The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-31

the use or peer A4 & DeveFA8e WouSs mark the decadence of the German na' permitted to doubt the wisdom of thoss who would seek to enforce this poiic, by the extreme penalties of the criminA law. lss
 The Federal Government Created ID
 The states are not creatures of the Federal government. on the contrary the Federal government is crea- ture of the states. The pow CT of the state is unlimited. ex- cept as specified In the compact which they made with each other in the formation of the general govern ment. The power of the general gov ernment is limited to the power grant cd by the states. The risht of eiti- xenship Is in the state and not in the Federal government. A man becomss citizen of the United States when he becomes citizen of ops of the states.
 Consequently. when a citizen of Ala barna 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 sec no Federal question here involved. We see no right of yours which has been invaded. You are oitisen of Ala bama and you are subject to the Con- stitution and jaws 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 wherein any right of yours has been trampled upon or disresarded. Hence. your application to this court for protection Is dismissed at your cost.
 Of course, it is true in dealings be. tween citizens, of different states In interstate commerce matters and as to foreign affairs, that the provision of the State Constitution. if in conflict. must give way to the provision of the Federal Constitution, since the Fed erai Constitution was ordained by the people of all the states and was in- tended by the people of all states to be made supreme within the proper sphere of its operation. But. as en- deavored to point out in the letter to Mir. Long referred to. even as to in- terstate commerce shipments of liq- uor. when they reach the consignee they become as any other property of the citizen subject to the laws of the state and there is no special sanctity which viii protect such property from the police regulations of the state that does not apply to any other property which the citizen may own.
 ' & VI.
 .. Coneiusion.
 Tn conclusion, I will say that 1 have not heard any respectable lawyer who denies that the second section of the proposed amendment. if adopted, will authorize the Legislature of the State to designate the home as one of the places where liquor shall not be stor- ed or kept, but the advocates of the amendment say that you can trust the Le9islature not to do anything of the kind. My answer to this is. under the Fuller Bill you have already prohibited the storing or keeping of liquor in any other place except the home. and If you do not expect to invade the home why do you ask for a Constitutfonal amendment which will enable the Leg islature to invade the home.
 Again. the same people who tell us we may trust the Legislature 1nIr plicitly not to pass any law which will authorize the invasion of the home, in the next breath say that the Legisla- ture cannot be trusted 10 maintain the present prohibition laws in the state. If the Legislature can be trusted implicitly in the one case why. I ask, can 1t not be trusted in the other A public man who seeks to guide the thought and action of . people in e matter of great concern to them should be sincere ana frank and conscientious and am unable to understand how 1t is that the Legisla- ture In the one case Is entitled to all confidence and in the other is entitled to no confidence whatever.
 And still again. the position taken by the Montgomery convention and those who agree with 1t is not against prohibition. The position there taken Is that statewide prohibition In this state is an untried ! experiment and should not be made permanent or put into the Constitution at least until the experiment. has been tried and found to be what its advocates claim for it. I think I can give an illustration of our position which ought to make this clear at least to a farmer or merchant Suppose I go to a farmer and offer to