, 1925-10-07

The moral issue of the spirit of human
freedom struggling against bondage.
I lay stress on this aspect of liberty
because that is what is at stake. The
prohibitionist tries here to mislead
you. He wants to fool you into think
ing that it is an administrative ques-
ton, or a medical question, or a poll
teal question of the right of the ma
jority to rule. 1t is none of these
things. The prohibitionist, l say,
would try to deceive you in thinking
that the question at issue is a medical
question, that it turns upon the good
ness or badness of beer from a pure
ly digestive standpoint. 1t is not so.
Beer may be good or may be bad. My
own candid opinion, reached after 80
years of reflection is hat there is
nothin like it. But even if l
if l knew it were bad as is excessive
use of tea and coffee I still would
strongly oppose criminal law to pro-
hibit its consumption.
But the plain truth is that beer is
just an ordinary beverage. You can
not make it criminal if you try. The
attempt is silly. Common sense re-
volts at it. Some people like beer and
some don't. Some people finds that it
agrees with them and other do not.
1t belongs in the same class with Gu
cumbers. And the attempt to make
the consumption of beer criminal is
as silly and as futile as if you passed
a law to send a man to jail for eat
ing cucumber salad.
l lay stress upon this word Grim
inal," because 1 think it needs to be
stressed. I doubt whether the people
realize that the Volstead Act and such
like statutes are criminal laws. What
they propose is virtually to send all
people to jail who dare to drink beer,
and to send them again and again for
each new offense, to break them into
compliance as people were once brok-
Ell upon the wheel.
The thing is monstrous. 1t is the
most brutal invasion of the province
of liberty attempted within a century.
1t cannot succeed. 1t must fail as all
Knew it were bad as is excessive
think of the deplorable havoc it is
destined to make in its course; of the
way in which it u~ndermines the re-
spect for law, the way in which it
in ax-ar,y clan of eociaAxy O. JoaA
and bitter n of injustice; of the
way in which it breaks from the
splendid traditions of freedom upon
till this thing came, we had
built up the commonwealth.
There is a spirit that you cannot
break by the simple vote of the ma
jority. The individual man, when he
upon his plain rights, VIII not
down. His house is his castle ard his
life is his own. What service and
obedience he owes to those in authorf-
ty he renders as he should. But when
authority passes into tyranny and law
into oppression, then his obedience
ends. He stands, if need be, alone
and single handed against the law,
but behind him as his inspiration he
has q thousand years of the tradition
of Individual liberty. There is a spirit
in him that kings have coma
quered, that parliaments have never
compelled, that the scourge has never
beaten out, and that the fire has never
consumed.
What is happening in America?
Law, divorced from the support of
the individual conscience, is breaking
down. A vast wave of crime is sweep
ing over the continent. And the reason
is not far to seek. Prohibition is the
most fruitful mother of crime that
ever spawned its progeny upon the
world.
Note well what has happened. Be
fore the prohibitionists had their way
and before hysteria, fanaticism, and
mistaken desire for righteousness
placed them in power, there was nc
more frequent argument, no greater
mainstay of their cause than the plea
that prohibition would lessen crime.
See what has happened! 1t needs no
statistics to prove the awful and APP
pailing wave of crime upon this con-
tinent. The world stands Mortified. In
the streets of New York and Chicago
human life is no longer safe. Organ
lied robbery is everywhere and murd-
err has its daily price and hire.
The eason is clear. The rising gem
Grafton of today see all about them
a form of criminal law called prohibi-
ton. They see it everywhere broken.
They see it broken by many of the
most respected people of the commu-
nifty. They know that it can only be