The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-08-21
Prohibition in Alabama

IUIlIDltlOu kAldDdIud
 To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 For sometime I have been intending to write you a letter of commendation on the very frank admissions you make in your recent letter to the Baltimore Manu- facturers' Record, in regard to prohibi- tion's effects in Birmingham, and I am now prompted to do so by a conversation in common, who mentioned your letter.
 I congratulate you on your broad minded stand in this matter. In view of the services you have rendered in the past to the cause of local option, this admission as to the beneficient effects of prohibition in Birmingham may seem inconsistent. Wise men often change their minds, however, and if you should
 be criticised for so doing you might well remark with President Wilson. that you
 would be ashamed to have lived two years without having learned anything. y Being engag ged myself in the manufactur-
 ing business in the Magic City, feel that I can bear out all that you say In your letter to MT. Edmonds.
 Birmingham is not alone, however, in enjoying better conditions under prohibi- tioll, for an esteemed local option friend of mine has just sent me from the Capi- ta, City a newspaper clipping contain ing the following marked passage in a report of the Montgomery county grand jury:
 The county of Montgomery is to be complimented that so few cases have been reported to the grand jury thls term; indeed fewer cases have come be | fore us than the records for the past 2s years show have been recorded in any July term. This Is very favorable show ing and we congratulate the people o1 the county and the officers entrusted with the administration of the law tha' such should be the case"
 In view of the fact that prohibition has not injured labor conditions in Birming- ham; in view of the fact that it has greatly decreased crime in Jefferson ano | Montgomery; in view of the fact tLat il has kept in Alabama millions of dollars | that formerly went out of the state fol wholesale liquor shipments; in view o1 | the fact that The Age-Herald has con tinued to prosper, despite its loss O. whisky advertising, is 1t not meet ane timely that you call on your fellow ed | itors in Alabama to join with you in al effort to keep the present prohibition | laws on the statutes for another foul years, to the end that they may have {
 thorough trial?
 | If prohibition is a bad thing for Ala ! bania, we want 1t repealed but if 1t Il | good thing, as 1 believe 1t to be, theI | should like to see you apply your ex cellent taleSts to the further populariza
 ton of Alabama's prohibition policy. l I flattei myself that I am not yer. 1 emotiora, nor easily susceptible to hys 1 terra. Personally, I was converted t' prohibition as a policy purely from men
 tai deduction based on practical expe rience I lived in Anniston under a To | cal prohibition law that was a failure
 Hence, when I was first elected mayo of Anniston I was opposed to prohibi
 tion because I believed it could not b. enfo}ced. I was sworn to enforce tn
 laws, however, and when Calhoun wen dry during my administration, l did m. best to live up to the oath. We enforced the law here then, and 1t has been en
 forced ever since; and by observing it
 effect on the efficiency of the workers il
 our industrial plants, stores and offices and it's general effect on the moral tom
 of this community, became convinced O
 the wisdom of the policy. I have believed
 since that what could be accomplished | in a small way locally could be accom-
 plished on broader scale, and the evi
 dences I have cited above bear me ou as to the soundness of this belief. | Prohibition has been pronounced sue cess in Alabama, and 1t must remain {
 settled policy. To keep it so, we neet your help and the continued alertnes
 of all good citizens, lest self-seeking in terests from without the state slip in un I de- cover of extraneous or spacious Is sues to rob us of the blessings we nov enjoy. Very truly yours.
 | THOMAS E. KILBY. l A1niston, August IS, 1916.