The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-08-15
A SINISTER PARALLEL.
IN. Y. World)

| Il Z
Had it not been for the insistent
determination of the. slave states TO
extend their peculiar institution"
the Civil War would never have been
fought Had the advocates OF slavery
been content to leave slavery to the
states than wanted slavery, the. issue
Guild ultimately have been adjusted
without the loss of more than $780,
900 lives and the wasting Of billions
of treasure.
The Prohibition states are now -un-
dertaking to do what the slave states
once successfully attempted They
are resolved to extend their prohibi-
tory system to the rest OF the country
and to- override the states that are
opposed to Federal regulation Of the
lsumptuary habits of the people. The
Senate yesterday voted to submit the
amendment to the legislatures Of the
several states, and unless reason tri-
unphs over fanaticism in the House
the country viii be torn for the next
six years by this unnecessary and
highly dangerous controversy.
AT time when the most solemn
duty of Congress Is to promote Amer
lean unity and concentrate its ener-
gies on the winning of the war, a mex
subject of national discord is created
}
lobby and the failure of the Senate
| to measure up to it's great RESPONSE
! bilities.
Under the Constitution as it now
stands the people of every state have
full power to regulate the manufac-
ture and sale of all alcoholic liquors.
They can license 1t, they can restrict
it, they prohibit it as they please.
4 That is how it should be. That is
| how it must be If the fundamental
principles of the government of the
i United States are not to-. be over
| thrown and the Federal authority
made the dictator of the personal
habits of every man, woman and
child in the United States.
4 Nationwide prohibition could new
er be enacted by the votes of the
American people themselves. It's only
1 chance lies. in the acquiescence Of
! thirty-six state legislatures which ac-
1 tualIy represent a minority of the
population of the country. In the
4 adoption of a constitutional amend
ment. Nevada, with a population of
I108, 900, counts for as much as New
York, with a population Of 10 900, 900
and Wyoming, with a population Of
10000, counts for as much as Penn
sylvania, with 8,5OO.0O0.
Ibition amendment to the constitution
i of the United States will become a
Il dead letter in all the states in which
tpublic opinion is, against it, and we
shall have new scandal of the con-
lstitution Joined to the scandal Of the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend
tments, which no Congress, whether
democratic or Republican, has ever
dared to enforce in respect to the
negro vote in the Southern states in
which the colored population could
dominate att the polls. The states
/ will be deprived of their police pow
4 err over thel iduor traffic and the ma
| tional authority will be unable to en-
force its own DEGREES in communities
1 in which public opinion is antagon-
istic. Senator Lodge truly said that
1t was doubtful if we could recruit an
4 army large enough to suppress the
Illicit traffic that would be sure to
spring up.
The evils. of drink, the iniquities Of
4 the saloon, have nothing to do with
this question. We are dealing now
with a fundamental issue of govern
ment. and no government that the
world has hitherto known has been
4 strong enough even in time of war
to impose its absolute will upon the
people subject to it in respect to what
they shall eat and what they shall
drink and their, ordinary manner; of
life. Nor can it be done in the Uni
ted States by the flat of thirty-six
state legislatures acting under the
whip of a prohibition lobby.
4 The amendment to the constitution
which the Senate adopted yesterday
is an amendment that has never won
a victory at the polls in any national
election. 1t is an amendment that no
great party has ever adopted, an
4 amendment to which no successful
; candidate for the Presidency was
ever pledged in the whole history OF
1.-THE country. Yet it's being driven
through Congress in the confident
II belief that by the device thus pre-
4 scented a minority of the American
people can impose their own personal
habits upon a majority and make
their individual abstinence the su-
preme law of the land.-New York
World, August 2, 1917.
Elihu Root who headed the Ameri-