New-York tribune., 1919-01-20
Beck Says Dry
Law Will BRING
Glass Strife
Calls Prohibition "Deadlv
Assault on Home Rule:
Warns Against Red Peril
Says II Is Eclipsing Earth
Likens World League Talk
to Nero's Fiddling; Time
unripe for Superstate

James NJ. Beck, who during tho
neutral years when Germany was
laying waste Belgium and France.
warned the nation by speeches and
writings that the war would and should
enveiop the United States, sounded an
o'her alarm last night. This time it
IS bolshevism. He asked his auditors
u they realized how far this doctrine
OF anarchy could spread in two years
Mr. Beck spoke at dinner given in
ms honor at the Waldorf-Astoria bv
the American Defence Society and the
American Rights League.
An eclipse is now stealing over tho
world said Mr. Beck. at is Boil
shevlsm, meaning class war. The OBJ
scuratlon began in Petrograd, it has
reached Vienna and Berlin. Unless
normal conditions are restored where
VIII 1t stop? 1t could not come at a
worse time, for the burdens of the
people were never heavier and four
years have put fire into the blood Of
men.
Force, lawlessncss, world passions.
murderous thought have been the com
monplace of the last four years and
II famine is not stayed and conditions
smeliorated they will grow worse. For
us to talk Of peace leagues at this
time is to be guilty of Nero's folly in
fddling while Rome was burning. We
should rather hasten to restore peace,
resume normal commercial relations,
lessen the intolerabe burdens of tax
alton and speed up production.
Urges Campaign Of Education
eve should enter into a great cam
raign of education to teach the manual
that he suffers worse from class antag-
onism, and that his material happiness
depends not upon the artificial rcstor-
alton of production but its increase.
We must teach him this elementary
fact in political economy that his hap
piness depends not so much upon the
amount of his wages as its purchasing
power and that the latter is measured
by the quantity produced.
eve must so govern that there is no
privileged class in the nation and
that all capitalist and manual toiler
alike, are but the different parts Of an
orchestra, and that only by playing
together as good musicians can the
symphony of progress be played. We
must revive faith in the institutions Of
our country. under which we have
grown great, and especially in the su-
ho
the United States. It, as all roliti-
cal institutions, depends upon public
opinion.
at has already been partly destroyed.
because public opinion failed to defend
it, Its main pillars are still intact
Let them perish and our form of gov
ernment will be as the Parthenon, a
beautiful ruin, admired by all the ages,
but still a ruin. In the last ten years
that noble edifice has been slowly un-
dermined. Only a few days ago its
basic principle Of home rule in ali mat
tcrs not Of purely Federal concern has
sustained deadly assault.
Sees Discomfort After Prohibition
can interference with mere matter
of personal habit is fatal to the prin-
ciplc of home rule. to country three
thousand miles wide that extends from
110,000,0 600 people. say that, whatever
the merits of prohibition that within
two years it will create moro discomfort
between man and man. class and class
than any of US has the slightest con-
ception,I -
At this point Mr.. Beck was inter
rupted by tn applause of his auditors
who numbered 800 men and women.
"lf | could say but one word to my
fellow citizens it should be: America,
wake up and defend the institutions
Of the country as expressed and de-
fined in the Constitution of the United
States We are all Americans and
ought to prize the unique form of gov
ernment our fathers gave us. Who can
possibly tell what can happen in the
next ten years? The world is almost
exhausted of material resources.
"The best hope Of true democracy is
in the perpctuity Of the form Of gov
crnment which our fathers gave us.
Let that be destroyed and the fairest
heritage of man will be gone Men of
all parties in these trying and terrible
days should unite to defend the sacred
heritage Of our fathers. which wisely
kept the power of government within