two preceding sections shall be construed to prevent the
compounding or sale of any such liquors for medicinal purposes
by a pharmacist or druggist, and upon a written bona fide
prescription of a regular practising physician, whose name shall
be signed thereto; and all such prescriptions shall be filled
and kept by such pharmacist or druggist, and no prescription
shall serve for more than one purchaser; but no physician shall
make or sign such prescription unless the person for whom it is
made is actually sick and such liquor is absolutely necessary as
a medicine; any physician who shall be deemed guilty of
violation of such sections, and upon conviction thereof, shall
be fined not less than $50.00 nor more than $200.00 for the
first offence, and not less than $200.00 nor more than $500.00
for each subsequent offence; and if the buyer shall obtain a
prescription by misrepresentation he shall likewise be deemed
guilty of a violation of said sections, and upon conviction
thereof shall be subject to the same fine as the physician who
shall violate the same; the one-half of said fine to be paid to
the informer and the residue to the school fund of Baltimore
City; and said violators shall be committed to the City Jail of
Baltimore City until such fine and costs are paid; but nothing
herein shall be construed to prohibit a sale by a pharmacist or
druggist in a case of extreme illness, where delay may be
dangerous to the patient.
The second line of action determined upon by the committee was to draw
up a petition to the Liquor License Board, which was done by another
sub-committee.
The third line of action was to take definite steps to publish the work
of the League among the best white people of the city.
After the petition had been approved by the Advisory Committee it was
presented to the Board of Liquor License Commissioners, and the comments
by the newspapers were most gratifying. The Baltimore Sun, in commenting
upon the petition, said, among other things:
“The Liquor License Board’s action upon the petition of many good
citizens for a reduction of the number of licenses for saloons at
certain points in northwest Baltimore is awaited with much interest by
that portion of the public which is concerned in the good order of that
section of the city. It is a section which has not in the past had the
best reputation for freedom from acts of violence and disorder on the
part of Negro roughs and bad characters, and this is believed to be
connected with the fact that in a comparatively small area there are as
many as 45 saloons, of which eight are conducted by Negroes. As a
considerable portion of the Negro population of the city has its habitat
there, it is interesting to note that the most urgent advocates of a
reduction of the number of the saloons are the Colored Law and Order
League, with many colored ministers, teachers and lawyers.... The white
element of the northwestern section is also concerned to have eliminated
as far as possible the danger to peace and order created by the
objectionable places in its neighborhood. It is clearly up to the Liquor
License Board to exercise in the public interest the wide discretion it
possesses. When saloons are excessively numerous and a menace to good
people licenses may and should be withdrawn till the quota for each
neighborhood is within reasonable limits.”
A date for the hearing was set and the Executive Committee proceeded
then to interest as many white people outside of the Advisory Committee
as they could reach. They presented their case to the Association of
Presbyterian, Congregational and Reformed Church ministers, to the
Ministerial Union, to the Methodist Ministers’ Association, to the A. M.
E. Ministers’ Association and to the Colored Ministerial Union. The
Association of Presbyterian, Congregational and Reformed Church
Ministers responded with the following resolution and sent their
committee, who appeared at the hearing:
Baltimore, March 2, 1908.
The Presbyterian, Congregational and Reformed Association of
Baltimore has heard with profound interest the graphic
presentation of the fearful conditions now existing in the
neighborhood of the colored schools and churches in congested
populations in our city, and most heartily unites in the effort
to remove these social cancers from our city, and to this end we
authorize our Secretary to sign in our behalf the petition to
the Liquor License Commissioners for the relief proposed.
H. BRANCH,
H. E. KIRK,
DEWITT M. BENHAM,
Committee.
It is interesting to note that the preacher who was most instrumental in
bringing about a conference with the Presbyterian, Congregational and
Reformed Church ministers was an ex-Confederate chaplain, and three or
four others of the white men who took active interest in this movement
were also ex-Confederates. The following letter was written by this
preacher, and showed that not only political lines played no part in
this matter, but that in matters of genuine reform and uplift the best
Southern people stand ready to lend a helping hand:
Ellicott City, Md., March 2, 1908.
