The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-30
JUDGE BLACKWOOD FAVORS AMENDMENT

Judge J. E. Blackwood of Gadsden,
 who has been prominently mentioned as a candidate for Congress against John l l.. Burnett is an out and out prohibi- 1 tionist, and is in favor of the federal amendment. He writes:
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 | I desire to correct wrong impression likely to be created by an article on lpage of your issue of this date com ling from the ren of your Washington correspondent, in which he says, in his
 discussion of congressional fights ill Ala bama. that "Judge Rlackwood of Blount l county is mentioned. If he enters he will announce according to information req ching Washington, as opposed to rati- fication of the prohibition amendment. There are two errors in this statement I do not disown Blount, was born and reared there and love her people, but I have resided in Gadsden for the past a years I might become candidate for Congress- but if did. as congress sional aspirant, l would maintain the same attitude toward liquor l have all ways maintained as a private citizen or Judicial officer, viz: against 1t.
 I am democrat through and through but I am for the constitutional prohibi- tion amendment up an doWn ana through and through. notwithstanding We are being warned by certain large in fluences that we are departing the faith of the fathers" If blindly keeping the faith means that our hands are thereby tied to system of government that de nies tho living fathers and mothers the .r;r lv,n . nnnnrtlnitN rear their boys in an environ free from the damnifying influences of intoxicants, then am ready to depart the faith, with I tho charitable thought lingering in my mind for the fathers: They did the best they could for their day and genera ton, but ours is a new day, with condi- tions so changed as that We can and ought to make some advancements and 1 improvements and we are recreant to our duty if we fail to advance" States l rights is the last plank left in the plat l form of John Barleycorn and because the south is democratic and states rights one of the chief blanks of democracy. John seeks to unify his interest with that of democracy and, when we re- ! fuse to honor the union. thus sought to | be forced upon us, he cries out 'unfaith- | ful: you have departed the faith of the fatners.v All of which is mere bosh and l born of the desperate straits in which John finds himself.
 | There are moral questions that pre-
 sent national, not state issues, There
 ale economical questions that affect not l a single state, but the nation. The Iouor question is the chief sinner among
 them all It takes it's toll of men, money ard food.
 We nov lave two wheatless days and 1 two meatless days week thrust upon l us by a national requirement.: will some l self -styed Jeffersonian rise to a ques- ton of personal privilege or undertake I to inject the time-honored principle Of states rights? No, only a slacker who | cares alone for his welfare would so
 much as think of it.
 l But when we seek to save the man power, the fuel stores and the food stores 1 for world sorely in need of them all. I by depriving the distiller and the brewer I of the right to distill our food products ! into man destroying intoxicants, then the
 devil shows his claws and damns us for lack of faith in the fathers.
 l Let us rot rest our case entirely upon l tho wisdom of the departed earthly fath-
 CTS, but rather let Us profit by all tho | good they left us together with our own accunulation of wisdom and experience, which may be more appropriate to our present day surroundings and moro be- fitting our present idea of the eternal fitness of things. And may God speed l the day when the union between govern ment and liquor will be dissolved and dis owned by free intelligent Christian J. E. BLACKWOOD. l Gadsden, January B. 1917