The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-11
LONG REIGN OF THE PASTORS UNION HAS BEEN ENDED AT LAST Arlie Barber Withstands Pressure-RelatesSer of Incidents of Recent Past WON EVERY POINT BY CONCISE ARGUMENT Believes Heartily in Blue Laws, But Will Not Consent to Making Fish
 of One and Fowl of
 Another

Ariie Barber has withstood the pressure of the Pastors union.
 In statement to representatives of the press, the new commissioner yesterday morning related a series of incidents which indicates that the long reign of the
 preachers in local governmental affairs has come to a sudden conclusion. MT.
 Barber is not in & cumulative humor. He
 has woi all his points by virtue of con
 else and courageous argument. T have heard a great deal of blue laws he began. q desire to state right here that you can't make blue laws too blue for me. But intend to see that in enforcing statutes having to deal with the keeping holy of the Sabbath, the city does not make fowl of one and fish of an- other. Everybody. every institution must be treated alike. If we cannot have nov ing pictures on Sunday, we cannot have drug stores, newspapers, street cars or telephones.
 Argues With Dr. Foster During the campaign word was sent
 abroad that I favored permitting opera tOIS LII luONiiS piCluTe SllOWS to SIteI- tain within certain hours on the Sabbath. | Many people came to me protesting. There was Dr, Foster of the First Pres byterian church.
 q suggested to the doctor that we look about us. Do we not all violate the Sab 1 bath? I asked. And then I reminded him | that on Sunday mornings he patronized street cars despite the fact that he might l have lived in the manse prepared for him | immediately next to his church, manse 1 in which he objects to dwell because of its
 proximity to the jail, but in which peo- l pie as good as he-I told him in all good
 humor-do dwell I told him further that
 after services, he again patronized the street cars; that on reaching home again he was put before @ dinner which a hard working servant had prepared on the day of rest that after rega.ng himself
 with food, he used the telephone to op-
 crate which a poor, tired girl was at cen I tral on the day of general relaxation, and
 that in the afternoon his chauffeur drove him over the hills in that he might ob- serve on the Sabbath the moving picture | show of nature
 l "Of course, l was not offensive. l was
 simply explaining my position.
 Moving Pictures in Church
 l And pr. Ray, another estimable pas 1 tor, protested. To him related the fol- l lowing:
 | ''One Sunday night in the church which ! I attend, l witnessed a moving picture show. The slides were very entertaining
 and very instructive. I enjoyed myself
 After the performance, a collection was | taken up, and all of us contributed. The
 money was turned over to the preacher f who was giving the entertainment, and
 he put it into his pocket I accompanie
 the preacher to his car. carrying his
 instrument under my arm. I urged him | to return and entertain us again.
 After saying which I .smlingy ob-
 served to MT. Ray that the preacher above referred to was Dr. Ray, himself,
 and he remembered the incident. l This morning Dr. Dickinson and pr. Whitten called to protest against what they thought the intention of the commits sion to enact Sunday moving picture
 law. I talked the situation over with 1 them and as a result I do not believe
 that they will ask for a referendum I
 told them that laws could not be too blue l for me, but that the statutes would exert
 equal force on all alike.
 l NduS ICuOuS NAOuCy 1NOI WduCcu 1 And, having discussed that topic,
 urged the preachers to aid me in solving the problem of the prostitute What shall | We do with the wretched women of the
 street? If we persecute them-arrest | them periodically, haul them before our judge, convict them and demand the payment of a fine-in effect, we license them, we collect at intervals a certain
 sum of money. certain percentage of
 that which they earn by applying their trade.
 And we shall not put this gangrenous money into the city treasury. ] q discussed this subject with Dr. Dick inson and Dr. Whitten. They promised their support. They declared that if 1
 put an end to prostitution I would make of myself the greatest man in the his- l tory of Birmingham. I told them that was not seeking honors, but the solution of the problem.
 We have fine spun theories. We talk
 of them. We delight in thinking of them. But after all, we are confronted with cold, stubborn facts. and must have the | courage to meet the situation. Tn the crises we cannot resort to theories or l hypothetical cases. It is up to us to act.'' | e.