Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-05-18
VICE PRESIDENT
EXPLAINS SPEECH
ON PROHIBITION
BY DAVID LAWRENCE

Copyright, 1920, for The Atlanta Journal.)
WASHINGTON, May Is. - Vice
President Thomas r. Marshall has
presided over the senate of the Unit
ed States for seven years and can be
therefore expected to know whereof
he speaks when he says that if pro-
hbition had been submitted to a Sc
cret vote. it would not have gotten
twenty votes in the senate.
The writer asked the vice president
to amplify his statement, which was
originally before the Virginian bar
association.
IT want to be understood at the
outset" said the vice president, that
| believe in the enforcement of the
constitutional amendment on prohi-
bition. 1t is here and is the law and
should be enforced. But 1 believe
that if the amendment had been voted
upon according to the individual con-
vlctions of members of the senate 1t
would not have gotten twenty votes.
Now I am not imputing motives
to anybody. | have never seen any
representatives of the brewers or 60
anti-saloon league around congress
and wouldn't know them if they We're
there. I believe that the men VINO
voted for prohibition and for wom-
an suffrage, for instance, thought the
people-a majority of their consti-
tuents-wanted these amendments
passed. But that isn't my theory OF
representative government.
LAS I told the lawyers at Rich
! mond, the people of this country
didn't intend in my Judgment that
their representatives should be guided
by their constituents but that elected
representatives should act for them.
yer that they should ask him to do
what they want Advice should lot
come from the client to the lawyer
but from the lawyer to the client
If the client doesn't lie the advice,
he can get another lawyer.
THAT'S the same with represen-
tative government. The people in
my opinion, should trust their rep.
resentatives to act for. them. IT
they don't like what their repre-
sentatives do. they can select others
and thus repudiate what has been
done.
'"Then if you had been a member
of the senate, you would have voted
against the prohibition amendment
the o wee Was th was repiy
my views have been well known.
Mind you, I do not use liuor, never
serve it at my table, and I would
to God that no one else DID, but
been imposed. Though again, /
must insist, now. that it is here,
that it must be enforced.
Gas a matter Of fact. irrespective
of the question of personal habits,
members of the senate whose views
about the police powers of the sew
eral states coincide with my own
surrendered their opinions when
they voted simply because they
thought it was the wish of the peo-
pie of their states. That isn't
leadership nor representative gov
eminent in my conception of the
term.
they are not telling their. clients
what is the law and what should be
done. Instead, lawyers, now -a-days
are listening to boards of directors
and trying to accomplish what those
boards want done-often against
the best judgement of the lawyers
themselves"
The vice president was Endorsed
by the Virginia bar association for
the presidency-a compliment of the
occasion, no doubt, for Mr.. Marshall
isn't a candidate, active, passive,
receptive or even interested. MAY
| be if he were he wouldn't express
| himself so frankly.