, 1923-04-17

lie complains OF the pack OF
wolves" who are bounding him, and
in the next breath admits an at
tempt to bride newspaper under
lings to color the news in behalf of
his holy cause.
Mr.. Anderson is the type who
thinks any means justifies an end
to which he is committed. He more
than any n man is responsible for
keeping prohibition as it stands to-
day on Americas book. Mr.. An
derson has a fear complex. He is
afraid Of a glass Of beer, and would
rather see America disrupted by
civil war, if need be, than permit
the slightest percentage of alcohol
to again invade the country legally.
There is eminent reason to suspect
from Mr.. Anderson's latest actions
and statements that his mnid has
been SO affected by his fear COM
plex as to render him a public men
ace in his present state Of extreme
terror.
The admissions of the head Of the
Anti-Saloon League are tacit cor
~roboration of what most persons al
ready know-that the best edito-
rial minds of the country, and in
most cases the leading papers Of the
country, r opposed to prohibition
Is it now stands. Some of those
who were not opposed to prihibition
when it went over, are now point
ing out the grevious error of prohi-
bition ways most strongly. The pa
pers that oppose prohibition now, in
ninety-nine cases out of n hundred,
have no axe to gring. They are not
al Mr.. Anderson has sometimes init.
mated, In he pay Of the brewing in
terests or the liquor ring. Their in
terest in the matter is not, as is Mr..
A~nderson's, either personal or mon
etary. They r hammering the law
because most thinking persons real
ize that it must be amended before
the whole structure of law and or
der in this country is turned into a
farce.
1t has been pointed out in these
columns before that the Solid
South, whose cooperation put over
prohibition, and whose united front
is needed to keep it on the books,
has for long years ignored two
amendments than there was in 1880.
the Fourteenth and Fifteenh. By
common consent it has come to be
accepted in that part of the coun-
try that each state shall handle the
negro question as it deems best.
There is no more chance % of en-
forcing those two constitutional
amendments han there was in 1880.
This sentiment of the community is
against them, and only the use of
the Army and Navy could possibly
insure their observance.
The Army and Navy will never
be used for enforcing the Four
tenth and Fifteenth Amendments
again. The army was so used just
after the Civil War. But it didn't
take" 1t was too expensive, too
foolish, too trimming with trouble
making possibilities. And there is
little aso to believe that if the
navy is used today to hunt rum
runners off the Atlantic. coast. that
the nov will be anything but temp
orary. For a short time it will
break up a large percentage of the
~rum-running rade. Then the navy
will be called off, and the run run
ming will again become our most
popular sort.
Fifty years hence, If prohibition
should last that long under its pres
ent guise, which Is very doubtful,
some other moralists with inferior
ity completes will get together,
form an active and monied minor
ity, and lobby over a bill distaste-
full to many very populous sections
of the United States. Then those
who oppose it will go on reciting for
the next few decades the facts that
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
amendments have been dead letters
for a century in the South, and that
tho Eighteenth amendment has
been a deader letter in the East,
North, South and Pacific Coast for
about fifty years. About that time
Congress, the Human Glacier, will
nov a few inches, to prove It is
progressing.
The name Of tho astute gentle
man who said, Constitution? What
is the constitution among friends?"
escapes US But whoever he was, we
venture the opinion that he should
have been o Southern Democrat