My dear Brother: The Committee appointed by our Ministers’
Meeting brought in a report authorizing our Secretary to sign
the petition you suggested, but so profound was the impression
made by your address that the brethren wish to go further and
will do anything to help you in this matter, either by signing
the petition individually or by going before the License Board
in person at the proper time, to help you in this matter.
If you will indicate fully how we may best serve the cause, let
me hear before our next meeting, the 13th inst.
Sincerely yours,
The hearing took place on the 22nd of April, 1908, and the room set
apart by the Board of Liquor License Commissioners for their hearings
was crowded as it had seldom been before. The Colored Law and Order
League was there in force, and represented by their counsel, Mr. John C.
Rose. The Presbyterians were represented by Dr. DeWitt M. Benham, pastor
of one of the leading Presbyterian churches in the South; Rev. Dr. James
E. Cook and Rev. Dr. Kirk. The Methodist Ministers’ Association was
represented by a committee whose chairman was the Rev. Dr. James E.
Watson. The Colored ministers were represented through Rev. John A.
Holmes. Lawyers W. Ashbie Hawkins and C. C. Fitzgerald, representative
of the best types of colored lawyers, were there. The President of the
School Board, Mr. John E. Semmes, was there to voice the indorsement
which the School Board had given to the petition of the Law and Order
League.
The Secretary of the Colored Young Men’s Christian Association was
present to make protest on behalf of that institution. Bishop Paret, who
would have been present but for the fact that his official duties called
him to another part of the State at that time, sent the following
letter, which expressed his views in the matter:
March 28, 1908.
Board of Liquor License Commissioners.
Gentlemen: As living on the very border of the district
described in the petition from the “Baltimore Law and Order
League,” I am well acquainted with the local conditions. I am
deeply interested also for the welfare and good order of the
people living in it, many of whom are under my own pastoral
charge. I have studied the conditions and facts very closely,
and I am fully convinced that your petitioners have not at all
exaggerated the evil. I have had personal proof of the
corruption and corrupting influence of that portion of our city.
And I earnestly ask of you gentlemen to give your assistance to
the efforts which earnest people are making to abate the evil.
The suppression of many of the drinking places, and the
restrictions asked for the others will do much to help.
I have never before offered advice or suggestion in any public
affair, but in this case I feel that I must speak both for
myself and for the many who agree with me.
(Signed) WILLIAM PARET,
Bishop of Maryland.
The Liquor Dealers’ Association was represented by an array of some of
the leading lawyers in the city. Individual saloonkeepers were
represented by their attorneys. Interested white citizens and black
citizens vied with each other for standing room at this hearing.
A most remarkable feature of this fight was an unsolicited petition sent
in by the property holders on McCulloh Street. McCulloh Street
immediately adjoins Druid Hill Avenue on the north and marks the
beginning of the white district. The people in this street bitterly
resented the “invasion” of Druid Hill Avenue by the blacks. Their action
in coming to the support of the Law and Order League was consequently a
great surprise, though none the less welcome. Having noted in the public
press the action of the Law and Order League, they sent the following
strong endorsement, which was also approved by ex-Mayor Latrobe and
United States Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte:
To the Board of Liquor License Commissioners.
Gentlemen: We have read with peculiar pleasure in the morning
papers of to-day the accounts of the vigorous efforts and the
petitions to your honorable board to withhold licenses for
saloons on Druid Hill and Pennsylvania Avenues and immediate
vicinities; and we wish to supplement such timely action with
all sincerity.
