Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1924-05-16
S0-Ca||ed Prohibition
The President of Columbia University is
Opposed to It
DR.. Nicholas Murray Does Not Hesitate to Call the
Eighteenth Amendment Failure

DR.. Nicholas Murray Butler, presi-
dent of Columbia University, at the
dinner of the Missouri Society held
in New York, April 20, said in part:
GAS a result of the Eighteenth
Amendment, we now have a nation
wide traffic in intoxicating liquors
which is unlicensed, illicit, illegal and
untaxed. We have introduced intoxl-
eating liquor into parts of the country
from which it had well-nigh disap-
peared and in hundreds of communl-
ties we have multiplied many times
the saloon, if a saloon be defined as a
place where Intoxicating liquor may
be purchased whether for consump-
tion on the premises or not. We have
brought about situation in which we
challenge the ingenuity and sporting
instinct of millions of young persons
to test whether or not they can safely
violate a law for which they have no
respect.
eve have invited and induced a
spirit and a habit of lawleSsness
which are quite without precedent and
which reach from the highest ranks
in the nations life to the lowest and
most humble. If the Anti-Salooon
League on the one hand and the boot
logger and persistent law-breaker on
the toher, had conspired together to
bring nominal glory to the first and
certain profit to the second, they
would have united in urging the pre-
else course of action which has been
followed.
"The reason why the national pro
hibition law is not enforced is that
cannot be enforced. The reason why
it cannot be enforced is that it ought
not to have been passed. In its at
tempted forcible interference with the
food and drink and medicine of the
people. it is a form of oppression to
= which a free people will never submit
in silence. No liberal can possibly
defend it. The immoral conditions
which have followed the ratification
of the Eighteenth Amendment are the
direct and natural results of it's own
immortality.
"The Volstead act tells conscious
lie when it defines as intoxicating
that which everyone knows is the con-
trary, 1t violates the Eighteenth
Amendment when it attempts to in
terfere with the use of alcoholic liq-
uor as medicine, and it affronts, II it
does not invade, the Bill of Rights at
every possible point. 1t is because
this thing is wrong that it is the par
ent of wrong all over the land.
Condemns Anderson Supporters
"What can one say of those socall-
ed ministers of the Gospel of Christ
God save the mark!-who pass reso-
lutions of confidence in a convicted
criminal, tender him substantial gift
of money wrung from their deluded
dupes, and roll their eyes to heaven
giving thanks that they are not as
other men. In what respect do the,
differ from those hysterical and un-
balanced women, who shower convict
ed murderers with flowers and sweet
meats? How dare they stand in the
pulpit called Christian and preach the
gospel of Christ himself?
Hypocrisy
whenever you hear a public off
Ger or a candidate for elective office
= cry out with particular action fol
law enforcement, tap him on the hip
Such is the pass of hypocrisy, OF
double-dealing, of cowardice, and O.
public and private immortality to
which we have been reduced by the
policy of prohibition.
politicians insist that the repeal OF
the Eighteenth Amendment is imposs-
ible, 4. that there can be no cure
for the conditions that have follower
it's ratification. In other words, thei,
estimate of the intelligence and mo-
rality of the American people is that
they are too ignorant, too stupid anc
too cowardly to rise to their feet anC
with burning moral Indignation tc
sweep from power this whole army Of
imposters, fanatics and unworthy
spokesmen of the public will
Subverts Constitution
"There was originally no mora
question raised by the policy of pro-
hibition. 1t is no more moral or i'm
moral to drink or to refrain from
drinking alcoholic liquor than it is tt
eat or to refrain from eating roast
beef and buckwheat cakes. Now, il
has to do with the attempt to turr
and twist our Federal form of gov.
ernment until it becomes an instru
ment of tyranny and to destroy the
Constitution of the United States by
injecting into it mere police regula
tions which are of quite subsidiary
consequence when contrasted with the
provisions upon which our form o.
government rests.
Akin to Slavery
"There is a close parallel between
slavery and prohibition. Slavery was
| not long ago proclaimed as the princi
E