The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-18
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Nation Wide Prohibition on Trial

To the Editor of The Age Herald;
 l Tn the existing condition of national l legislation, including in that expression
 the executive orders which such leglsla. | ton has authorized and which pursu-
 ant thereto, have been made, argument l the strongest has been provided why the 1 legislatures which assemble in 1919 should
 stay their hands on the subject of the | federal prohibition amendment and await | the results of the laws now, or soon to l be, put in force. These results will be tremendously informing No legislature 7 can act at it's coming session with any t'tithe of the knowledge that will avail to 1 it within the next two years. It is :, always easier to do thing than to undo it. Federal prohibition will be hard to
 repeal and state prohibition has been so l often repealed as to afford abundant proof that laws taking from people thelr
 rights are unsteady laws, laws that pro- l yoke restlessness, trouble, prejudice and
 when they are really difficult to ges l rid of, revolution.
 i Thirteen states have at one time or
 another adopted prohibition and have 1 later changed their minds and repealed
 the law These are Alabama Connecti-
 cut Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massa- chusetts (twice), Michigan. Nebraska.
 New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island (twice), South Dakota and Vermont states so widely distributed over ths country as to prove that the Will to
 repeal relates not to section nor indus
 trial occupation nor to city or mountain or plain.
 i Already the manufacture of spirituous, vmous and malt beverages is forbidden Already the distillery and the brewery
 are outlawed, their capital sacriilceu'
 their business destroyed, their employees
 thrown out, and the industries on whicn they drew for raw materials snorn ol
 their market On July l. 1919. it becomes
 a crime punishable by years impris-
 onment and a heavy fine. for any person
 to sell another any alchoholic beverage
 in any quantity from a drop to hogs head Long before that time the sup
 ply of beer will be gone. The dlstiheo
 liuuors will have been consumed or ex-
 ported The supply of western wines
 if any then remains, will have become
 a total loss.
 And. until the war is officially oyer and
 our armies demobilized (the date Of tneir
 demobilization is to be announced oS
 the PresidenU, there will exist throughout this country absolute prohibition. It II
 entirely within the discretion Of the President to say when the war IS over It is equally within his discretion to say when demobilization has ended.
 So, we are inevitably bound to nave l a cOnblQerable pSrioo VI AatioiA- A>NS - hibition-and without the federal amenu- ment It would be the exercise or the merst common sense for our lesisla- tures before acting on the federal amend ment, to seek the instruction that tney will so certainly obtain from the experi- ment. in nation wide dryness that these | present laws have imposed They can then see byV Vhctual operation what pro hibition costs and what It comes v They can then act with full knowledge of what they are doing-and they nave six years from now within which ,o act.
 Is it too much to say that, when q man is called upon to render oeclsio'' that he knows must be momentous, the full effect of which by no possiplhty can he presently determine, when he ol the man in succession to him Tor the purpose of rendering this decision mas six whole years within which to con sder and act, and when the opportuni'y is presented to him to ascertain py preliminary superintendent exact, com plete sufficient experiment, preciseis what his decision will involve in conse quence that he knows will profounuls Y affect capital, industry. public resources l and personal rights--is it too much U say that nothing will prevent hiw, As d reasonable man, from taking 10 hlili- self, or to his successor in duty, .ne benefit of all the information that Ems experiment will bring, unless It pc timidity that is contemptihle or pre- iudice that is vicious? Faithfully yours JOHN McE. BOWMAN. New York. December IA, 1918.