Evening star., 1923-01-27
SAYS j. s. DRY LAW
IS DOOMED TO FAIL
Nicholas Murray Butler De-
cIares 18th Amendment Will
Never Be Enforced.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
COLUMBUS. Ohio, January 27.-
There Is no likelihood that the
eighteenth amendment ever can be
enforced, mo matter at what ex-
penditure of money or of effort" DIR.
Nicholas Murray Butler, president of
address at the annual midwinter
meeting OF the Ohio State Bar Asso-
citation.
He linked the prohibition amend
ment with the fifteenth addition to
the Constitution of the United Safes,
which was proclaimed in 1870 and
important and law-made influences
which now are making, and seem
likely long to make. for lawlessness
in American life" The subject of his
address was Law and Lawlessness." !"
He asserted that methods Of
czarist Russia and of the Spanish
inQuisition" are being used to en-.
force one provision OF law and said
there are a dozen verboten signs in
the United States to every one that
Russia can show
Called "Force Bills,
"In form and in fact" he said,
"and judged by all the usual tests
and standards. these two amend
ments are part of the organic law
and with all the rights and authority
which attach thereto. Nevertheless.
they are not obeyed by large num-
bers of highly Intelligent and moral
ly sensitive people. and there is no
likelihood that they ever can be en-
forced. no matter at what expendi-
ture Of money or of effort.
After pointing out the negro votes
in those states where he voted when
the fifteenth amendment was passed.,
the speaker asserted every attempt to
enforce the fourteenth and fifteenth
amendments has been denounced as
a force bill. oddly enough" he con-
tinued, '.it has been denounced by
those very senators and representa-
tives who will go to any lengths TO
enforce the provisions of the eight
eenth amendment.
The practical question is not
whether the colored man should vote
In the southern states, but whether
the American people frankly Will
face the problem presented by the
notification throughout large part
Of the land of a most important pro-
vision of the Constitution of the
United States.
Revolt In widespread.
"The situation with regard to the
eighteenth amendment is even worse,
because the revolt against it is not
confined to men and women OF In
telligence and moral sensitiveness in
one section alone. but fs nationwide.
1t will not do to attempt to silence
these persons by abuse or by catch
phrases and formulas
These men and women dissent en-
tirely from the grounds upon which
the case for the eighteenth amend
mont is founded and they regard its
provisions and those of the statutes
based upon II as a forcible. immoral
and tyrannical invasion of their pri-
vate life and personal conduct.
mo one who is familiar with the
practical working of our political
system would expect either the fif-
tsenth or the eighteenth amendment
to be repealed within measurable
time. So far as one can see, there
fore, we are shut up to the alterna-
tive OF their attempted enforcement
by soldiers and police and special
agents and detectives and spies. or
to their abrogatfon over a great part
OF the land by local initiative and
common consent. Either alternative
is humiliating and degrading"