The existence of saloons in proximity to the triangular section
bounded by Eutaw and St. Mary Streets and Druid Hill Avenue
constitutes the prevailing menace to the success of efforts for
fifteen years past to widen and park McCulloh Street from Biddle
Street to Eutaw Street, and the improvements consequent thereon
in accordance with the recommendations of the Hopkins Park
Commission, together with the combined movements of property
holders on McCulloh and Monument Streets, whereby they believe
millions of dollars in real estate values can be reclaimed and
enhanced.
The absence of saloons on Druid Hill Avenue (and contiguously)
will result in making that street vastly more desirable (for
residences and stores), and as it is now principally occupied by
colored persons, the line of such occupation should terminate at
that street; and we applaud the efforts of the colored ministers
and others of their race in the strenuous protests against
saloons in general and in particular in that section in
question.
Very respectfully yours,
ELI M. LAMB, Chairman.
WINFIELD PETERS, Secretary.
THOMAS MacKENZIE, Attorney.
The names of the indorsers of the petition follow:
Thos. J. Morris
Michael Jenkins
John S. Gittings
Arthur Chilton Powell,
Rector of Grace P. E. Church
H. Irvine Keyser
Wm. B. Hurst
James W. Denny
Wm. Whitridge, M. D.
Ira Remsen
B. N. Baker
Eugene Levering
Douglas H. Thomas
Miles White, Jr.
James R. Wheeler
Wm. E. Mosely, M. D.
Saml. Theobald, M. D.
Wilbur P. Morgan, M. D.
Saml. Johnston, M. D.
Richard D. Fisher
Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends (Orthodox), Eutaw and
Monument Streets, by
JOHN C. THOMAS,
President Board of Trustees.
The following were also filed:
I approve of all well-considered and judicious attempts to
reduce in number the sources of drunkenness and crime by
removing disreputable or superfluous saloons from all
localities, and also all saloons from those localities where
they depreciate the value of real property and endanger the
health and morals of the people.
(Signed) FERDINAND C. LATROBE,
April 27, 1908. Ex-Mayor Baltimore City.
I fully concur in the above expressions of General Latrobe.
(Signed) HENRY WILLIAMS,
Ex-Tax Collector Baltimore City.
I heartily approve of all well-considered and judicious attempts
to reduce in number the sources of drunkenness and crime by
removing disreputable or superfluous saloons from all localities
and all saloons from those localities where they depreciate real
property and endanger the health and morals of the population.
(Signed) CHARLES J. BONAPARTE,
April 25, 1908. U. S. Attorney General.
At the hearing, upon advice of counsel, the Law and Order League
declined to present any specific charges against any particular saloon
in the neighborhood, but asked the Board to regard the law which
required that every place licensed should in the judgment of the Board
be “necessary for the accommodation of the public.” They urged that the
people of that community did not require forty-three saloons to meet
their needs. The general charge was made that where these saloons were
thickest the neighborhood was most disorderly as well as most unsanitary
and unhealthy. This statement, however, was met by the police, who, with
marked unanimity, swore that all of the saloons were quiet, orderly and
fully complied with every law and regulation under which they operated.
Some of them swore that the churches, and particularly the church on
Orchard Street, gave them far more trouble than the saloons. This charge
by the police was met by a rejoinder from the trustees of the
Metropolitan M. E. Church, the colored church in question, which was as
follows:
METROPOLITAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
Orchard St., near Druid Hill Ave., Baltimore, Maryland.
April 13, 1908.
_To the Honorable, the Board of Liquor License Commissioners,
Baltimore City._
Gentlemen: On the 6th inst. a protest against saloons in that
neighborhood of the city bounded by Druid Hill Avenue, Eutaw
Street, New Street, Paca Street, Franklin Street, Pennsylvania
Avenue, George Street, Biddle Street, Argyle Avenue, Hoffman
Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Avenue, was made by
the Law and Order League. On the 8th inst. the dealers against
whose saloons the protest was made replied. It was reported in
an article in “The Sun” of the 9th inst. that one of the
witnesses—a policeman—stated that more trouble was caused by
this church than by any of the saloons protested against.
