The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-22
By ROY A. HAYNES U. s. Prohibition Commissioner Copyright, 1923, by Doubleday, Page
Special to The Age-Herald)

& CO.)
 Special to The Age-Herald) That which rules within" wrote Marcus Aurelius IS centuries ago, easily adapts itself to that which Is presented to 1t, as fire lays hold of matter which is heaped on it, and consumes it, and rises higher"
 The ancient philosopher may have been pouring his heart out in soli- tude over degenerating tendencies which were even then revealing themselves in the Roman citizenship. D. Or he may have been contemplating the steady growth of a new religion, Christianity, which the leaders of his world were striving vainly to stamp out. Whatever it was that gave sub stance to his meditations, he might have been writing, had he been liv- ing in our day, of the rising tide of sentiment against the age-old curse of beverage alcohol.
 For today we see the fire at work glowing brighter, burning stronger with each new pile of sodden propa- ganda that Is heaped upon it in futile effort to smother it-"state rights" personal liberty" "bi goted law making All in the end become fuel. A moments smoldering, perhaps. there may be, as the Illicit liquor forces drag up their appeals to pas sion, greed and appetite, and then the pure flame breaks through. It has happened again, and again, and again.
 Yes. the greatest of all the great allies of prohibition is sentiment; the gradual, logical, irresistible growth of public opipion, ripening slowly, soundly, inevitably into pub lie conviction.
 Exit the Saloon.
 1o their generation wagged their heads in compassion over the suggestion that the saloon could be grubbed out of American soil. It was too deep rooted, they said. Politics, money, appetite were behind 1t. The drink ing house had been an institution in all countries always.
 The saloon went.
 An amendment to the nations charter! Again the wise heads wagged. Abolish alcoholic beverages by amending the Constitution? They laughed. Many laughed with them. And the liquor interests of this and other lands laughed loudest of all.
 The fire ate on and into and up through the agglomeration of lies, misrepresentation. false issues, ap- peals to passion and all the other evil propaganda brought to bear against it-and presently burst into flame.
 The Eighteenth amendment was written into the fundamental law of q courageous nation. The liquor in- terests were stunned. The impossible had come to pass.
 Tt can never be enforced" That was the cry theni And they believed it. Some still believe it.
 But they are wrong. And thinking citizens of the country, especially those who, in looking forward. are wont to take moment now and then to contemplate the road we have tra- versed in a half century, sknow they are wrong.
 Backing of Public Sentiment.
 For back of the Eighteenth amen1- ment today there are great forces that were not there twenty, ten, five, one year aEo--yes, six months ago. And the greatest of these is a public consciousness, crystallizing and in action.
 The lines are being drawn at last, social, political, religious. economic. Some see them clearly, others hazily. To the great mass of loyal Americans they are becoming more definite in their outlines with each passing day No short-sighted human eyes can read the whole future, can grasp the full significance to us, to the world of the struggle we are passing through. Ihat IS .imposslple. But It is not impossible to try. And the promise of the future Is that Amer ica is trying. Public consciousness is awake. This much we see now: he issue is no longer purely a moral one. The issue is not the adoption of national prohibition. That is a fixed policy of American govern ment. The issue is one of individual observance of the law of the land And in the strategy of the opposing forces the lines are being drawn there.
 A great American scholar recently said: We see the world like one Of Rodin's statues. only half emerged from the marble. Good is entangled with the bad. Truth enmeshed with