The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-05

I his pledge?
 If you mean by present prohibition laws those in effect at the time the alleged pledge was made tn 1918, then I ask what could have been the p';rposs of making pledge of that kind.
 As matter of fact. the prohibition law in effect in 1918 were not sat | isfaetory either to you, to myself or to most of the members of the legislature. Witness the fact tha the first thing the Legislature did after convening in 1919 was to adopt q new prohibitio law. So, there fore, I do not see how you couiG claiH. that a pledge was made ne. to change either the one or the other.
 Made No Pledge. Speaking for myself, I say most emphatically that l made no pledge of the sort to you or to any other man, 70 any woman child, or even i to myself
 or course 1 cannot speak for most | of the legislatur,." except to refer to what the body did itself by sol ; emn enactment.
 Perhaps you are referring 10 2 pledge made durfng my candidacy in 1918, which was not pledge not tq., change the law, but rather J
 
 stronger.
 You stale that by making the pledge I secured the support of the Anti Saloon league and the prohibi- tionists of Alabama. l beg to diff fer with you in that respect The Anti Saloon league did not endorse my candidacy A committee known as the headquarters committee, by a majority vote endorsed my candidacy .E ta, ft sign with the majority. That could hardly be called an endorsement of I the Anti Saloon league. Some of the | members were loyal, enthusiastic and | sincere friends and l do not wish to reflect to the slightest degree upon their part in my campaign
 Now to the real question: The brief or argument against permitting the | sale of what you call near beer in Alabama. l wrote you as the l leading prohibitionist in the state. and as the head of the organiza- ! ton championing the cause in tho hope that you would send me the very strongest possible argument in | support of your contention that tt ! would be harmful to the cause of temperance to prohibition and to the prohibition laws to permit the sale of these drinks. Your short state l ment. containing a mere assertion. does not meet my expectation in the matter. 1 really want strong doc ltment, absolutely convincing, if pos sible.
 ! l believe in the prohibition law and I believe in it strongly, and 1 do 1 not want to do anything to injure | it. l believe the permitting of the sale of cereal beverages or near beer would tend to the better enforcement i of the law and it was for the pur- 1 pose of having the very best argu- ment against my belief for the bene- fit of prohibition itself that l asked for such document. You say that what you have written is all the argument you care to make at this time Another time may be too late 1 for the purpose for which l desired to use the argument,
 With kind personal regards, l am, very truly yours,
 (Signed) THOMAS E. KILBY, | Governor. Grounds for Objection
 / Montgomery, Ala, July 26, 1921. Gov. Thomas E. Kilby,
 State Capitol City,
 i Dear Governor: l have been away q few days and find your letter of 2lst on my return. My statement that you and majority of the mem 1 hers of the legislature received the indorsement and support of the Anti Salon league and prohibitionists, on 1 your promise not to interfere with the prohibition laws, thanks to your suggestion. 1 will amend by adding' Unless to make them stronger" This the legislature did and you in- dorsed it. The strongest sentence of | that law was to forbid the manu- | fracture or sale of any drink that looked like, smelled like or tasted like beer" This sentence will have to be stricken out, if a bill is car ried through the extra session per- hitting the licensing the sale of near l beer.
 1 You well know the grounds of my objection< l have no confidence in the brewery people who are behind this movement. Knowing them as you do, l am greatly surprised that you should favor anything they want.
 Misunderstanding" is to be the pledge. At the soft drink stands, if l they have this on hand, the real stuff | will be near at hand too, and Will be | dshed out to the initiated. But sup pose there Is none of the real beer on hand. A glass of the near beer with spoonful of white light ming" will be the real beer with all the kick the most thirsty will need.
 You claim the law you advocate will aid in law enforcement. Of course, if one can get a glass of beer for , or 10 cents, he will not want to pay 25 or 50 cents for drink I from a bootlegger. While you inter- fere with the bootlegger business, you are violating the prohibition law by serving beer. You suppress the l trade in secret and let the prohibi- tion law be broken openly under cover or serving nonintoxicating drink. We may fail in our opposi- tion but we pledged our best en- deavor to hold what we have, If you succeed upon our prohibition governor will rest the responsibility of breaking down our law and divid- ing our prohibition forces. With personal regards for you and an earnest desire to serve the best in terests of the state, 1 am yours very ktruly, w. B, CRUMPTON.
 July 27, 1921. Dr. W. B. Crumpton,
 Montgomery. Ala.
 Dear Dr. Crumpton: Your letter of July 26 is received
 take the statement therein as the argument of yourself and the Anti Saloon league against permitting the sale of near-beer in the state.
 If anything occurs to you before I make use of the letter which you wish to add to what you have al- ready said. will be very glad to have you send it to me.
 With kind regards, I am very truly yours.
 (Signed) THOMAS E. KILBY. Governor.
 Not Speaking for League | Montgomery, Ala. August 2, 1921. ! Gov Thomas E. Kilby.
 l Dear C,OyernOr: have inst ra-