The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-11-09

is, while the less alcohol it contains
the more illegal it is. Under such a
law it would be unlawful to manufac-
ture, sell, offer for sale, keep on
hand, give away, etc, such things as
water, milk, coffee, tea, chocolate
milk and various sundry soft drinks
that are so popular with soda fount-
ain topers.
Not Intended.
No suspicion of intention in giving
the amendment this adverse effect at
taches itself it Mr.. Pickett, who in
troduced the amendment. Mr.. Pick
EFT is at the head of one of the largest
soft drink" concerns in Georgia, and
the effect of the amendment would be
to kill absolutely his own business as
we'll as all the soft drink business
in the state.
This is further apparent by anoth-
err amendment which was introduced
by Mr.. Pickett to amend section ~
of the bill to the same effect as the
amendment of the first section. To
section 10 the amendment has no
relevancy whatever. This is Bill No.
6. This amendment was evidently
intended for Bill No. D, which has
not yet been considered by the SEN
ate. The mistake was made in stat
ing the number of the section it was
sought to amend.
Senator Fakes Also Made a Slip.
Besides the amendment by Mr..
Pickett, which was adopted, there
was another amendment introduced
10 ,1thin a1cn
have been adopted had not the falla-
cy of it been discovered in time. This
amendment would have changed the
"misdemeanor" penalty clauses of the
Stovall bill to felony penalty
clauses, which, the machinery lack
ing, would have left the bill without
any penalty provision which could
have been executed, and there would
have been, therefore, no means OF
enforcing tn law.
Pickett Makes Explanation.
When the senate got down to bust
ness Monday morning Senator Pickett
of the Eleventh arose to a question of
personal privilege, and explained the
amendment offered Saturday, which
really made the bill prohibit the sale
in Georgia of any drink containing
less less than one-half of one per
cent of alcohol. Mr.. Pickett said:
Il assure you gentlemen | had no
idea in the world of weakening the
bill, nor did l have any idea of pro-
hibiting the sale in Georgia of Bull
garian buttermilk, pink lemonade
or any similar drinks. | asked a SEN
ator friend to draw an amendment
for me and he drew it. | introduced
the amendment and accept full re-
sponsibility foreit. | admit that |
had not read the bills before me on
the desk carefully as | should but |
have had in my mind and now have
in my mind the intention to vote for
the strongest prohibition bill that
is brought before this body. These
bills were represented to be the
strongest offered and / believe they
are. | know it takes about one-half
of one per cent of alcohol to pre-
serve certain medicines and certain
beverages, but it was my purpose to
make this bill so that no more than
that could be used, and never was it
any idea of mine to injure the bill.
That must be clear on its face, in
view of the fact that, so far as |
know, l haven't anything against my
self, and there is no reason | know
why | should want to injure myself;
yet this amendment would put me
out of business. l am sorry l wasn't
more careful in reading the bill and
the amendment, and I'm sorry it went
through the way it did,