Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-10-27
DRY LAW FAILURE
DENIED BY DR.. BEST
Federal Church Council
Backs Survey Made by
! Baltimore Secretary.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
National prohibition sis not a fail
ure, nor is it going to be-" says DIR
Nolan r. Best, secretary of the Balti
more Federation of Churches, in re
view OF the situation prepared for the
administrative committee of the Fed
eral Council of Churches, which was
made public today.
A forcword, signed by DIR. S. Parkes
Cadman, president, and other officials
of the Federal Council, describes DR.
Bests conclusions as setting forth
deep convictions held by the admins
trative committee"
"Since the book has been writer
as an individual utterance," says this
foreWord, land not as an official pro
nouncement, the author has had full
freedom in the expression of personal
opinions. The book, however, so eff
fectiVely sets forth deep convictions
held by the administrative committee
Of the Federal Council of Churches
that the committee warmly recon-
mends 1t to the general public and be-
speaks for it a careful reading"
DR.. Best declares it is not enough
Tor prOhibitioniStS to say "PrOhibition
is the law He urges instead that
the friends of the law should say,
prohibition is a good law" Too many
Americans, he observes, have reverted
to the cookie stage" pining for
liquor as children used to pine for
the cookies mother had locked up in
the cupboard.
Friend of Liberty, He Says.
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 impOs
Sible to make men moral by law. He
pronounces prohibition mot the en-
emy. but the friend of both social and
personal liberty" and continues: THE
Oft-repcated announcement that
moral character cannot be created In
men by the passing Of statutes has
never needed to be much insisted on
because every sensible person knows
1t perfectly well. Prohibitionists never
thought of disputing a fact so self
evident. And no prohibition measure
was ever based on the purpose thus
condemned.
"PrOhibition laws have been shame
fully violated since the liquor business
was outlaWed in the United States
but all that violation is a bagetelle
compared with the defiance through
out the country of every form of law
designed to regulate the sale of drink
while the saloons were still licensed
EApitSSlllS regret IOI TIE Ileeu lOI
laws governing the prescriptions OF
alcohol by the medical profession, DR.
Best states that the strict limit put
on physicians is caused by men who
fiebase their profession by selling
liquor prescriptions without any color
of medical reason" He calls upon the
medical fraternity to clear its ranks
saying:
"As soon as responsible medical or
CARNATIONS declare themselves ready
thus to purge their profession and
keep 1t pure by their own indictment
of unworthy individuals, every restric.
ton of law on a physicians employ
ment of liquors for remedial purposes
should he abolished.'
Dealing with personal liberty, he
says: Nobody, so far as known, seri-
ously insists that In order to be a
free American a citizen needs either
10 possess or exercise a liberty to get
drunk.
Infringement Is Denied.
eff two glasses of whisky will in
Soxicate the drinker, then it is ac-
knowledged that the law may pun
ish him for taking two drinks of
whisky without robhing 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 binders him from taking one
drink. which would half into.licate
him?
"Is 1t to be supposed that the Decla-
ration of Independence guarantees a
man the freedom to get half-drunk or
even third-drunk or quarter-drunk
and yet denies him the right Of being
completely drunk"
OF the moditiCationists, DR.. Best
SAYS that what won't intoXicate won t
satisfy them. Demand for kick"
means nothing at all except thirst
for something that will make man
moderately, mellowly, drunk" he
says.
" wish to drink themselves into in
sensibility. But for the first stages
on the way to that end there still sur
Wives an abundant appetite.
1T is pure abSurdItN to talk as II
the laWleSS selling Of liquor was some
thing new in this country-SomethinS
developed by the latter-day effort to
stop the drink trade altogether.
Liquor has always been laWlesS. and
the determination to license it re-
vealed that tendency quite as dis
tinctly, if not SO speCtacularly, as has
been the determination to suppress it.
Sees ultimate Success.
National prohibition in America is
not failure nor is ii going to be. 1t
is simply not vet a complete success
because there has not yet been time
10 force the battle in its behalf to final
victory A revolution so radical as
this, which has already displaced the
once omnipotent saloon from its whole
line of nationwide entertainments,
cannot be finished overnight.
Were the thing done so hastily
then. indeed. ii might not last. But
as against the epoChal advance of ire
sistihle reform outbursts Of specious
clamor and sneaking conspiracy now
and then need alarm no one. To
watch. stand fast and press every
advantage with fidelity to God and
fellow man is for prohibition's cham
pions the certain insurance OF ulti-
mate success.
I'm the not far future hour when
America. not because Of the law so
much as because of a rising con-
science and 4 clearing mind, eXtin-
guishes the fire Of cupidity and pas
sion that burned in the wineglass the
youth Of America will go forth for
life unmenaced and unafraid, and
trusted. moreover, with a freedom
such as youth till now has never
known in civilization"