The Cairo bulletin., 1909-02-21

I bOs. dktti Aht lOiIo" ~ q
message to both houses of the General
Assembly of Tennessee:
| Prohibition is fundamentally and
profoundly wrong as a governmental
policy, and in a country where the
largest measure of freedom Of action
is accorded the individual, 1t becomes
lintolerable.
For a state, through its lawmak-
ing power, to attempt to control what
the people shall eat and drink AMI
wear-except to see that they are pro
tected from impostion-is tyranny
and not liberty.
"All such medling and veratious
laws ceased in England with the
growth of constitutional government,
and when the rights of men were firm
ly established upon the basis of in
dividual liberty and conscience.
They passed in our country when
intolerance and early fanaticism gave
way to advancing religious freedom
and the Constitution of our own coun-
try was framed for a selfgoverning
people who reserved to themselves
and guaranteed to one another the
rights and privileges of freemen.
but the attempt has been made by
prohibitory laws relating to drink, to
forbid the manufacture or sale of
liquor.
ol1in, ig that tho nf
liquor produces drunkenness, vict
and crime, and that public morals,
the welfare of the individual and OF
the state would be best conserved by
its total abolition.
1T is is also said that because of
the appalling consequences which of
ten follow the Incorporate use of IL
uuor that legislation on this subject
is 10 be differentiated from legislation
on the other subjects and is not only
justifiable but desirable and neces-
sary.
while having great respect for
this opinion shared by so many OF
our people | am still convinced that
any attempt by legislation to abolish
the manufacture and sale of liquor Is
! abortive. in that it does not accom-.
plish the result hoped for and again
that it violates the plainest and most
obvious rule of individual action and
personal freedom
Where Will II End?
IF we can legisiate against the
manufacture and sale of liquor be-
cause II often produces crime and be
comes hurtful to the individual and
society, can we not legislate against
the manufacture and sale of tobacco,
or poisonous drugs, and if we begin
such legislation, where is it to end?
Shall we prohibit the manufacture
and sale of liquor to all the people,
because some. by reason of intemper-
ate use, ruin themselvs?
shall we so legislate that a man
who uses it moderately and without
injury to himself or others, shall he
wholly deprived of it's use. because
another uses it immoderately?
Shall the sick not use it If the
physician prescribes it. because some
who are well abush il?
shall it's manufacture and sale be
wholly forbidden by law with assump-
ton OF authority as unjustified by
reason as it is useless in practice.
Legislation by States.
"In enacting laws by the State for
the suppression of the liquor traffic,
certain things must De kept in mind,
in order to know how far such laws
may be effective.
THE State is one of a number of
States. and not one can legislate con-
trary to the constitution of the United
States or the Interpretation which the
courts have made of that instrument.
The State can forbid by law the
manufacture and sale Of liquor within
her borders, but the State cannot pre-
vent its manufacture or sale in an
other State. nor can IL prevent the
shipment of liquor in unlimited guam
titles from any other State into the
a
| State of Tennessee.
Under The Interstate Commerce
clause of the Constitution of the Uni.
ted States. and its Interpretation by
the courts. liquor is recognized as a
commodity or trade. just as flour
lclohting. shoes OF any other article.
The State is as powerless to pre-
vent shipment of liquor to the people
iof Tennessee as it is to prevent the
shipment of any other commodity
which may enter into the interstate
trade.
! 1t follows therefore. that until the
/ United States GOVERNMENT itself for
bids the manufacture and sale of Ii
qour or refuses to allow its shipment
to a State. it is not possible TO have
a prohibition law. Those who claim TO
the contrary either do not know bet