The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-31

fathers never intended that the federal ! constitution should operate upon the local i affairs or concerns of the people. States
 sovereignty and states rights, for which our southern people and our southern ! statesmen have so long contended and
 which I am glad to say has been uniform l ly upheld by the decisions of the su-
 preme court of the United States itself, i, involves the complete control of the state l in all matters which concern the local affairs or business or property of the
 people. The federal government deals
 more especially with foreign affairs and ] with differences which arise between cit l izens of the different states and this is 1 what Is meant, in the common acceptation 1 of the term, by interstate commerce. I :, do not know of any provision in the ] federal constitution which protects the ;, right of the citizen to keep liquor in the 1 home or which protects the right of the 1 citizen to use liquor at all for any pur-
 pose
 MT. Philander Knox, at present Sec 1 retary of State in MT. Tafts cabinet, 1 while a member of the Judiciary com
 mittee of the United States Senate, sub-
 mitted strong report to the effect that l he believed 1t to be in he power of the states to prohibit the citizen from drink ing or using liquor as well as from keep ing or storing 1t. and do not doubt but
 that 1t Is In the power of Congress to , pass a jaw which will prevent the ship ping of liquor into a state where the people of the state have ordained and declared a fixed policy against the use or against the keeping or storing of liquor.
 ''If this be true, might not the advo- cates of this movement go still further and make 1t illegal to take a drink Of liquor, and following the policy adopted
 in the Fuller bill. make 1t prlma facie 1.@ .ofA the breath? In such a case the triumph
 ant slogan would be: We have driven liquor out of the saloons, we have driven 1t out of the clubs, we have driven 1t
 out of the homes and we Will now drive it out of the stomachs of the people! If this could be accomplished by moral sua- sion under benign Christian influence, I
 have no doubt 1t would work for the gen. eral good notwithstanding Bismarck's
 serious argument in the reichstag that the 1 discontinuance of the use of beer as beverage would mark the decadence of the German nation However this may
 be, I must be permitted to doubt the
 wisdom of those who would seek to en-
 force this policy by the extreme pen alties of the criminal law.
 Federal Governments Creation. ] 'The states are not creatures of the
 federal government; on the contrary the ~
 states. The power of the state is un-
 limited, except as specified in the com pact which they made with each other in the formation of the general govern ment. The power of the general govern ment Is limited to the power granted by the states. The federal government has no citizens of its own creation. The right of citizenship Is In the state and not in the federal government A man cft 0f when he becomes citizen of one of the states.
 .'Consequently, when citizen of Ala bama appeals to the federal court for the protection of right which he has voluntarily surrendered under his own constitution. the federal court might well answer him by saying:
 "'We see no federal question here in- volved. We see no right of yours which has been invaded You are a si. .sN.4 o- Alabama and you are subject to the constitution and laws of Alabama. The law which you complain of has been passed in strict conformity to the con stitution which you yourself have helped to make and we are unable to see where in any right of yours has been trampled upon or dsregarded. Hence, your ap- plication to this court for protection II dismissed at your cost
 "Of course, it is true in dealings be- tween citizens of different states in inter- state commerce matters and as to for eign affairs, that the provision of the state constitution, If in conflict. must give way to the provision of tho federal constitution, since the federal constitu- tion was ordained by the people of all the states and was intended by the peo- pie of all the states to be made supreme within the proper sphere of It's operation. But as I endeavored to point out in the letter to MT. Long referred to, even as to interstate commerce shipments of liauor. when they reach the consgnee fr,v h.eorne as any other property of the citizen subject to the laws of the