The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-07-19
ton an amendment forbidding the manufacture,
and sale of all alcoholic beverage


1t will take thirty-six States out of the
forty-eight to do this. Nine are already in line.
through State laws Maine. Kansas North
Dakota, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Georgia, Ten
nessee, North Carolina and West Virginia and
1t is safe to say also Virginia. the indication
from every part of the State gives undoubted
evidence that Ftrgtnn will vote herself into
the prohibition column next September
Furthermore. there eighteen States where
the larger half of the people In those States
live In territory made dry by local option. Can
any man doubt to what kind of sentiment
prevails there? Can any man reasonably deny,
II those people demand the ratification Of ma
tlonal amendment that their respective legisla-
lures win respond favorably?
National prohibition is in the air "the fingers
of mans hand has written 1t over and
against" the speakers desk at Washington and
many Daniels have arisen the floor of the
house to interpret and defend the same.
The most common and the most influential
argument with liquor against prohibition
is that 1t is effective that it does not do
what the word and the law imply and expect
it to do This argument is not basic or moral
The fact Of failure to enforce Is no argument
against the moral issue involved.
If the advocates of liquor could show that
their ever recurring objective funda-
mental primary principle. then the whole
civil and criminal code together with all pro-
htbiting laws should be biotted from the statute
book. because none Of them prohibit.
In the end all questions must be settled by
moral standards, and only in this way can man
kind be saved from self-efacement. Man is a
moral agent. He has a moral sense-the ability
DO perceive and Judge of right and wrong-in-
dependent of any education, or knowledge Of
any rule law. No mans moral sense tells
him it is right to take anything from or give
10 his brother that which robs him Of his in
teIIigence and seif-respect, leads to degrada-
ton. disgrace and crime; and at the last
"Biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an
adder"
The case of the liquor traffic IS called for
adjudication in the high court Of public opinion
the court of last resort In republican form
of governne t--and 8 must he ready for trial.
The method is to play for delay, not for ac-
quittal.
They have no earthly plea that satisfies their
conscience and intelligence. much less that
of kind. They know and fear the weak
of their case. and. Ike many litigant. fear
to go TO trial For six years their advocates de-
layed and prevented in the Virginia legislature
the trial of their by the electorate of the
State
The liquor traffic cannot save Itself by boast
ing that the government cannot cope with the
tremendous problem it presents When the peo-
Pile decide 1t must go, II will go.
To save itself everyw here, ii makes alliance
with the Sums which necessarily repels all
respectable citizens 1t aids the most corrupt
political combinations, and assists with its
money. unworthy men and inscriptions officials.
When did Il aid the reformation and
pnri1cation of municipal. State or national gov
eminent? Do you say, why? Because It has to
ask leniency and immunity for its own unlawful
conduct.
The liquor traffic knows only one thing
profit All else Is shifting sand. There are
millions-aye, billions in the liquor traf1c and
enormous tax paying ability with an army OF
employed men. but when the people decide
against all this. the money value will count as
nothing for conscience. when aroused, pats the
value of a man above the accumuations or
property.
We have only recently by the force Of public
opinion set aside Of the fHndaU entat
methods our forefathers adopted and made a
part of the organize law Of the republic IN
the election OF United States senator's.
We are now on the Threshold of universal
instead of male suffrage and there is spirit IN
the land today bitterly Indifferent to fad'~
ton to precedent. TO vested rights and that
spirit aroused az never before on the liquor
traffic will tear down and root out with all
its possessions and power. the colossal inst-
tuition which like some monster OF the DEEP
has reached out it's tentacles and embraced Inc
whole vast fabric Of society in its loathsome,
death dealing clutches
JAS G. RENSEIAW.