The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-03-18
CONDITION AFAILURE?

at the annual w. C. 7. U. meeting
held at Elkins, West Va, February
21st, 1926.
AS basis for the discussion of the
question at hand, 1 want to call your
attention to one of Frances Wizards
-favorite verses of Holy Writ which
SITS forth not only the program of the
prohibition forces but the program of
every high and holy endeavor move
ment that has ever succeeded in all
history and which was and is the pro-
gram of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. 1t is set forth in the first
verse of the first chapter of Acts:
"The former treatise l made, o The
ophilus, of all that Jesus began both
to do and teach" DO and TEACH.
Each supplements the other, while
both are essential to prohibition en-
forcement. We must do, be active, in
creating sentiment; and we must
teach, enlighten the public as to the
success of enforcement and the bene-
fits derived therefrom.
The nucleus of American manhood,
born Of Anglo-Saxon stock, feared not
to face the threat of death but dared
to venture out that right and liberty
might prevail. Born of this stock and
spirit, the American people have
never been afraid to launch out on
great programs; first, of colonization;
then constitutional organization; then,
defense of liberty; then, the abolition
of slavery; then, the passing of the
Eighteenth Amendment; and lastly,
the enfranchisement of womanhood;
all because they have had great moral
and spiritual convictions that right
and liberty must prevail. Having put
her hand to the pillow of great moral
issues America has never turned back,
and never will, in spite of false re-
ports, gloomy forebodings and dire
prophecies to the contrary.
The heroic women of the Crusade
days did not know very much about
legal machinery and enforcement
laws, but they did know the corrupt
ing influence Of the life-wrecking and
soul-damning liquor traffic, and they
had faith and courage to venture
forth. They were imbued with that
superb spirit which cannot be defined,
but which makes conquerors. Upon
this basis was started this great
movement which has given US the
Volstead act and placed in our consti-
tuition the eighteenth amendment.
People laughed when first told that
the great west and then the south
}yaI, going dry, but they did. People
< khed when told that national pro-
3.loition was proposed, but it came by
overwhelming adoption. Once adopt
ed, some started laughing when told
it would be enforced. But today with
enforcement only a few years old it
has been so successful that it is the
chief subject of conversation and oc-
cupies the front page of the press the
country over, and is attracting favor
able attention abroad.
Is prohibition failure? Let US
not hasten to answer until we have
Judged it from at least two logical
viewpoints: First, its enforcement;
second, its benefits. Bearing in mind,
first of all, that feeble enforcement
can best be measured by the trend of
its enemies efforts to repeal or to null
lily the law. And with each succeed
ing year of prohibition the vets are
pouring additional millions with in
creased efforts into its opposition. Mr..
Haynes says, "You can tell how tight
ly the shoe pinches by the loudness of
the yell" The wet public press had
been glutted with the stories of theft,
murder and bootlegging and dragging
all the blame to the door of prohibi-
ton. This yell, however, is but the
evidence of the tightly pinching shoe.
The vets are grasping at straws and
are drowning by degrees.
Federal Judge McClintock, before
whom liquor cases have been tried
through the years, and who therefore
speaks with authority, says there is
not now as much liquor sold and
drunk in month as there was for
merly on a single Saturday night. The
Christmas season just past was al
most free from the drunken brawls
and murders which were so common
in the days of the saloon. DR.. A. G.
Rutherford, superintendent of the
State Hospital at Welch, West Va,
verifies this by asserting that with
each succeeding year the number of
cases brought to the hospital as
result of intoxication becomes less
and less. Federal Judge James Will
kerson, of Chicago, recently announc-
ed that "jail sentences instead Of fines
will be imposed on soft-drink-parlor
owners found guilty of violating the
prohibition law" when they are taken
before him.
The Sixty-eighth Congress rejected
ill wet legislation, voted over s9,000,-
900 for enforcement; $4,000 for post
Prs appealing for law observance and
10000 for special counsel for prose-
e