Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-03
DIRT AND DOLLARS

II ISN'T often that the spirit moves any
= man to better and saner speech than that
with which Judge Dickinson interrupted
session Of the United States District Court
to discuss from the bench, largely for the
benefit of Lincoln L. Eyre, attorney for an
accused salooukeeper, the ethics Of law and
business.
Mr.. Eyre, az counsel for a man charged
with violations of the Volstead act, de-
nounced what he called the general tendency
to put unjust restrictions upon personal lib
erty. Judges hear a great deal of that sort
of discussion. They have been listening to
it for centuries. And what Judge Dickinson
said in answer might properly be regarded
as summary of what all jurists have
learned in their efforts to do justice between
society and those who disregard or violate
codes established progressively in the inter-
est OF the greater number. They seem to
have learned that dirty money, rather than
money in general, is the root of all evil.
Blue laws are things abhorred by many
men. Mr.. Eyre clearly felt that he was
upon safe and indisputable ground in hold
ing these ancient statutes up to derison and
contempt. The Volstead act, similarly de.
nounced in this instance, may represent IN
invasion Of the rights of personal privilege
in free country. So. too. does the Har-
rison drug act, which forbids the sale of
narcotic drugs to an addict, who feels that
he has free man. right to become a mental
and physical wreck and outcast The talk
Of a taboo on tobacco certainly will irritate
innumerable people and cause them to feel
that the days of freedom are ended. And
1t is interesting to hear a man so experienced
and so observant as Judge Dickinson inti-
fa nj hnf foh % Al
sort are made necessary not by the things
directly antagonized. but by the dirty money
that tends to pervert these things and make
them dangerous and, in the end, intolerable.
1t was the pursuit of dirty money by
brewers and dlstillers and saloonkeepers that
finally made the liquor business a menace to
the health and morals Of American commu-
mites. 1t is the pursuit. of dirty money that
is causing innumcrable men nowadays to
faunt law Of the country and vend poison.
Gus limitations of whisky concoctions of
alcohol, ether. tincture Of pepper and the
Eke--to unsuspecting multitudes at fantastic
prices. And certainly the money earned BY
men who do their best to aid and encourage
and protect this sort Of outlawry cannot be
called clean. That much Judge Dickinson
intimatcd very plainly to Mr.. Eyre.
The simple and obvious fact Is that no
business can survive the effects Of dirty
money and dirty aims. Money spent by
specially interested groups, who have reasons
of their own for wishing to break down the
Sunday laws, will in the end only strengthen
the determination OF society to keen these
laws intact, unreasonable as many of them
may sound in a literal reading The Blue
Laws, so called. serve at least one useful
end. They insure day of rest for all people
who labor, and they keep people in mind of
the hopes and beliefs upon which the whole
system Of modern law and modern ethics
has its foundation. II it is n fact that
business interests with n view only to profit
seek to have the Sunday laws set aside in
order that way may be opened to put
aside all Sunday restrictions, then that il
a very good reason why public opinion will
insist upon keeping the Blue Laws in their
present form. That is Judge Dickinson 8
view, and il IL sound.