In reply to the same, we respectfully call the attention of your
Honorable Body to the following:
I. This church has repeatedly protested against the large number
of saloons in its immediate neighborhood.
II. At least two saloons (one at the corner of Biddle Street and
Druid Hill Avenue and one at the corner of Druid Hill
Avenue and Biddle Alley) have been licensed over the
protests of this church and citizens.
III. On December 16, 1907, a letter in reference to saloon 823
Druid Hill Avenue, managed by one Oscar E. Goode, being
kept open on Sundays, was sent to His Honor Mayor Mahool.
IV. This church has never had occasion to call upon the police
to quell, or settle, any disturbance.
V. It teaches to its members the doctrine that the laws of the
State and City must be observed.
Because of the foregoing, we deny the statement above referred
to, declare it to be untrue and unworthy of any consideration in
the settlement of the question at issue, and are ready, through
our representative, to submit further evidences which your
Honorable Body may wish to receive.
Respectfully submitted,
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
Metropolitan M. E. Church.
One of the points brought out in the discussion was that the presence of
so many saloons in this neighborhood had depreciated the value of
property, in some cases as much as one hundred per cent. The class of
saloon patrons are in the main of such low type that they drive the
decent people out of the neighborhood and make the main streets through
the section objectionable and even dangerous as public highways.
Respectable people in large numbers take the side streets rather than
walk through lower Pennsylvania or Druid Hill Avenue. The disposition
was to charge this depreciation to the presence of colored people, on
the ground that colored people always lowered the value of property.
This was disproved by the fact that in the upper end of Druid Hill
Avenue, into which the better classes of colored people are moving,
property was actually selling at higher prices than it had reached when
it was a white neighborhood. One of the first colored men to buy in the
upper Druid Hill Avenue district bought in a row in which prices have
advanced over sixty per cent. Houses in this neighborhood now rent and
sell at from twenty to fifty per cent. advance on prices prevailing when
the neighborhood was white.
The bad sanitary conditions, the bad moral conditions, the prevalence of
disease, particularly tuberculosis, were all pointed out in the
argument, as well as the fact that, notwithstanding the neighborhood had
fifteen schools and twelve churches, the influence of these institutions
was practically nullified by the forty-two saloons. The bad name of the
neighborhood, the demoralization of the children, the constant menace to
peace and quiet, were also called attention to. One instance of the
effect of these places upon the children which was cited was of a little
boy who used to come to school day after day, and soon after arriving
fall into a deep sleep. Investigation proved the fact that this child
was given liquor at his home every day by his degraded relatives. Many
instances of school girls whose morals have been corrupted were cited.
One case in particular, in which a married man was arrested, indicted
and sent to the penitentiary for taking a fourteen-year-old school girl
into one of the dens of vice in this neighborhood and keeping her there
all night. The Charity Organization Society corroborated the argument as
to the poverty of this neighborhood by the statement that from this
district came relatively the largest number of requests for assistance.
The committees from the various organizations which joined in this
general protest against the relicensing of the saloons presented the bad
features of the neighborhood so strongly, while the liquor interests and
the police painted them in such glowing colors, that the Board was
unable to decide on the testimony, but they determined upon the unique
plan of personally inspecting the neighborhood. The following report of
this inspection is taken from the Baltimore American of the next day:
“The Board of Liquor License Commissioners announced its decision
yesterday in the case of the protest made recently by the Law and Order
League....
“The decision was reached only after the Board had made a personal
inspection of the sections specified in the protest. Owing to the
unusual manner in which the protest was presented and the nature of the
testimony offered at the hearing of each case, the Board found that it
was impossible to arrive at a satisfactory agreement in the matter. By
Wednesday at noon the case had assumed such complicated proportions that
President Howard, of the Board, suggested that the only way out of it
was to go unheralded and see for themselves.
