The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-24

doubts that the administration of the prohibition laws of Alabama will be strengthened and improved under fed eral cooperation. If it has been proper and helpful to administer by the fed eral government the laws governing the
 making of liquor, is there any reason why
 the laws prohibiting it's manufacture and sale should not be likewise administered? 1 Some argue that it is unfair for those l states desiring prohibition, having found 1 it to be beneficial. to insist upon other states accepting prohibition legislation claiming that such interference is a vio- lation of the state rights and individual 1 freedom.
 When the states originally went into compact fixed by our federal consu- 1 tuition they then agreed that when three | fourths of the states, parties to this agreement, decided that a change should ! be made for the benefit of the whole, l the other one-fourth would accept the de- cision of the three-fourths. Without such provision and agreement one fourth, or any less minority of the states, could and would compel the ma l jority Of the states to continue to live under conditions which this majority felt were hurtful. Such condition would re | intolerable and absolutely in violation l both of the compact set out in the consti- tuition and of our fundamental American ideas of the rule of the majority. l With our experience in Alabama we know that many people, just like myself,
 who in the absence of direct evidence, 1 lean to personal privilege and noninter- ference with individual habit will find, upon trial, tremendous compensahng | benefits under prohibition requirement
 BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES We see today for the first time in more than 50 years Alabamas s opportun- 1 ity to develop and make use of her re- sources in such a way as to put her financially and commercially at the head of the states as she now stands alpha beticaily. Our farms are prosperous. With good prices for the products; the
 great natural and potential values of our
 Tennessee river, with its neighborins stores of limestone, coal and iron, have i been recognized by the government ill 1 the building of the great dam and nitrate 1 plants around Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia. Mobile and Birmingham are absolutely linked, one as the great iron and coal industrial center. the other as the great port, backed by our Warrior and other waterways and are now com ing inro their own with great steel plants
 under way at Birmingham and great shipb1ilding plants undertaken at Mo- bile.
 "Our climate and our social advantages under prohibition administration are rec ognized n great military camps at An niston ard Montgomery and thousands of visitors are coming into our state with eyes and ears open, not only for social acqua intance, but for business oppor- l tunities. War conditions make both the busi-
 ness of the state and the individual un- | certain and changing. The after-war 1 conditions, which I hope will come with in the administration of the next gov
 ernor of Alabama, will bring many more changes and unthought of problems. No matter how efficient the individual CT corporate management of the farm or factory within the state may be, unless we have a solvent state government and business administration of the peonles
 affairs, individual effort is largely nulli- | fled
 ron Kilby has the experience, ability and desire to bring Alabama to this much desired situation.
 May I not, therefore, ask the demo- crats of the state to aid me in submerg- | ing petty politics. isms' and 'schisms and by electing Thomas E. Kilby goyer-
 nor, start working for the big things really worth while? Very cordially yours, W. D. NESBITT."