The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-19
1 Of Cy La Chase O To Ren1ote Parts Of AN Contnen

1 the states. Instead of being an as- 1 sertion of state rights, it Is an
 abandonment of them; 1t is a con- | fession by the state that 1t doesn't choose to govern itself, but prefers to 1 turn the task or a considerable DOT 1 tion of it, over to the federal author l ity. There could be no more com | plete negation of state rights. "The national government has been uniformly oonsiderate of the sensi- i biiities of the states about their rights and authorities But when a state deliberately refuses to exercise the powers which the constitution ex- 1 pressly confers on it, 1t obviously commits itself to a policy of nullify- ing state authority. the end of which we are reluctant to conjecture." o o O
 Power Lodged In the States.
 Specific authority to enforce the Eighteenth amendment to the con stitution was conferred, by the pro- visions of the amendment upon both the Congress of the United States and the states themselves. It may surprise some persons to learn that the Eighteenth amendment was the first amendment ever ratified in which the exercise of concurrent power by both state and national government was expressly provided for. The wording of the amendment was not accidental in this respect, but resulted from the careful de- Alterations of both houses of Con- gress.
 In explaining this situation, Repre- sentative Webb of North Carolina. an advocate of the amendment and a member of the judiciary committee, stated on the floor of the House, De- cember IT, 1917, during the course of debate on the measure:
 Nobody desires that the federal Congress shall take away from the various states the right to enforce the prohibition laws of those states. If we do not adopt this amendment from the committee there might be fight in Congress every two years as to whether the states should be given the right to help enforce this proposed article of the constitu- tion.
 we thought it wise to give both the Congress and the several states concurrent power to enforce this ar ticle and let that power be set forth and granted in the article we propose to submit. Hence the amendment we adopted was adopted by the commit tee, and we hope the House will agree with us."
 AS To Concurrent Legislation.
 In the Senate, MT. Overman of North Carolina, of the judiciary com mittee, in a report accompanying the resolution providing for the Amend- ment, said:
 National law. enacted under an amended constitution, could prohibit importation, could prohibit transpor- tation and sale, and in concurrence with like legislation by the states, thus securing the entire strength of the whole community. could soon put an end to the traffic. Under such restrictions in a generation or two the consumption of alcohol as beV- craze would practically disappear"
 Such were the utterances of spokes- men of the judiciary committee of both Houses of Congress at the time of consideration of the proposed amendment. They indicate clearly the purport of the express provision for concurrent power. In the next Congress, and after the amendment had been ratified, Representative vol stead, chairman of the House judici- ary committee, made the following explanatory statement relative to the definition of concurrent power as re- ferred to in the amendment:
 The resolution proposing this amendment originated in the Senate; when 1t reached the House it was IeI6TI6Q lO Nut JuuASAoAg SOAAAAAA NNNN71 of which i was then member. It was there discussed among the mem bers, especially among those who fa- vored it's adoption.
 Tt was pointed out, among other things, that if the amendment should be adopted in the form in which it has passed the Senate it's effect might be to repeal or enable Congress to sus- pend every prohibition statute in the country, and that it ought to make 1t the duty of the state, as well as the national government, to enforce It. as the states have courts and police forces equipped to do that work.
 Attention was also called to the fact that states and federal govern ment exercised the power to punish the same act each in its own courts and under it's own laws. AS this power has usually been spoken of by courts and law writers as concur rent jurisdiction, and as it was to confer the like power on Congress and the several states, the phTase concurrent power was adopted as expressing that idea. l do not know who wrote the provision but I know that was the idea sought to be writ ten into the amendment'
 Question of 'DOuble Jeopardy"
 MT Volstead's clarifying statement at once brings to mind the claim, loudly raised in some quarters, that here was a situation which placed an offender in double jeopardy" in other words, that defendant could be tried and punished~twice for the