“The result of the trip of inspection was that the decision of the Board
was based more on what it saw than on the testimony. In fact, the Board
decided that licenses should be refused to what it described as the
worst saloons in the specified section. In the big saloon belt, which
Mr. Rose wanted overhauled by the Board, were forty-five saloons, some
of them very near to colored schools and churches. Mr. Rose especially
wanted licenses refused to those particular saloons. The Board rejected
eleven applicants for renewals, none of which were near schools or
churches....”
The American spoke the next morning as follows:
AN UNSANITARY SECTION.
“There is no just reason for Baltimore to have a portion of its
confines labeled the tuberculosis section.... Scarcely less
interesting than the features of its report with regard to the
unwarranted number of saloons in the section against which
protests have been entered are the observations of the Liquor
License Board upon the subject of sanitation.
“The Board made a personal visitation to the locality centering
in Druid Hill and Pennsylvania Avenues and found a deplorable
state of affairs. Not only was it convinced that there was an
excess of saloons, a number of which were in violation of the
law with respect to the placing of their entrances, but it saw
evidences of gambling and other forms of depravity. It is
clearly a case for the exercise by the police of increased
diligence.”
The result of the personal inspection made by the Board of
Liquor License Commissioners was that, notwithstanding the sworn
testimony of the police, they found eleven saloons openly
violating the law, and determined that these eleven should not
be relicensed. This was such a remarkable situation that the
Baltimore News the next day came out with the following
stricture upon the police:
WHY WERE THE POLICE SO BLIND IN THESE CASES?
“The Board of Liquor License Commissioners deserve, and will
receive, public commendation for their refusal yesterday to
grant eleven saloon licenses which the Law and Order League
protested against. The saloons are situated on Druid Hill
Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue and adjacent streets, and have been
the subject of grave complaint. President Howard and his
associates could not signalize the close of their term of office
better than by setting such an example to the incoming Liquor
License Commissioners.
“There is one development in connection with the hearings in
these cases which calls for more than passing notice, and that
is the testimony of the police as to the character of the
saloons. It is a remarkable thing that with so many respectable
people in a neighborhood complaining about these saloons, the
police—who should be most familiar with conditions—could find
nothing wrong about them. Worse than this, in the case of
saloons so plainly objectionable that the Liquor License
Commissioners, on personal inspection, discover reason enough
for refusing licenses, policemen are found blandly swearing that
they are decent, orderly places.
“The report of the Liquor License Commissioners is a serious
indictment of the credibility of policemen as witnesses in
hearings of this character, and suggests the need of a searching
investigation to ascertain why the police are ignorant of
conditions in the neighborhood in question, which are shown to
be shockingly bad.”
The new Police Board, which went into office on May 1, 1908,
took up the matter of dealing with these policemen, as the
following quotation from the News indicates:
“One of the first actions of the new Police Board, which will be
sworn in on Monday next, may be to bring before it several of
the most prominent officers of the northwestern district to
investigate the charge that they testified falsely before the
Liquor License Board concerning conditions surrounding saloons
in their territory.
“These men—more than a dozen of them—testified that certain
saloons within the district bounded by New Street, Lafayette
Avenue, Argyle Avenue and Druid Hill Avenue, were well kept and
orderly. In fact, they whitewashed these places completely and
comprehensively. The protests, however, were so strong that the
Liquor License Commissioners went to see the places personally.
“As a result they yesterday declined to renew the license of
eleven of the saloons. They found them dirty and unsanitary in
some cases; they found card playing going on in others, and
white and black people of both sexes mingling and in one
instance they found the law violated which prohibits a saloon
from having entrance other than on a public highway....
“Nevertheless, the action of the Board in itself constitutes a
rather serious criticism of the Department. Some of the officers
who testified in favor of the saloons stated that they had been
working in that territory for more than twenty years; and yet,
apparently, in all that time they had not discovered what it
took the Liquor License Commissioners only a few hours to find
out.”
SAYS THE NEW BOARD WILL ACT.
