on rye, the expense to be divided pro rata between the barley and rye interests. It is our purpose to keep this man in the field constantly and to arrange with all of the various county farm bureaus to do the work necessary for the best development of these grains. BERT BALL, Secretary National Crop Improvement Committee. The Crop Improvement Committee of the United States Brewers' Association is co-operating with the California brewers and their allied interests in the promotion of experimental farm work in rice and hops. THE PRESIDENT:-Gentlemen, you have heard the report of the Chairman of the Crop Improvement Committee. What is your pleasure? The report was unanimously adopted. APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES. THE PRESIDENT:-The next matter in order, gentlemen, will be the appointment of a Committee on Condolence. MR. RUHL:-I move, Mr. President, that the President be requested to appoint that committee. Carried. THE PRESIDENT:-I appoint on the Committee on Condolence: J. CHRIS. G. HUPFEL, Chairman, New York. GUSTAVE PABST, Wisconsin, H. A. POTH, Pennsylvania, CHARLES WIEDEMANN, Kentucky, E. A. FAUST, Missouri, ADAM MUELLER, Oregon. THE PRESIDENT:-The next in order is the appointment of the Nominating Committee. MR. SCHAEFER:-I move that the President appoint the Committee. Carried. THE PRESIDENT:— I appoint the following gentlemen on the Nominating Committee. GUSTAVE PABST, Chairman, PETER DOELGER, JR., EDWARD RUHL, OTTO HUBER, W. HOFFMAN, AUGUST FITGER, A. WOEBKEN. THE PRESIDENT:-Gentlemen, we have now to take up the revision of the Constitution and By-Laws. THE SECRETARY:-Copies of the proposed revision of the Constitution and By-Laws have been mailed to every member of the Association in due time. The object of the revision is to simplify the work of the Association and increase its efficiency. The revision is a revision and not therefore an amendment, article by article, of the existing Constitution. THE PRESIDENT:-Gentlemen, what is your pleasure? MR. GUND:—I move that the Constitution be adopted as a whole. Carried unanimously. THE PRESIDENT:-Gentlemen, this concludes our deliberations for this morning. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. 20th. Thereupon the Convention adjourned to Friday, September SECOND DAY. (FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20.) The Convention was called to order at 10:00 o'clock A. M., the President, Mr. Jacob Ruppert, Jr. by THE PRESIDENT:-First in order of business is the report of the Vigilance Committee. THE SECRETARY:-Mr. President, the report of the Vigilance Committee has been placed in the hands of the members. It is a very important report, containing a history of the legislative and political happenings of the year, in each State. It contains however, no matter of a controversial nature, and I suggest that its reading might be dispensed with. The report was thereupon adopted in its printed form, as follows: REPORT OF THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. GENTLEMEN: A survey of political events throughout the country, involving the liquor question, makes up, according to custom, the substance of our report. It is, we believe, of uncommon value and suggestiveness this year, not alone to the members of our industry, oppressed and persecuted as it is by unjust laws and powerful opponents in many States, but also to the fair-minded journalist, sociologist or student of affairs desirous of gaining exact information on this troubled question. No pains have been spared in collecting the data here offered, and our best thanks are owing to the members and friends who have given of their valuable aid and by material contribution or wise suggestion shared with us in the task of compiling this important chapter of current history. A summary glance reveals that while the enemies of our industry have never been more active than in the past year, the results seem not to have been in due proportion to their efforts. Backed by an enormous "war-chest" which the liberality of misguided thousands keeps ever full to overflowing, supported by a virulent fanaticism masquerading in the robes of religion, and umbering in their ranks a host of unscrupulous and indefatigable workers ably directed and equally inspired by a spirit of bigoted zeal and mercenary profit, it is to be wondered at that they have not achieved greater and more ruinous effects in their endless persecution of our industry. That their destructive efforts have not more fully availed them and are, as we believe, daily losing force with the ebbing tide of intolerance, cannot be due to any resistance of ours, but rather to the awakened sense of justice, the spirit of fairness innate in the American people. That the people will ultimately pronounce against prohibition in every nook and corner of our country, we do not doubt; but we may not assure ourselves that such issue is near at hand. Let it suffice to encourage us that our industry grows ever greater, more useful and more honored in spite of a persecution that has waxed in virulence from the early days of brewing in this country until the present time. Alabama.—The Legislature of 1911 passed the Parks Local Option Bill, approved Feb. 21st, 1911, and the Smith Regulation Bill, approved April 6th, 1911, providing for the sale of spirituous, vinous and malt liquors in incorporated cities and towns when such sale is authorized by an election in the county. A bill was introduced in the Legislature of 1911 making legal the shipment of liquors from any "wet" county to any "dry" county in the State. This bill failed of passage. A test suit was brought in the City Court of Montgomery of a previous statute making unlawful the shipment of liquors from any "wet" county to any "dry" county, and this Court declared the law unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court of Alabama reversed the decision. Under the Smith Regulation Bill, Excise Commissions regulate the conduct of saloons. Since the passage of the Smith-Parks Local Option and Regulation Bills, there have been sixteen elections held in different counties in the State, eight counties voting "wet" and eight counties voting "dry." The Supreme Court of Alabama has recently held the ParksSmith Local Option Bills to be constitutional, an attack having been made thereon by the Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League in Alabama. Gov. Emmet O'Neal said, in a recent address: "The thoughtful sentiment of the American people is more and more tending to the conviction that it is the abuse and not the use of intoxicating liquors which constitutes the evil to be remedied and that the sane and proper course is to commit the traffic to private individuals under strict and stringent provisions of law. "State-wide prohibition went into effect in Alabama on the 1st of January, 1909, but the law had not been in operation six months before its advocates claimed that it was being openly violated in all the larger towns and cities of the State, and that the only remedy for this deplorable condition could be found in the passage of other additional and more stringent laws. "The State of Alabama now has one of the best laws for the regulation and control of the liquor traffic of any State in the Union. It has divorced the liquor traffic from politics, and this it has accomplished by the following method: The law itself fixes the amount of license for State, county and city wherever the traffic is legalized, and thus removes from those who desire to engage in the business any motive or opportunity to undertake to control municipal or county elections." Arkansas. The primaries for the nomination of a State ticket were held in Arkansas on March 27th, the main issue in the campaign and the platforms for the candidates for Governor being State-wide prohibition. Governor Donaghey was a candidate for re-election, and strongly in favor of State-wide prohibition. Congressman Joseph T. Robinson in his platform declared for local option. The result was very gratifying to the liberal interests, as Mr. Robinson received the nomination (which is equivalent to the election) by about 45,000 majority, almost two to one. Arkansas voted on October 12th on a State-wide prohibition amendment under the initiative and referendum, and prohibition was defeated by about 17,000 majority. California. The elections throughout California with prohibition as the main issue and with women voting for the first time in most of the townships, resulted generally in favor of the “wets," although the margin was small. In almost every instance the women candidates were defeated even in the townships where women cast most of the votes. At Redding the women are reported to have worked on behalf of the "wet" cause, which triumphed. Summarizing, we find that during the past year, under the Wyllie Local Option and Initiative Laws, there have been 156 elections (including 3 in Colton, 2 in Visalia, and 2 in Imperial City). Of the 57 incorporated cities that voted on the question of "license |