The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1919-11-28
TRAMPLES OUR LAWS
SAYS n. Y. EDITOR
GAN, AMAZING THING"
HE CHARACTERIZES 1T
'Tis Good Article and Sentinel
Readers Will Do Well to Read
and Study 1t

Here's an editorial from the New
York World that should be read
AND STUDIED-by every citizen of
Medina county. It matters not wheth-
er one is wet or dry, here's thought
for careful consideration. The main
question raised is, whether or not it
is possible to write things into the
Constitution that abrogate our laws;
and if it is possible to trample laws
giving man liberty as to whether or
not he may drink unmolested, may
we not expect men to come forward
with a plan TO trample or override
laws recognized by all as right laws,
abrogating them before friends Of the
measures know they are to be at
tackled. In any event read the Worlds
editorial:
OHIO'S OPENING GUN
Ohio is the only state in the Union
in which the people have ever been
permitted to vote on national prohi-
bition. They were not allowed to vote
until after forty-fve state legisla-
lures, including their own, had rati
fled the eighteenth amendment and
congress had enacted the most arbi-
trary legislation for it's enforcement
which has ever appeared on the
statute books Of the United States.
Many amazing things have hap
pened in the course of American his
tory, but there has been nothing else
quite so bewildering as the coup
d'etat of the prohibition, lobby by
which the police powers of the states
were destroyed, the relation of the
federal government to the states was
revolutionized, and the regulation of
the food and drink and the personal
liberties of the individual citizen was
taken over by congress as if by i'm
perial ukase.
The rule of the majority has been
completely stifled in respect to prohi-
bition, and the country is living un-
der a dictatorship not unlike that
which Lenine and Trotzky maintain
in Russia. This dictatorship is COM
posed of paid lobbyists and subser-
Went politicians in Washington and
in the various state capitals, and until
Tuesdays election all attempts to
break the grip of this autocracy had
proved unsuccessful. Even the pres
ident of the United States had failed
and failed completely.
The American people have dis
covered during the last year that
their constitution can be amended ir
the dark. No national convention oil
either party ever declared in favor o1
the eighteenth amendment. No ma
tional election was ever won or lost
on that issue, No candidate for pres.
ident Of either party ever indorsed it
No congress was ever elected to sub
nit such national prohibition
amendment to the state Legislatures
or to enforce such an amendment
No legislature was ever chosen tc
ratify such an amendment to the con-
stitution Of the United States. Yet
the amendment has been written into
the constitution.
If the prohibition lobby can change
the fundamental law of the nation
and the fundamental structure of
American institutions, any other band
of adventurers, sufficiently well or
ganized and sufficiently well financed,
can again make over the constitution
to suit, themselves. There is nothing
to prevent the Fosters and the Lew
ises and the Maurers from forming
their own secret combinations with
subservient politicians and establish
ing the soviet some day as an integral
part of the constitution of the United
States. If these vital changes in the
basic law are not to be submitted to
the people, in any form whatever, il
the people are to have no chance tc
discuss them or vote on them, amend
ing the constitution of the United
States has become merely a matter
of back room bargain and barter
Any faction that can get control o1
congress for one session and intimi
date a sufficient number of faithles.
state legislatures can make over th'
constitution to suit itself.