The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-05
Leaders Who Called Mont gomery Convention Are Pleased at Large
 Attendance
ARE UNANIMOUS THAT THE PRESENT LIQUOR LAWS SHOULD STAND
But War to the Finish Is to Be Made on the Federal Prohibition
 Amendment
ny rRED H. GonMIEY


 Montgomery. April 4.-tspeeiaID Today's mass meeting held here in op- position to the proposed prohibition | amendment was absolutely harmoni- ous.
 By rising unanimous vote late this afternoon resolutions were adopted placing those assembled on record in opposition to the amendment and de- cIaring that the congratulated liquor traffic in Alabama k ns dead ns shc men who lived before the fiood.s Those responsible for calling the meet Ing were pleased with the attendance. which they declared was thoroughly rep resentative Of all parts of the state. The lower floor of the big Grand theatre was comfortably filled when the meeting was called to order.
 The report of the resolutions commit tee, of which Forney Johnston vas chairman, was lengthy, but was regarded as an effective document in oppositioS to the proposed invasion of state rights. |. .l"Ne deucunce the proposed aineE4- ment as treason to the party,e the reso li- tions declared. "as an unconditional sur
  as a tool for federal profiteers bent on robber tariffs and the exploitation of centralized finance, public works ard governmental establishments, and as a measure being forced by methods which, we regret to say, have not been eqlaled since the enforced and fraudulent ratifi- cation of the Fifteenth amendment by he aid of spotted legislatures and fed- oral bayonets."
 PRESENT PROHIBITION LAWS
 Referring to the amendment, the reso- lutions further declared: Ut attempts to confer concurrent Jurisdiction and con- current sovereignty upon two independ- ent authorities for the first time .a the history of any republic"
 Referring to the present prohibition laws, the resolutions say: We de- nounce the amendment as unnecessary in Alabama, even were prohibition in Ala pama not on the statute books. Ths or- ganized liquor traffic in Alabama is as dead as the men who lived before The flood. The great proportion of licensed dealers have accepted the status of SUD- rression of saloons and have taken up
 
 cnt with the spirit of the age.
 We assert that there is no harmful agency so easy to combat. to curb ant 10 suppress. state by state, under the en- frightened action of self-governing peo- pie as the liquor traffic; and we de- nounce as libelous the assertion that Alabama is unequal or unwilling to as- sume or to continue the task or that 1t is the intent and purpose of this meeting or of the var we are now declaring en federal junkerism to restore the licensed sale of liquor to Alabama. or to give aid or comfort to the liquor traffic In pro- tecting the one Fundamental democratic principle the democrats of Alabama owe apology to no man.
 In reference to outside speakers, the resolutions declare We denounce the practice O. hiring alien speakers, men without the state, to conduct propaganda for universal suffrage universal mar riage laws and like federal menaces in this commonwealth of Christian eiti. zcns under cover Of prohibition; and we protest against She use and proclamation of houses of God for their work"
 MEANS FEDERAL SUFFRAGE
 The resolutions further declare: We warn our people that the adoption of the amendment means federal suffrage, whether the federal amendssts in Ala bama profess opposition or not: that federal suffrage means universal suf- frage, or the reduction of representation: that the close of the war will release rapacty for control of the vast federal organism faintly forecast by republican gluttony after the civil war. and that the black ballot, male and female, in the border states and controlling the electo- ral college will be the prize for republ- can and western cajolery in Congress This mass meeting expresses no attitude on the question of woman suffrage in Alabama, but it vehemently repudiates the doctrine of this amendment which breaks down the barrier to federal and universal suffrage"
 Of the present laws the resolutions state: We compromise no principles and trade with no enemy. yet so foreign tv the purpose of this meeting and so immateriai to the great question in- volved is the question of prohibition that we pledge all democrats in Alabama as- senting to these resolutions, now and for
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