Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-03-31
DECISION ON PROHIBITION
LIKELY To Be DELAYED

w Special Correspondents.
TRENTON. March s1.-Because of
the transcending Importance OF the
questions involved. Attorney General
Thomas +. McCran, in q statement
here today, expressed the opinion that
a decision from the United States su-
preme court upon the questions raised
by him on behalf of New Jersey be-
fore that tribunal Monday may not
be rendered for a long time to come.
'I do not look for a decision In this
case for many months" said the attor-
ney general. "The questions that have
been raised are so fundamental ana
cut so deeply into our form or gov
ernme1.t that it will, in my opinion, re-
ouirc very careful deliberation upon
the part of the court before they reach
a final conclusion. l have no doubt
whatever but what the court will de-
eide that our dual form of govern
inert is to continue in the future as it
has in the past, and that under the
10th amendment the power of enforce
ment will be found to be lodged exclu-
sively in the states in matters of intra-
state concern, and the power to en-
force on the part of the government
will be restricted to those spheres Of
action in which the government is
supreme, that is, in interstate and
foreign commerce and in the terri
tories over which this unit.i States
government has exclusive con,rol. In
all other spheres the states will have
absolute and sole power of enforce
ment."
Those state house peop!e who ere
in Washington and heard the attorney
generals argument befoic the supreme
court declared 1t to ue e very foIceful
to the marked attention. The at
torneN general was particulatly V.gof-
GUS in his dissertations upon the rights
of New Jersey as sovereign state to
exercise concurrently with Congress
the power to enforce prohibition by
the enactment of legislation suitable
to conditions within her own confines.
Chief Justice White and Associate
Justice Mckenna showed keen inter
est in the argument of Mr.. McCran
and took pains to get New Jersey
viewpoint clearly by asking the states
legal representative questions.
Seats were at a premium In the su-
preme court room and many meI2 bers
of Congress were present to hear the
argument for New Jersey. United
States Senator Brandagee, of Connecti-
cut, afterwards declared the address of
Attorney General McCran was the best
he has heard before the Supreme Court
in his years of experience at Wash
ington.
Upon the return of Attorney General
McCran from the argument in the
United States supreme court on the
appeal of New Jersey against the dras-
tic enforcement of the prohibition
amendment and in support of New
Jerseys right to legislate for itself as
to intoxicating liquors, Governor Ed
wards said, after an interview with
the Attorney General
Il am very pleased at the report
the attorney general makes Of his be-
lief in the outcome. He went over
the matter with me in detail and
from what he told me / am convinced
that New Jersey has rendered a SER
vice to the nation and that the out
come will be the decision by the Court
of New Jerseys right to legislate for
itself upon its internal questions.
Il was also gratified to hear from
outside and unprejudiced. sources from
those who attended the argument of
the excellent argument our attorney
general made.>I am advised that none
of the counsel on either side even ap-
preached him in his perception of the
issues involved. in his lucid explana-
ton of them, and in his historical in
depreciation of the law applicable
thereto as laid down by the founders
Of the government and in the decisions
Of the United States supreme court. 1
was immensely pleased to hear that
he had defended the state of New
Jersey and its governor from the
charge of being guilty of notification,
and In his very eloquent peroration
pointed out the fact that George
Washington had said. long time ago,
that danger to American liberties
would come not from without but
from within. by insidious attempts to
undermine the government, and that
he had pointed out that New Jersey
was travelling along the path indicated
by Washington, In defending the liber-
ties of the country from the insidious
and hidden attacks of those who
would undermine the government for
selfish and uninformed purposes"