Evening star., 1924-01-14

Representative Cpshaw of Georgia,
admittedly an extreme prohibitionist,
has started once more the discussion
of whether there should be a new
oath taken by office holders. The
legislator from the Cotton state
would compel all officials to swear
to uphold and observe the prohibition
amendment and the enforcement act.
About one-third of the editors who
have discussed his demand agree that
he is right. Two-thirds rorsidor =
more or less an insult because every
public official today takes oatn to
uphold" the Constitution OF the
United States.
In this Connection, however. the sa-
vannah Press feels Georgia has sup
ported the national prohibition act
while Maryland, New Jersey and New
York are in a class by themselves"
After all that seems to be about the
cruX of the entire argument. Editors
insist certain northern states along
the Atlantic seaboard and nearby
are wet and are defying the law. En-
tertaining this belief, therefore, these
editors argue Upshaw is assuming u
correct position and that the admin
istration should kick out all wet
may be.
AS the Utica Observer Dispatch sees
it, ''the purchaser and partaker of
liquor Is just as much a. law breaker
as the bootlegger and poison-still man
ufacturer. How long would the coun-
try endure the custom of officials
dealing in counterfeit money as privi-
legged characters? Or suppose they en-
gagged in treason, bribery, high crimes
and misdemeanors, kept slaves and
imported women for immoral pur-
poses? And yet to be guilty of those
crimes is no more a crime against
the basic law of the land than to be
violators of the eighteenth amend
ment and its enabling law" Agree
ing to great extent with this sus-
gestion, the Springfield Union also
points out congressman and all gov
ernment officials can and should set
a good example by refusing all in
vitations to dine in embassies or lega-
tions in which liquor is served"
The trouble everywhere. In the
opinion of the Chicago Daily News.
is that under the Volstead act as at
present construed, it is hard to make
prohibition enforceable and the News
calls attention to the fact that there
are DIT ~ CSSht oOiIlc pfllS PcIiuiHs
Congress which would change this.
such, for instance, as the Edge bill.
The New Jersey senator, the News
argues, "takes the position that con-
stitutional prohibition is far from be-
ing synonymous with Volsteadism and
that the only way to obtain fairly
universal respect for the former is
to divorce it from the latter. 1t Com
gresS is sincere as regards prohfbi-
tion 1t will pass the Edge bill, the
Mellon bill creating a special prohibi-
tion bureau in the Treasury Depart
ment and some bill--not yet offered,
strangely enough-placing the entire
prohibition unit within the merit sys-
tenn To which the Chicago Tribune
adds, when, in the course OF uphold
ing the Constitution. we reach the
eighteenth amendment, we.lt accept
Mr.. Upshaw as the commander or the
army in these parts. But we insist
that the amendments be taken IN
their order and made to stick In their
order. This thing of hopping over
number and then landing on one,
which is the only sacred one. LACKS
the sweet reasonableness which ought
to prevail in the affairs of republic.
X X X <
This is also the opinion of the
Providence Tribune, which points out
Mr.. Upshaw 'is so tender toward
the feelings of his own constituency
that he Is his old mild self in his
attitude toward two amendments