Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-04-20

a one per cent standard; that it could
not legalize what the states had pro-
hibited. 1t learned through court de-
cisions and legislative enactments
that this standard was the most eff
fective to secure the enforcement Of
the law. Scientific investigation and
common sense proved that if the alco-
holic content even Appropriated that
which would produce i~ntoxication
when taken in small amounts the law
would be evaded by increasing the
volume consumed. The drinker would
be compelled to drink a larger guam
tity to get intoxicated and the brewer
would make more money because he
would sell two glasses instead of one.
An alcoholic content sufficient to sat
isfy alcoholic thirst would feed that
appetite which is the greatest OBJ
stacle in law enforcement.
Long before we had national pro-
hibition the Federal government
adopted the one-half of one per cent
standard in determining what liquors
must pay the taxes under the revenue
laws. This standard was suggested
by the liquor dealers themselves to
prevent the %bootleggers from compet-
ing with the licensed dealers. If it
was a good standard for this purpose
it is a good standard also for elimi-
mating the bootlegger under prohibi-
ton.
"The way to back up the Constitu-
ton of the United States is to sup
port it without mental reservation or
purpose of evasion. No Congressman,
Senator or Ex-Governor can do this
by advocating a notification scheme
or an alcoholic remedy for alleged
prohibition evils. The statement of
the Judicial Section of the American
Bar Association is a singing rebuke
to such unstatesmanlike utterances
by wet advocates. Judge Woods, in
writing this declaration, issued a
warning that ought to be needed by
every even so per cent American
when he said that those who 'scoff
at this law, or any other law, are
aiding the cause of anarchy and pro-
noting mob violence, robbery and
homicide; they are sowing dragons
SSSbh oho thOy ACCu nOI NC uIpIlSGu
when they find that no judicial or
police authority can save our country
or humanity from reaping the har-
vest
There is only one way to be loyal
to the Constitution of the United States
and that is to support it whole-heart-
eddy until it is repealed or changed
by the orderly processes of govern
ment. If Ex-Governor Stokes and
Senator Edge believe there is a revuI-
sion of public sentiment against the
Eighteenth Amendment let them join
with those ex-liquor dealers and op-
ponents of prohibition and elect a
Congress which will resubmit the
Amendment and write into the Con-
stitution a brewery temperance
amendment according~ to their ideals.
If they succeed they will find the
temperance people of the nation far
more loyal in their support of this
new provision of the Constitution than
the brewers, liquor dealers and wet
politicians are to the Eighteenth
Amendment, which was adopted by
the largest majority of any part of the
organic law.
"The most dangerous man in this
republic today is the one who, be-
cause of his social or financial posi-
ton, Yields a large influence and
uses it to encourage lawlessness or to
secure his ends by other than the
orderly processes of government. 1t
it just as indefensible and unpatriotic
to advocate the enactment of a law
to enforce the Constitution which uni
form experience proves to be non en-
forceable as it is for a bootlegger to
go out on the streets and sell liquor
in violation of the law.
cit is infinitely worse for a leader
of society to advocate a change Of
government except by legal processes
than for those who are less versed in
the fundamental principles of govern
ment. Any wet state or wet Con-
gresham are clearly within their
rights when they fight for the resub-
mission of the Eighteenth Amendment.
To demand it's notification by the
enactment of laws which uniform
experience shows cannot be en-
forced is not only indefensibel but
r~eprehensible. There are some men
who forget that the United States
is a perfect Union, one and INSOFAR
able. When the overwhelming ma
jority of three-fourths of the states
and two-thirds of Congress gave their
sanction to a fundamental law of the
land the minority in the remaining
states muSt obev that law until it is
repealed. 1t is the old question of
minorities against majorities. If the
minority can rule on this question,
then the opponents Of orderly govern
ment have driven a hole through the
dixie of law and order and the nation
uiIl soon he on oulfad in laWleSSneSS