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

hol is provided by ten new regulation.
just issued. The department of justice
has announced that it will prosecute
all offenders, both large and small
During the last fiscal year there were
3S,925 convictions in federal courts
alone, while in many cases the major
ity of offenders apprehended by fed
eral officers are tride in State courts
The United States court during the
past year upheld the right of officers
to search an automobile without pro-
! curing search warrant when they
had reasonable cause to believe liquor
was being illegally transported, and
they establish the power of Congress
to regulate the manufacture and dis
| tribution of non-beverage alcohol
/ While II state enforcement codes
were strengthened in the past year
As to the cost of enforcement, let us
bear in mind that fines and penalties
imposed in federal cases alone totaled
| S7,934,534.69, which nearly replaces
the. S9,201, 534.06 expended for en-
forcement.
President Coolidge declares for en-
forcement of prohibition in his budget
message to Congress, saying that
"every available resource of the gov
eminent must be employed for prohi-
bition enforcement" Are we making
progress? Of course we are making
progress! Entirely too much prog
ress to suit the opposition, for prohi-
bition enforcement and observance are
gaining rapidly now in the United
States. And in this epochal contest
against the liquor evil let US remem-
Der that this governmental policy
is but here in America, but it is COM
ing to the whole wide world. And,
friends, the achievements of enforce
ment have just begun.
Now, what benefits have we deriv-
ed? We all too well know from past
experiences that lawless drinking is a
menace to the republic itself. From
actual statistics we have benefited by
a lowering of our national death rate;
by having 1878 less prisoners in the
jails of our State in 1923 than we had
in 1910; public drunkenness and dis
order has greatly decreased; we have
lowered rate of alcohol insanity; a
falling off in the cases of restitution;
rapid Improvement in school and
college attendance; increased activity
in home building and bank accounts
and abandonment of institutions for
the cure of drunkenness. This alone
is indisputable evidence that prohibi-
ton, even imperfectly enforced as
yet, is making mighty strides against
the downward influence on society and
is creating in society new and more
healthful life.
A saloon ridden America could not
have bought 2,427,000 motor vehicles
purchased in 1924. There is more
money in the pockets of the average
man since the bartender's cash regis
ter rings up no more drinks. Herbert
Hoover declares that prohibition has
had mighty influence on the increas-
ed efficiency of American labor. DR..
Hoffman, the foremost health Stats
tician in the country states that
bright's disease has decreased 20 per
cent since 1917 and he attributes this
blessing to the diminished use of
liquor.
Americas prohibition laws are not
only benefitting the United States but
are welding healthy influence to the
outside world. Some of England's
wisest statesmen are earnestly consid-
ering the question and even the gov
eminent of Germany has provided for
scientific temperance instruction in its
schools. Shall not we of America
continue to hold high the torch of Lib
erty and total abstinence from alco-
holic liquors and prohibition in the
traffic of the same? Shall not our
liberty and prosperity continue to en-
tighten the world until the demon rum
has been banished from the earth :?
For never were clear eyes, steady
nerves and sober brains so essential
to society as today. Modern inven-
tons of machinery has absolutely rev.
olutionized the world until today a
drunken mind is not only an enemy
to the soul within but is menace to
society. In these days of fast time
and congested traffic, with 10000 en-
gineers at the throttle and with IT,
100000 automobiles travelling our
highways, our nation would be in
sane to think that we could afford to
have these brains befuddled with alco-
hol. 1t would be nothing short of ma
tional suicide. No, this must not be.
John Barleycorn has been caught in
the fast revolving machinery of
American progress where he shall be
ground back to the dust from which
he came.
He is indeed blind who does not see
in this struggle the great spiritual i'm
pulses whose progress is not stated
by figures, and years, and tabulations,
but by the benefit accruing to the