The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-03

| study and experience said: 10 Hlahe
a living law 1t must be demanded and
its enactment compelled by an irre
sistible public opinion, and where
law does not have for it's object the
prevention or punishment of a trespass
upon rights, it is impossible to obtain
for it the enthusiastic and unanimous
support which is necessary to secure a
| proper enforcement of it, And again:
mo law can be enforced, particular
| ly in a country governed directly by the
| popular WILL which does not receive the
moral and active support of large ma
| Jority of the people," So the temperate
| man recognizes that the auspices under
| which this law Is to be tested offer in
the light of history and experience not
| the slightest guarantee of real en-
| forcement.
| 2. They believe that the failure to
! enforce prohibition is due less to Of
| fetal negligence or the lack of sus-
| tanned enthusiasm in the prohibitionlsts
than to the inherent weakness of this
| character of laws For such a law can
| not enlist in its cause the strong mo-
tive power of self-interest. To borrow
! an Illustration: "A man sees a pick
pocket steal his neighbours handker-
chief, while on his way through the
public streets. He will instantly, in
4 voluntarily, give the alarm, and prob
| ably would render what aid was nee
| essary or possible, in securing the ar
| rest of this offender against the laws
| of the country Not so, if he sees an
other Violating the law against the sale
of intoxicating liquor. He will pass on
| his way, and say and do nothing to
| bring this offender to justice. Why this
difference of action? In the first case,
| the act was a trespass upon the right
| of property of another, and self-inter-
| est, through fear of like trespass
| upon his own rights of prosperity,
prompted the man who saw the crime
to aid in the arrest of the criminal. In
! the latter case no mans rights were
| trampled upon; the unlawful act In
| fiicted no direct damage upon the man
who witnessed the violation of the law,
and consequently self-interest did not
impel him to activity in support of the
law"
8. They believe that this law lacks
| the sanction of a universal condem
| nation of the act prohibited; the sane
ton which, with the motive of self-in-
terest. makes effective the law against
murder, theft and arson. They have
learned from observation and reading,
If they do not know 1t by that much
moderated power of intuition, that
criminal laws must, to be real, grow
preponderance of public sentiment that
before an act can be effectively pro-
hibited, it must discredit the offender
before the community as whole (by
which is not necessarily meant all
members of the community; that laws
do not create sentiment, but sentiment
laws; and that until the sentiment, I'M
aided by the stimulus of emotional agi-
tation demands the law, 1t is stubborn,
nj Whathpr
statute or constitution at there can
be no living law against individual con-
duct unless demanded by an irresisti-
BILE public opinion, and enforced by
practically unanimous support. Such
support, unf1ag gingly maintained, is not
to be had in a metropolitan population
for laws which neither prevent nor
punish private trespasses.
A. They believe that the limited restrIc'
ton upon liquor sales actually obtained
| under a prohibition law is costly in de-
moralization of citizenship. For If there
| is one principle that the history of law
and legislation teaches with unerring pre-
| cision, it Is, not only the utter futility
| as a corrective measure of a law, whose
enactment is not the necessary and I'M
avoidable resultant of the social forces,
| then at play in organized society, but also
the great injury inflicted upon law in
general by the enactment of laws before
| their time. Nothing so weakens the rev.
! erence for law, and diminishes its eff
| fectiveness as a restraint upon wrong
| and crime, as the passage of stillborn
| laws
5. These temperate men find it not un-
| reasonable to sympathize with Mobile
| county, whose delegation in the state leg
islature seeks to change the rule in that
county from prohibition to some sort of
regulation. Indeed, they feel that to deny
! to Mobile what Mobile with unanimfty
! wants is nearer to bigotry than temper
ance. Home rule impresses them as not
| only good rule of government, but as
| finding support in kindness and toler-
| ance, which are near akin to the much
lauded vlrture temperance. 1t is an in
| tolerant If not an Incorporate state of
mind, which leads a resident of the Ten
nessee valley to assume that he is more
capable either because of superior virtue
| or knowledge to deal with Mobile prob
! lens than are the people who, live by
the gulf. Nor is it Incorporate to regard
the plight of Mobile as typical of a grave
objection to hard and fast rule applc-
able alike to all portions of this state, of
diversified interests and population.
6. They disapproye of the drastic laws
now before the legislature, for they be-
lieve that if prohibition was practicable
in the metropolitan populations of the
| state the laws now existing could be en-
forced more readily, than others which
| further antagonize that natural character
istic of all free people to resent and con-
| tinue FESTIVE under laws which unneces-
sarily subtract from their natural liberties.
These men, who love their state, and are
studying her welfare, unblinded by any
fetish, are wondering what is to be ac-
complshed by placing in the constitution
| of the state restrictive measures which
have been tried and found wanting. They
find the trouble to be in the sumptuary
character of this rule of conduct, and not
that it is written in one rather than an
other portion of promulgated laws. The
suggestion that this Is the means of re-
moving the question from politics and set
Ting 1t for all time reminds them that In
the 80 years of her life Alabama has had
six separate and distinct constitutions;
that the first OF these was thrice amend
ed; that of the others one endured but
four years. another but three, and another
less than eight years; and that since the
recent adoption of number six three