Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1923-03-03
Representative From NelO
York Believes That Pro-
hibifion Can Never
Be Enforced.
By w. BOURKE CORKRAN,
Representative From New York

BY w. BOUKkE COKkKAN,
Representative From New York
believe that relaxation of the Vol
stead act, so far as permitting manu-
facture, sale and consumption in the
homes of light wines and beer, will be
an issue-probably the leading one
in the approaching Presidential cam
paign. l am fimly convinced of this
because it is now clear that unless
the Democrats embody such a demand
in their platform they might just as
we'll refrain from holding convention
and from nominating a candidate.
! The last election shows conclusively
that in all States containing large
ec;ties the party that sanctions directly
or inferentially by silence attempts to
force upon unwilling populations
rules for the government of their lives
repungnant to their own customs and
ideas of morality will be overwhel-
mingly defeated. The growth of this
revolt against sumptuary laws during
the last two years has been perhaps
the most remarkable. feature of our
national life. During the campaign Of
1920 both parties were practically
committed to prohibition. Public SEN
timent seemed then to I've so strongly
in favor OF it that cand: iatcs for of
flee in every part Of the :ovntry, al
most without exception. treated it as
a settled feature of or social and
political system.
Last year, however, to- great States
of Massachusetts,, New I0.k and New
Jersey condemned it emphatically and
expressed by impressive majorities a
settled purpose to secure it's modifica-
ton It has been said that, judged
by experience, no amendment to the
Constitution can ever be replaced,
which is literally true. But it is also
true that our history Gas that of every
other country abounds with instances
Of constitutional as well as
statute which, though never formal
~ repealed, have been by general
popular consent disregarded, nullified,
set at nought.
Other Amendments NulIifed.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments to- the Constitution,
Notwithstanding most energetic eff
forts to enforce them by all the pow
ers of Government, State and Feder-
al, are completely nullified in the
Southern States. In the Northern
States, where they are in harmony
with the customs and disposition Of
the population, they are in full force
ind effect.
And so it will be with the Eigh-
teenth Amendment. In many parts of
the country, where it embodies the
disposition and is in harmony with
the customs of the people, it will en-
force itself. In urban communities,
on the other hand, where the habits
and customs of the inhabitants sane
ton and require the use of light wines
and beers, it is not and never can be
enforced. Efforts to enforce it in
these localities will continue un-
doubtedly for some time, just as ef-
forts to enforce the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments were persist
emit, energetic and continuous in thu
outhern States for a dozen years after
the close of the Civil War. The social
disturbances, the political disorders
the economic paralysis caused by
these persistent attempts to make eff
fective the constitutional bestowal OF
the suffrage on Southern negroes in
dictate unerringly the results that will
certainly follow the Eighteenth A.
mendment. The army and host OF
Federal Marshals were the forces in
voked and employed in the vain eff
forts to enforce the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments. Federal a.
gents or spies are the forces that
must be enlisted to make prohibition
effective.
The decentralization already caused
b. open disregard of this law will be-
come still more widespread as con-
tempt for it becomes every day more
fragrant. The vast number of spies
will be multiplied, and there never was
a spy who was not also a crook. The
profits of bootlegging are so enor
nous that wholesale bribery and spies
will present no serious pecuniary diff
ficulty to the lawbreakers, and there
will be no moral scruples among then
for the bribers to overcome. And as
the country finally realizing the i'm
possibility of imposing by law on tn
PEOPLE of any locality customs ant
methods of life repungrant to theil