The Washington herald., 1915-01-28
A Garden of Eden Idea.

Senator Works has introduced tho ideal prohi-
bition bill 1t prohibits the government from levy
ing or collecting any taxes the manufacture or
sale of Intoxicating liquors of any kind after Tanu-
airy /, 1910, and rcpcals all laws to the contrary
The merits of this bill that it goes directly to
the point and puts the prohibition on the govern
mcnt, of which Congress is the legislative depart
mcnt.
Congress has the power to repeal laws as well
make laws, and it wipe out all internal rcve
nue. laws now on the statute books, and at the
same time wipe out third of tho revenues Of
the Federal government. The time is little short
for putting in motion the machinery for either find
ing other sources OF revenue or cutting down the
expenses of the government. The appropriations
for the next fiscal year. running to July l. 1916 are
under consideration, and while the present
outlook for revenues is not the most hopeful no
Senator, not Mr.. Works, has shown any dis
position to cut them to the bone, keep
them down to the appropriations made in days Of
full work. full pay and general prosperity. The
appropriations for the next fiscal year will be many
millions greater than the appropriations for this
fiscal year, which were the largest in the history
of the government and the end is not yet in sight
But Senator Works comes from part of the
country where life is said to be o easy that the
people have nothing to do but study how to re-
form the world. In Southern California the whole
populace sit under their own fig trees, quaff the
product of the vinc eat the bread provided by ma
ture, and discuss the reforms and the isms of the
universe. To accept the promotion literature of
that country gospel, nature there smiles as
nowhere else in the world, and the life of Adam
and Eve in the Garden of Eden was not circum-
stance to the haPpy-go-lucky idling and yet pros
porous, life from which Senator Works was driven
h. tIo OF Fo- 49,
cultured and practical representative in the United
States Senate.
Should the Congress enact Senator Works bill
into law California wine-growers would have no
further trouble over the war tax, but would con-
tinue to tread the wine press crush the spark
ling juice of the grape forty it with the stronger
and more sparkling brandy without paying tax,
and send out the product to all the world This
proposed law would make another class of our
sturdy citizens happy, for the moonshiners OF
North Carolina and Georgia have for half a CEN
tury protested that it the God-given right of
every man to convert the products of the soil into
the most compact product known to science, with
out interference by the government or payment OF
tax for that privilege. The boot-legger, too,
would no longer be compelled to carry his wares
in a suit case or a laundry bag and visit the back
door but could face the world with courageous,
smiling face he rang the front door bell and dis
played his stock.
This idea of Senator Works, if embodied in the
law, would simplify the whole prohibition ques-
tion in that it would remove the question from
Washington, place it squarely before the 100000
people, and let the good work of reform spread
all over the country individual prohibition,
putting it up to every man, woman and child every
where as to whether he would sign the pledge and
keen If or refuse TO he converted Ii is A great
idea, though not entirely in some parts of the
country; but really the government appears to
need revenues more than it did when the
internal revenue laws enacted, and $3oo,ooo-
600 is quite an item. If Senator Works could only
make life as easy for Uncle Sam it appears to
be for the people of Southern California-but
what's the use the Garden of Eden is limited in
its area now it in the beginning.