The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-26
By ROY A. HAYNES, |. s. Prohibition Commissioner Copyright 1923, By Doubleday
 paxe A. CON

Eighteent-. amendment will be re- recognized and our course adopted accordingly"
 The illegal liquor traffic is under control. Its suDjection during the past three years may not have been so full of complete, perhaps. as we should like to see it; but the point is that 1t Is under control and thorough with each passing day. Prohibition Is the law of the land. More than that, 1t is a part of the constitution of the United States. 1t was written into that immortal document by the overwhelming sen timent of the people of this country, | a sentiment that has been expressed with increasing emphasis in many sections where the dead issue has since been galvanized into life.
 The clamor of a dwindling claqre cannot drown the voice of truth. In deed, the tumult Is eloquent evil dence of the desperate plight in which the outlawed and expiring in- dustry finds itself today The death rattle has begun.
 It was long in coming, for the liquor problem in the United States was by no means a new problem. Older than the nation itself, 1t dated back to the first days of the white man in the western world AS conditions changed, the nature of ] pTODleIQ and changed, too; but it ever re- mained problem and ever pre- sented new and veXatious obstacles to the orderly process of community development and to the country's economic and spiritual advancement. History Of Liquor Laws.
 Difficulties placed by the illegal liquor inIerests and their allies in the way Of national prohibition en- forcement are but the continuation, in guise assumed to meet the changed conditions, of former prac- 1 tices which long plagued the na- tion. They differ only in form and none at all In purpose. They were naturally expected, and naturally | have been discounted and success fully combated.
 The first liquor law in the new world, so far as can be found, was placed on the statute books by the colony of Virginia in 1919, year before the sailing of the May, and provided for his public re-
 Other expressions of the public conscience followed quickly. In lo3O Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts discontinued the practice Of drlnk- Ing healths and asked others 10 do the like" Plymouth colony TOT bade drunkenness by statrtei Nlr- Tinia enacted the law of England against drunkenness; Maryland, in 1642, fined it's drunkards 100 pounds l of tobacco for each offense; Mass scbusetts forbade it's drinkers to imbide more than one-hai1 or pint at one time, and put a legal i ban on tippling above ye space l of half an hour" The cltlzehs oi New Plymouth who became ln | toxicated was disfranchised, and | ha or forbade the sale of liquor to the indians, thus indicating the nature of the first major liquor problem In
 More than century before the Revolutionary war the liquor proo- Iem was a growing one throughout the colonies and the sale of hquor was hedged about with many restric- tions. s ing the Revolution the colonies en- acted scores of regulatory liquor laws New York, in 1897. forbade the patronage of saloons on Sunday. South Carolina made it unlawful for a planter to sell liquor for consump- tion on the premises. New Hamp. shire, in 1719. forbade the sale or liquor to drunkards and proVlded TOT the posting of their names. Cover nor Oglethorpe of Georgia, on the second day of his arrival in Amer 1ca declared the importation of ar dent spirits to be illegal. and two years later the English Parliament prohibited such importation.
 Some of these enactments were subseouently repealed, but the early history of the colonies abounds in in stances telling of the growing mag nitude of the liquor problem In America.
 i rFlE- In
 When the Continental Army took the field the problem was appraised at its true status by Washington, who issued orders, on March 70, l116t at Cambridge, Mass. calling upon all officers to prevent as far as possi- ble the men of their command from frequenting tippling houses. On September 20 the Continental Con- gress prohibited the sale to soldiers of any kind of liquor by sutlers and limited the alcoholic rations Of the men to the allowances of the various Continental legislatures and Con- gress.
 The Continental Congress, in ses- sion in Philadelphia In TIT, adopted resolution recommending to- the several legislatures the immediate massage of laws the most effective for putting an immediate stop to the pernieious practice of distillins grain by which the most extensive evils are likely to be derived if not quickly prevented" At that time,s however, the liquor problem was an oldcomer before the young legislature, its first appearance having been made In the first Congress, in 17T5.
 The leaven of temperance worked slowly but effectively during the iong period between the Revolution ary and Civil wars. In 1861 drink ing and drunkenness were fast be- H,I sar.1- ble with slavery. Congress, in 1881, tpassed an act forbidding the sale or gift of intoxicating drinks to sol diers. Again, in 1882, Congress took cognizance of the evil by adoption of pjoint resolution prescribing the imme ediate dismissal of any officer found guilty of habitual drunkenness,
 Lincoln, li'Se Washington, knew the magnitude of the liquor problem. To Chaplain Merwin, who had been conducting campaign against drinking in the army, Lincoln said:
 'Merwin, with the help of the peo- l fle zee have cleaned up colossal job. Slavery is abolished. After re- construction the next great question will be the overthrow and abolition of the liquor traffic, and my hand and my purse will go into that work.
 Less than half a century ago ] predicted that time would come when there would be neither slave nor drunkard in the land. I have lived to see. thank God, me of these prophecies fulfilled. I hope see the j other realized"
 Prophetic words. spoken on the very day of his assassination.
 Jnst After the CiviI War.
 During the years immediately fol- lowing the close of the Civil war the evils. of the wide-open saloon grew to Goliath-like proportions. but even