The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-17


 (laughter), and I have been right -si
 Let ns return to the corner of. the alley. 1 see woman going down the kin. l accosted little boy tif you want to know anything, ask ? boy). l said, 'Son, look at that woman, do you know where she is going?" He said, T don't know 'zactly, sir, but I think she is taking something to eat to some poor woman or some sick child down that alley" Pretty good guess" said I. see a hog running across lot with an ear of corn in his mouth. I hail the boy and say. 'Son. see that hog?'' "Yes. sir" Where is he going with that ear of corn!' The boy replies, Il think he is taking it to sick SOW or some hungry pigs" There isn't city boy in America ignorant enough to make an answer like that. I'll tell you where that hog is going-he's going off in one corner of the lot where he may l escape his fellows and regardless of the world about him, satisfy his hoggish appetite.
 Intelligence and Character
 My fellow countrymen, this is the fight we must make. The whisky
 
 result to obtain higher than the grat- ification of the human stomach. Our fight is the fight of intelligence and character for the good of our fellow man.. tApplause).
 (Placing his hand upon his head) We begin our fight up here with brains. We intelligently plan for the good of our brother. (Placing hand upon his breast) Then here we get brotherly love that tempers every act. We thus plan for the highest good of our brother, If can get this thing in your head I will have the whole thing in nutshell. (Laughterl. The Christian patriot, with love and sympathy, intelligently plans for the good of his brother. The whisky man shrewdly, clandestinelyr and basely plans for the qualification of his own appetite. We must look to the intelli- gent, moral patriot for our constituency. Any fellow with stomach may find his place with the other crowd (Applause).
 Intelligence in handling any question studies causes and effects; ignorance deals only with effects. Our people were dying all over this country with all kinds of diseases Ignorance sent for the doctor, bought collins, cenietery lots and employed undertakers and sent for preachers to bury the dead and gath cred in sad groups to weep over the corpses. The funerals multiplied and ignorance suffered Finally intelligence entered the field and informed us that there is a cause of disease, that disease may turk in the meat we eat, in the milk and in the water we drink. Intelli- gence suggested that if death be de- stroyed in these articles life would be restored everywhere. Ignorance stands down by the spring branch dipping out the water. Intelligence asks What I the purpose F and ignorance replies, "I am clearing up this stream of water" Intelligence says. go up to the head of the spring; there is an old SOW wallow- ing in it; drive her out and the spring will clear the stream by pouring into it pure and wholesome water" 4'
 What Ignorance Does
 Ignorance gratifies appetite, induces and superinduces every crime fostered by this diabolical fluid and then hires policemen, builds jails and asylums, spends millions in caring for the wreck age of this gratifer of the human stomach insults the flag, tramples the constitution in the mud and surrenders
  throws overheard the New Testament doctrine of brotherly love and cries for personal liberty of that type whose highest aim is unbridled liberty to gratify appetite at any cost to civiliza. tion. Intelligence finding a wreckage of the human race in slums. prisons, aims houses and asylums, in broken families, ruined business and shattered lives, in- quireS. for the cause. Undeniable sta tistics and records by the profoundest and most reliable research locates alec hol as the diabolical poison and the source of these evils Intelligence cried, "Stop the use of alcohol and you will sweep these direful plaques from our race" Intelligence and patriotism placed the eighteenth amendment in our constitution and with only two years of experience, carefully gathered statistics in figures that will not lie, show that the inmates of all the institutions above mentioned are thinning out. (Ap- plause.) The social stream is clearing and peace and happiness are smiling. Take any city in America and examine the conditions before and after prohibit tion and the facts will be irresistible.
 Conditions in Birmingham
 I live in Birmingham, Ala. We make iron and steel for living down there. (Laughter.) It is a great, pro- gressive, prosperous, southern city. My first visit to Birmingham was as a tenn perance lecturer to aid in fighting their first great battle for prohibition. There was a saloon on almost every promi- nent corner and they were crowded day and night. Drunks, brawls and pistol duels kept the police busy. At night you could not walk block without com ing in contact with man visibly under the influence of liquor. was shown a magnificent. -$100,000 stone jail built as a supplementary of the smaller county and city jails for the purpose of caring for the large army of criminals and this magnificent modern prison had every cell crowded with inmates. I am now living in Birmingham and am pastor of a downtown church My residence is in two blocks of the three leading ho- < tells Of the city, and faces the leading