The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1922-06-23

Paul, restated by st. Augustine and
reiterated by John Calvin.
THE New Testament is an redolent
of liberty as is the Declaration of In
dependence Yet Christians, to their
shame he it said, are afraid TO protest
against the filching away OF their
Christian liberty. Men whose ances-
tors did not quail before the thumb
screw and the stake cringe like whip
ped ours beneath the lash OF the Anti
Saloon League.
when civil and religious liberty is
thus imperiled we cannot fail to cry
aloud in the market place. Ii we kept
silent the very stones would Cry out.
"Give prohibition a chance" is
slogan YOU often hear nowadays. Mr.
Haynes assured us that if we would
just stop talking, and struggling, the
whole nation would, in a few years, be
reduced to that state of contented
aridity which he describes as existing
today in Kansas. God forbid. The very
worst thing that could happen to this
country would be to grow contented
with its claims. God preserve US from
becoming
A race which wraps its body in
chains,
And calls them Liberty
And calls each fresh link Progress.
The duty of the hour to cry aloud
in season and out of season. until the
obnoxious laws are repealed and real
liberty is restored.
"Ah, hut you say l am melting to
lawlessness. Well, the very men who
make this charge show their insincer-
ity by condoning illegal searches and
seizures by prohibition officers, and
Mr. HAYNES himself actually applaud
ed a Kansas judge who threatened to
burn down the house of an illegal
bootlegger. When we have such law
lessness among the sworn officers OF
the law. how can private citizens be
greatly blamed for standing on what
they deem to be their fundamental
personal rights? If gold rust, what
shall iron do"
81 do not advocate disobedience to
even so tyrannical a law as the Vol
steac act; ! advocate its repeal. But
| 10 saw that diSObedience to such a
lava law passed in derogation OF the
fundamental rights OF citizenship
law put across by stealth and trickery
when the best manhood of the coun-
try were away from home fighting or
preparing to fight against German au-
tocracy. when all the second-best wero
thinking only Of sustaining them AMI
holding up their hands, and when only
the third best were thinking about pr,
hibitiCn-a law for the sustainin& ol
which the Supreme Court was unablt
TO rive - aaso:I 80 say that violations
cG such law are very trivial Gffenses
"The very men who pirate so loudly
about prohibition enforcement viii
sometimes commit murder rather thar
let supposed bootlegger go. And the
Department of Justice actually in
structs Federal district attorneys
whose duty is to see that all law is en-
forced. to defend prohibition agents
charged with murder.
! In other words. the Department o.
Justice prosecutes bootleggers, but de-
tends murderers; and the Fifth amend
ment, which provides that no Govern
ment agency shall deprive any citi'
zen OF life without due process of law
I is regarded as less important than the
+ Eighteenth. which deprives him O
/ beverages necessary for his comfort
/ "Why should the Department of JUS
| tice prosecute for possessing liquor in
violation of the Eighteenth amend
ment, but defend against the crime o.