The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-12

their political power is all but gone they can win back to their destruc- tive cause 72 separate Legislative bodies, is imagery indeed.
 The enforcement of the eighteenth amendment is as definitely certain Those of us who are not blndeu by desire for self-inGulgenCe, prejudice or greed rlay readily reaI the future of the enforcement of this law IT the history of the past
 Prohibition is Tot new as a policy of American government. It's histo- ry stretches back in a clear line oVel many years. Throughout that periot the story is told in city, county anG state. And always it has been the same.
 Liquor Traders Mistaken.
 First, there has come liquor legis- lation. Powerless to block the pas sage of these measures, the illicit li- quor forces have combined and or ganiZed to defeat their enforcement By legal or illegal means they have introduced their stock in trade into the forbidden zones. Nenal officers, conplaisant judiciary and an electo' rate not fully aroused permitted the outlawed liquor to return, for a while. The citizens. busted about oth' CT things. were not always alert.
 Mista,ling this inattention and ap' parent indolence for actual opposl' ton to enforcement. the liquor traders have become bolder. They have carried their defiance of law t. excess; and these very eXcesses aroused that moral passion which is easily evoked in thecAmerican citi' zenry. The clements of the commu- nity reasserted themselves The f1 G in the face of the bartender were double locked against his return.
 The bold-faced contempt for local laws displayed by many liquor deat- CTS throughout the history of the struggle against them was one oi the things that hastened the adop- tion of the eighteenth amendment All attempts to seGregate beveragf liquor had failed because of the es- sential lawlessness of the business It invaded the residential districts and polluted them. It used license territory as a base from which to in- wade no-license communities. It re- spected no law. Slow to ignite. but soaring and relentless when famed into flame, that idealism which i' the soul of our Americanism drove who refused to respect or obey any law.
 Nationally, we may see history re- peat itself As in the states, the adoption of the prohibition law was followed by the assertions that | could not be enforced; and at the same time every barrier that ignoble wits could contrivs was thrown in the way of enforcement.
 Tactics Of The Opposition.
 The laws delays, the purchase of officers, political threat, business boycott. open and fragrant law. breakins-all the old devices and some new ones were called into play to break down and destroy what Americas patriotic majority had willed should stand. Clever and in- genious gandists spread their poison through the press, sometl mes cleveriy disguised as patriotic utter anee. Any sensational departure from normal conduct on the part oi anyone associated with the enforce ment of the law was broadcast as II typical of all. The vacillation ot time serving officials. timorous O. their political future, was an aid tc the conspiracy, as it always Is.
 This has been the coarse of resis- tance to enforcement T he nation as it was in the states. And it was due to reaction against these tactics
 
 were adopted by some of the older prohibition states in assertion of their authority.
 Whatever the future may hold n this. Americas great adventure, inc worst that can happen is that the laws enforcing prohibition may be weakened. Against any fragrant abuse of legislative power, however the supreme court stands as a bar ,s,p pt n n- T made or sold or transported for beN- craze purposes while the eighteenth amendment stands.
 "I.ibernl Interpretations"
 What has been termed liberal In terpretation" may be tried here and there. It was tried in local dry ter ritory before the eighteenth amend ment was written into the constilu tion. Not only did it fail, bat al ways after temporary la:Ity the lid was rNeted on tighter than ever.
 There is nothing. disc0ncering in frankly facing the possibility that the future may hold for Us moments g when the enforcing agencies will be weakened by the appointment o' men not loyal; hT reduction Of the numbers of agents below the mini- mum necessary to cover the field. or by withholding appropriations neceS- sary for the work. But that IS the ultimate harm that can come.
 And t is by no means a probabil- ity America may never come C that bridge. But sht tuld she have to cross it, the story of the nation would be a repetition of the story of the states. An aroused electorate would be stirred to righteous passion hy occurrences and conditions given | h f,-t4x ( To esf, [ ia,r lt n. iorcemert would follow.
 And more quickly. For back of the Eighteenth Amendment now stands the Nineteenth Amendment. Amer jean women are voting today. "nancer" Faced ny America.
 America stands at the crossroads
 hle the nation of Europe and ol Asia watch, wait and wonder America faces great opportunity perhaps her greatest opportunity. Sister nations look upon the Eighteenth Amendment as an expert ment. some of their most thought full men, deep students of the lahoret upward climb of human kind, declare that it is the most daring, the most significant experiment of all history because it attacks the oldest evil ir the world. And America holds it ir her power quickly to turn what oth- CTS look upon as experiment into ac- complished fact.
 It lies with the individual Amer ican citizen.
 I believe it to be a fact that deer in the conspicuousness of every thinking citizen today there lies the copyiction-it may be only hali formed, CT it may be clear cut ant def,nite-that one of the greatest dangers now confronting the repub ll.c is that we of America shall lose our vision or the sanctity and majesty of the laws we have set UT for the government of-our republic And that danger alone has the power to set back the day when the ful