Sherlock Swann is to be President of the new Police Board.
“We are not yet sworn in,” he said this morning, when asked what
the Board would do in the matter, “but you can put it down that
the new Board will take whatever action is proper.”
The rejection of these eleven men was followed almost
immediately by a renewal of their applications, either in their
own names or in the names of pseudo buyers of their saloons,
which made it necessary to fight over again before the new Board
the whole question, with the difference that the Law and Order
League was now required to meet each individual applicant.
The committee, together with the help received from the various
organizations which had come to their assistance, succeeded in
convincing the Board of the justice of refusing a license to any
of the places which had been rejected by the old Board. The new
Board also rejected applications for the transfer of licenses
from places in other parts of the city to two other places in
this neighborhood. These two now made a total of thirteen places
closed within the lower Druid Hill Avenue district.
In this first campaign the best citizens, white and black,
rallied to the support of the Law and Order League. The net
results of the work are most satisfactory. Much, however,
remains to be done, and the Law and Order League promises to
reorganize its forces for the next campaign. White and colored
men in Baltimore now understand each other better. Contemptuous
indifference on the one side and suspicion on the other are
disappearing.
Registering the first victory against the forces of sin and
degradation the Law and Order League intends to continue its
efforts until all colored children are thoroughly protected
against the evil influences of the saloon and the dive.
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of Publications of the Committee of Twelve
Anyone may obtain a copy of these publications now in print by
writing to the Secretary of the Committee of Twelve, Hugh M.
Browne, Cheyney, Pa., and enclosing for each publication desired
a two-cent paper wrapper, addressed to himself:
[*]TO THE COLORED MEN OF VOTING AGE IN ALABAMA.
CAN THE SOUTH SOLVE THE NEGRO PROBLEM? _Carl Schurz_
WHY DISFRANCHISEMENT IS BAD _Archibald H. Grimke_
[*]VOTING INSTRUCTIONS TO MARYLAND VOTERS.
[*]WHAT A COLORED MAN SHOULD DO TO VOTE.
GARRISON CENTENARY LEAFLET.
SLAVERY AND THE RACE PROBLEM IN THE SOUTH, _Hon. Wm. H. Fleming_
THE ATLANTA RIOT _Ray Stannard Baker_
THE NEGRO IN AMERICA _Andrew Carnegie_
ADDRESS BEFORE THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY IN NEW YORK, _William
H. Taft_
WORK OF THE COLORED LAW AND ORDER LEAGUE OF BALTIMORE, MD.,
_James H. N. Waring_
STUDY OF THE NEGRO’S PROGRESS IN JACKSON, MISS., _D. W. Woodard_
NEGRO SELF-HELP IN EDUCATION _R. R. Wright, Jr._
NEGRO SELF-HELP IN HOME GETTING _Kelly Miller_
THE CONVICT LEASE SYSTEM (In Preparation) _George W. Forbes_
NEGRO SELF-HELP IN HOSPITAL WORK _George C. Hall, M. D._
Paragraphs
SOME SUCCESSFUL NEGRO BUSINESS MEN
BUSINESS CO-OPERATION BETWEEN WHITE AND NEGRO MEN IN HELENA,
ARK.
EAST BESSEMER, ALA.
NEGRO BANKS IN MISSISSIPPI.
In round numbers the circulation of the above articles has
reached 200,000.
* Out of Print.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Much has been said of the estrangement between the races that
has arisen since the war. But it is often overlooked that in
recent years there has been growing quietly a closer and more
cordial relationship between the better classes of both races.
Men like ex-Governor Northen, of Atlanta; Belton Gilreath, of
Birmingham; W. A. Blair, of Winston-Salem, and many others
throughout the South are doing a great service to the country in
bringing about co-operation between the races, and emphasizing
the fact that the success of the white race is intimately bound
up with the moral and material welfare of the black.
ANDREW CARNEGIE.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent
only when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores
(_italics_).