The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-31
Dangerous PoUer Ls GiDen
 Legislature by Amendment
M. Knox Discusses the Legal Phases If the Legislature Should Care to Do So, a Man Might Be Made a
 Criminal Where There Is No Crime

the proposed constitutional amendment be adopted and this Is followed by leg islation to carry 1t into effect as above indicated. no court could refuse to is- sue a search warrant, since the people of the State by their own action have changed their Constitution, and the Legislature has enacted the. statute tn- dicated to enforce said constitutional provision.
 Amendment win Repeal any Provision
 of the Present Constitution if
 In Conflict Herewith
 In answer to your second inquiry, which is Can any part of the consti- tuition be repealed by an amendment without reference to the section CT article that 1t Is intended to repeal ?'' answer. 1t can. The people have . right to change their Constitution. This right Is reserved in the Constitution it. self. and if for the purpose of chang ing the Constitution they adopt an amendment which Is necesss rily h conflict with any provision of the Con- stftution as 1t originally stood. the last provision adopted must stand as the last declaration of the will of the peo- pie and any provision in the Constitu- ton as 1t formerly stood in conflict herewith must give way. In other words. the last amendment will neces- sariiy repeal so much of the original Constitution as stands in conflict with It.
 Effect Where the state Law or Consti-
 tuition Conflicts With the Fea-
 eral Constitution
 In answer to your third and last question. which Is. Gan the State Con- stitution or a statutory law be valid If in confiict with the United States Constitution? If so. of what value Is the Federal Constitution" answer, the wisdom of our fathers never in- tended that the Federal Constitution should operate upon the local affairs or concerns of the people. States sov- ereisnty and States rights. for which our Southern, people and our Southel n statesmen have so long contended, and which l am glad to say has been uni- formly upheld by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States It. self, involves the complete control of the State in all matters which concern the local affairs or business or property of the people. The Federal Govern ment deals more especially with. for eign affairs and with differences which arise between citizens of the different States and this is what Is meant. in the common acceptation of the term, by interstate 'comerce. I do not know of any provision in the Federal Constf- tuition which protects the right of the citizen to keep liquor in the home or which protects the right of the citizen to use liquor a all for any purpose.
 MT. Philander Knox, at present Sec fetary of State in Mfr. Taft,s Cabinet. while member of the Judiciary Com- mittee of the United States Senate, sub- mftted a strong report to the effect that he believed 1t to be in the power of the States to prohibit the citizen from drinking or using liquor as we'll as from keeping or storing 1t, and l do not doubt but that it is in the pow CT of Congress to pass a law which will prevent the shipping of liquor into State where the people of the State have ordained and declafed dxed poll icy 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 fur ther and make it iIlegAf to take . drink of liquor. and following the poll icy adopted in the Fuller bill make ii prina facie evidence of guilt If liquor be smelt on the breath. Tn such e case the triumphant slogan would be: We have driven liquor out of the sa- looms. we have driven 1t out of the clubs, we have driven out of the homes. and we will now drive 1t out of the stomachs of the people, IT this could be accomplished by moral suasion under benign Christian infiu. ence, I have no doubt 1t would work for the general good. notwithstanding Bismarck's serious argument in the Reichstag that the discontinuance of