Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-10
JUDGE SHEPPARD, OF.
FLORIDA, SAYS DRY
LAW IS UNPOPULAR
Thinks VoIstead Act Is Too
Drastic, but Says 1t Must
Be Vigorously Enforced by
Court

Judge W. B. Sheppard, Of the
United States court for the northern
district Of Florida. now presiding in
Atlanta for Judge Samuel H. sibley.
came off the judicial bench for a
little while Wednesday and talked
as a plain citizen Of the United
States of America. He gave his opin-
ions, as a private citizen, of the Vol
stead act. or the eighteenth amend
ment-that is. the national bone-dry
law. He believes the law is too dras-
tic. He does not believe a majority
of the people favor the law.
''It is probably the most unpopular
law ever enacted" he said tersely.
1.-THE amendment" commented
Judge Sheppard, was adopted under
the general belief that war emergen-
cies demanded the conservation of
grain and other conservation of
in the manufacture of LIQUOR. 1t was
not generally understood that prohi-
bition would be permanent
Congress went to greater ex-
tremes when it passed the Volstead
act than public sentiment approved.
Consequently. the law is observed
more in the breach than in the per-
Torrance.
Prohibition in fact will only come
by education in the schools of the
destructive use of intoxicants.. The
law would be more respected If it's
provisions were less drastic. No harm
could have come from the domestic
use of light wines and beer with linn
tied alcoholic extent. There could
be reasonable regulations of moder-
ate domestic use of whisky which.
had they been provided. would have
saved the enforcement of the law
such universal revolt"
"And as to light wines and beer,
see no objection to their general
dispensation. If these had been left
undisturbed by the eighteenth amend
ment, public sentiment would not
have frowned so generally at the ad-
vent of prohibition" 49,. ,.,-v--
Light Wines and Beer
Judge Sheppard is widely known
throughout the southeast as one of
the ablest of United States judges.
He has served many years on the
federal bench.
The eminent jurist believes prohi-
bition is here to stay. He opines.
further that still more teeth will
be placed in the Volstead act in the
near future"
In Judge Sheppard's opinion, it
should be made easier for one to
purchase alcohol for medicinal and
inclines to the belief that viola
lions of the law would be greatly
decreased if light wines and beer
were restored. A. -.
II think wines and beer might Spe
allowed in t he hand vi th0lzk InenaG-
ing the public health or SAFETY he
/ : Open bar rooms and the practice
Of drinking In public places should
have been abolished long before they
were, Judge Sheppard said, but ne
was firm in the statement that, ne
had never known any harm to come
out of light wines and beer.
but, since the prohibition law is
on the statute books. it ought to be
enforced vigorously" he continued.
Judge Sheppard explained that he
sentences defendants who are con-
yicted in his court according to the
provisions of the Volstead act and
not under the old Internal revenue
act.
The two laws conflict sharply il
their details, and Judge Sheppard's
cons trduction is that the latter act
supersedes the former, although this
was not specifically stated by con-
gress.
Under the former revenue act, per-
sons violating dry laws could be SEN
fenced to the penitentiary for the
first offense. but the Volstead act pro-
vides only a fine for the. first of
Tense, Jail sentence for the second
offense, and a penitentiary term for
the third offense. ~
Among the judges in this circuit
who have placed construction on
the prohibition law different to that
placed by Judge Sheppard isYJudge
S. H. Sibley Atlanta's own federal
jurist. He goes on the theory that
the old internal revenue act was not
automatically repealed by passage of
the Volstead act, and has frequently
tiary upon their first conviction.