal
never been more money spent on edu
cation, or larger attendance in. Birm
" ING than at present