The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureou
THE DRY POINT OF VIEW.
FREDERIC J. HASKINs Director
Washington, D. @.


gram with which the. Anti-Saioen
League approaches the beginning of a
new administration. 1t is backed by
a congress Overwhelmingly pledged to
| enforcement of prohibition and to no
modification of the laws in the way OF
leniency, and 1t is faced by the fact
| that the prohibition amendment is be-
ing widely and variously broken.
| The question of enforcement is now
admitted to be the crucial one. That
| is. there seems to be no doubt but that
the prohibitionists 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 a law is one thing and
enforcing it is another. In spite of all
| these laws, liquor is pouring into the
country over both borders and thru
every port. 1t is being taken out of
| bond and sold. 1t is being illicitly
made and sold. It is being made in
many homes by the occupants there
| of for their own use, and these Illicit
| makers of beer, wine and whisky in
clude persons OF a great variety of
classes, poor and rich, rural and urban.
| Can this wave of lawlessness be
| checked? The prohibitionists have
I
electorate that prohibition is a good
thing if it can be made effective. But
| if it cannot be made effective, II it
gives rise merely to an elaborate sys-
tenn of lawbreaking, then the question
! legitimately arises again as to whether
it is good thing in such circum-
stances. In other words, the best point
of attack which the opponents of pro-
hibition have is that law which can
not be enforced is worse than no law
at all, and that intelligent regulation,
which could be enforced, would I'M
doubtedly be better than complete
prohibition which cannot be enforced.
Prohibition on Trial.
The prohibitionists evidently realize
this fact. Prohibition may be con-
sidered to be on trial now as a prac-
teal proposition, just as 1t was on trial
for long time as a theoretical prop
osition. 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 lawbreaking gathers
and spreads, if the law is a dead let
ter in a considerable part of the coun-
try, then prohibition will be attacked
as a practical failure whatever its
theoretical 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 eight to twelve dollars a
| quart for it. Various moonshine brews
can be purchased in many rural Sec
tions. Certain alleged medicines. con-
tanning large percentages of alcohol
and prescribed on the bottle to be
taken in doses of several glasses a day,
may be purchased at very reasonable
! prices in drug stores and delicatessen
stores almost everywhere. Above all,
almost anyone who has ordinary cook
ing facilities can make in his home
either ale, beer, wine or whisky, and
beyond doubt great numbers of per-
sons do So How can all of 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 referred to as the
brains of that organization. His point
of view is most interesting and pre-
sumably may be taken as representa-
tive of that of the active Prohibition
lists in general. A profound faith in
law and in police power is the basis of
Mr.. Wheeler's philosophy. He sees
the present wave of law-breaking as
mere temporary thing which will
inevitably be crushed.
1.-THE law-breaker always fails" he
says. He may give us a lot of trou-
BILE, but we will get him in the long
run"
Campaign Against Lawlessness.
He outlined at some length how the
Illicit sale of liquor would be checked
by laws governing the disposal of
whisky in Warehouses, by strengthen
ing the enforcement organization, and
by a campaign of education against
lawlessness.
'9The man who breaks the law is &
traitor and ought to be shot," he said.
He added that the American people
could not hope to stamp out Bolshe-
vism and anarchy as long as they toll
Grated the lawlessness of those who
break the prohibition amendment.
The Anti-Saloon League, he intimated,
will devote much of its educational ef-
fort to driving home this idea. In
other words, 1t will try to make the
man who breaks the prohibition law
an object of social odium. That is I'M
doubleday one thing which is lacking
1t is considered no disgrace to "make
your own" The best people do it.
The methods are discussed at the most
fashionable and otherwise respectable
gatherings.
The Prohibitionists recognize this as
| lamentable state of affairs They
realize that men do not fear the pun
1shments of the law half as much as
they fear the bad opinion of their fell
| lows. They propose, therefore, to
| make the liquor-law breaker a pariah,
to put him in the same class with the
bushy-bearded, bomb brandishing Boil
shevist 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 'lawbreakers, when whole COM
munities and especially whole social
classes feel the same way about it.
The Elusive Home-brewer.
Mr.. Wheeler was convincing in his
statement 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 vegetable, and the ways of
doing it are multiplying and spreading.
| Unless the right of a mans home TO
be free from search without warrant
is abolished. SO that prohibition agents
can ransaek our houses at regular in
tervals for evidences of liquor making.
the prevention by police power of
home4brewfng and distilling seems