Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-10-31

Council of Churches, and to be pub
iished by Doran and company.
A foreword, signed by DR.. S. Parles
! Cadman, president. and other Of
ficials of the federal council de
/ scribes DR., Best's conclusions as
setting forth deep convictions held
/ BY the administrative committee
"Since the book has been written
as an individual utterance," says this
foreword, "and not as an official
pronouncement the author has had.
fun freedom in the expression of
personal opinions. The book, how
ever, so effectively sets forth deep
convictions held by the administra+
tive committee of the Federal Council
OF Churches that the committee
warmly recommends it to the general
public and bespeaks for it a careful
reading" HtSEssssss @Assr
DR.. Best declares it is not. enough
for prohibitionists to say "Prohi-
0ition is the law" He urges instead
that the friends of the law should
say Prohibition is good law.
Too many Americans, he observes have
reverted to the cookie stage" pining
for liquor as children used to pine
for cookies motheE had locked up
i'll the cupboard.
Insisting that prohibition must de-
pend for success on it's social results,
rather than upon any statute, the
church leader agrees that it is i'm |
possible to make men moral by law.
He pronounces prohibition mot the
enemy, but the friend of both social
and personal liberty" and continues:
The oft-repeated pronouncemenr
that moral character cannot be created
i'll men by the passing Of statutes
has never needed to be much insisted
on, because every sensible person
knows it perfectly well. Prohibition
lists never thought of disputing fact
so self-evident. And no prohibition
measure was ever based on the pur-
pose. thus condemned.
Prohibition laws have been shame |
fully violated since the liquor busi-
ness was outlawed in the United
States, but all that violation is a
hagetelle compared with the defiance
throughout the country of every form
of law designed to regulate. the sale
of drink while the saloons were still
licensed"
Expressing regret for the need for
laws governing the prescriptions oil
alcohol by the medical profession,
DR.. Best states that the strict limi
rut on physicians is caused by ''men
who debase their profession by selling
liquor prescriptions without any color
OF medical reason He calls upon !
the medical fraternity to clear it's
ranks, saying:
'As soon as responsible medical
organizations declare themselves ready
thus TO purge their profession and
keep it pure by. their own Indictment
of unworthy individuals, every re-
striction. of law on a. physicians en-
pioyment Of liquors for remedical
purposes should be abolished"
Dealing with personal liberty, he
says
''Nobody, so far as known, seriously
insists that in order to be a free
American a citizen needs either to
possess or exercise a liberty to get
drunk.
''If two glasses of whisky will in
toxicate the drinker, then it is
acknowledged that the law mag
punish him for taking two drinks
Of whisky without robbing him of,
any of the heritage of freedom for
which his revolutionary forefathers
fought and died.
But how then could it be that
his manly liberty is infringed if the
law. hinders him from taking one
drink, which would half intoxicate
him?
rs it to be supposed that the
Declaration of Independence guaran-
tees man the freedom to get hall