Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-12-25
THE DRY POINT OF VIEW
BY Frederic j. Haskin
ITT ASHINGTON, Dec. 20:-More laws
w to enforce prohibition and stricter
enforcement of the laws already

Tnls is the g1St OF the belligerent program
with which the Anti-Saloon league APP
proaches the beginning Of new administra-
ton. 1t is backed by a congress overwhelm-
ingly pledged to enforcement of prohibition
and to no modification of the laws in the
way of leniency, and it s faced by the fact
that the prohibition amendment is being
widely and variously broken.
The question Of enforcement is now ad
mitted to be the crucial one. That is. there
seems TO be no doubt but that the prohibit
tionists can pass all the laws that are needed.
They dominate not only congress, but most
of the state legislatures. Thirty-eight states
have already passed enforcement codes, and
it is predicted that most Of the others will
speedily do so.
But passing law is thing and
forcing it is another. In spite Of all these
laws, liquor is pouring into the country over
both borders and through every port. 1t is
being taken out of bond and sold. It is
being lilicitly made and sold. 1t is being
made in many homes by the occupants
thereof for their own use, and these illicit
makers of beer, wine and whisky include
persons of great variety of classes, poor
and rich, rural and urban.
Can this wave of lawlessness be checked?
The prohibitionists have presumably con-
vinced the American electorate that prohibit
ton Is a good thing if it can be made eff
fective. But If it cannot be made effective,
If 1t gives rise merely to an elaborate system
OIL laW-DreaKlnS, Cnen the question leg1tl-
matey arises again as to whether it Is a
good thing in such circumstances. In other
words, the best point of attack which the
opponents Of prohibition have is that law
which cannot be enforced is worse than no
law at all, and that intelligent regulation,
which could be enforced, would undoubtedly
be better than complete prohibition which
cannot be enforced.
Prohibition on Trial
The prohibitionists evidently realize this
fact. Prohibition may be considered to be
on trial now a practical proposition, just
as it was on trial for long time as theo-
retical proposition. If enforcement is made
year by year more effective it will be hard,
indeed, for the opponents of the law to make
an effective attack upon it. If the wave of
law-breaking gathers and spreads, if the law
is dead letter in a considerable part of the
country, then prohibition will be attacked
as practical failure, whatever its theoreti-
cal merits.
The present situation seems to be about
this Whisky of the standard distillery
brands can be purchased in most large cities
by anyone who can pay from 80 to II
quart for it. Various moonshine brews can
be purchased in many rural sections. Ger
tain alleged medicines, containing large per-
centages of alcohol and prescribed on the
bottle to be taken in doses of several glasses
day, may be purchased at very reasonable
prices in drug stores and delicatessen stores
one who has ordinary cooking facilities can
make in his home either ale, beer. wine or
whisky, and beyond a doubt great numbers
of persons do so. How can all these breaches
of the law, and especially the last one, be
stopped?
We talked this matter over with Wayne
B. Wheeler, who is general counsel for the
Anti-Saloon league, and has often been
ferred to as the brains of that organization.
His point Of view is most interesting and
presumably may be taken as representative
of that-of the ACTIVE prohibitionists in gen.
eral. A rroIound faith in law and in police
power is the basis of Mr. Wheeler's philoso-
ply. He sees the present wave of law-break-
ing as a mere temporary thing which will
inevitably be crushed.
"The law-breaker always falls he says.
''He may give us lot of trouble, but we
will get him in the long rum"
Campaign Against Lawlessness
He outlined at some length how the illicit
sale of liquor would be checked by laws gov
erning the disposal of whisky in ware
houses. by strengthening the enforcement
ganiZation, and by a campaign of education
against lawlessness
1.-THE man who breaks the law is a traitor
and ought to be shot, he said He added
that the American people could not hope to
stamp out boshevism and anarchy as long
as they tolerated the lawlessness of those
who break the prohibition amendment. The
Anti-Saloon league he intimated, will devote
much OF its educational effort to driving
home this idea. In other words it will try
to make the man who breaks the prohibition
law an object of social odium. That is un-
doubtedly one thing which is lacking. It is
considered no disgrace to make your own"
The best people do it. The methods are dis
cussed at the most fashionable and otherwise
respectable gatherings.
The prohibitionists recognize this as a.
lamentable state of affairs. They realize
that men do not fear the punishments of the
law half as much as they fear the bad opin-
ion OF their fellows. They propose, there
to put him in the same class with the
bushy-bearded, bomb-brandishing Bolshevist
of the cartoons
This would be easy if he were an isolated
figure But it will be hard when there are
large, solid blocks of such law-breakers
when whole communities and especially
whole social classes feel the same way
about it.
The Elusive Home Brewer
Mr.. Wheeler was convincing in his state
ment of how prohibition will be enforced,
except in the matter of home-brewing There
indeed, is the difficult part of the job To
restrict the sale of malt and hops will hardly
solve the problem, for you can make good
beverage out of almost any fruit or vegeta-
bic, and the ways Of doing it are multiplying
and spreading. Unless the right of a. mans
home to be free from search without war
rant is abolished, so that prohibition agents
can ransack our houses at regular intervals
Tor evidence of liquor making, the proven
ton by police power of home-brewing and
olstllllng seems hardly practicable
This is tacitly admitted to certain extent
nv zIS IL L -