Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-01-17
Shattcring Constitutions

OPPONENTS of national prohibition who
~ think to halt dry legislation by the in
stitution of legal actions had us well throw
their money TO the winds. Any one familiar
with the decisions of the Federal and State
judiciary OF this country could tell them
that with rare exceptions these courts have
during the past three decades upheld the
validity of antiliquor legislation Of every
shape and form. From the time Of it's deci-
sion on the Wilson act down to it's most re-
cent pronouncement on the Webb-Kenyon
law, that august tribunal, the United States
Supreme Court has sustained the cont ell
tons of prohibition lawyers as consistently
and Professionally as the humblest Police Court
in the land
Danger to the republic and its institutions
lies in the extension of the theories advanced
in these court opinions to other phases of
human activity not connected with the liquor
traffic. If one business can be DESTROYED
whether that business be good or whether it be
bad, who is there to say that at some future
date cry will not go up for the determination
OF some other business? Certainly no other in
dustry few years ago occupied a position
seemingly more imprcgnable than that con-
Quoted by the distilers. Their operations
antedated the Federal government and their
business was recognized and encouraged by
that government and the States and munich
palities within it as we'll. What line of activ-
lty now around rests upon such firm
foundation?
Decisions UNFOLDING prohibtory measures
nave been predcatcd, in the main, upon the
police power of the State. which has been
roughly defined as the right Of govern
ment TO enact measures necessary for safe
guarding the health safety and general well
fare of its people. This doctrine is n legal
fiction which on many occasions has been
used to nulify express provisions of the Fed
eral and State Constitutions. The courts
have held that the doctrine OF police power
mas its limitations, but its boundaries never
have been marked and the general tendency
has for many years been toward the increas-
ing enlargement of this power There is no
conceivable end to its extension, because what
is nimical to the health, safety or general
welfare OF the people depends entirely upon
the personal view. and in this country there
are as many personal views as there are per-
sons.
Following this doctrine to it's logical con-
clusion, every financial institution in the
country might be destroyed on the theory
that as money is the root OF all evil. tho
health, safety and general welfare of the peo-
pie would be promoted by the determination
OF anything savoring Of finances But the
Constitution has ceased to be that sacred
thing which it was in the days when our
Virginia forefathers were so fond Of having
thelr pictures painted with hand resting on
the Bible and the Constitution Constitutions
then were considered charters of human
liberty designed primarily for the protection
OF the minority from the oppression of the
majority. State Constitutions in the past
fifty years have been so revised and amended
that they have ceased to be plain statements
Of the fundamental principles OF the agree
ments by which men entered into a state of
society. With the exception Of the war
amendments" the Constitution of the United
States for the greater part OF the life Of the
republic has been untouched by amendment
until recent years although judicial interpre-
tations have nodded it into different shapes
at different periods.
With the ice broken by the insertion of
income tax. popular election of Senators and
prohibition amendments one may expect that
this foundation stone OF our government will
be subjected to assaults from every man who
thinks he has q new idea or voices an old
discomfort. But men have an inalienabIc
right to life, liberty and the pursuit Of hap
piness. and even though the Constitution be
torn to pieces, the desire for these essen
tails of human existence Is so stron;- that
restraints on individual freedom of action
cannot be lasting.