The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-01-27
RITCHIE AND THE PRESI-
DENCY


land and his plea for States rights as
enunciated upon various occasions by
the Chief Executive of Maryland as
its text, the Birmingham Age-Herald,
leader in thought in the section of the
South where it is published, pours no
balm of hope upon the political aspi-
rations of the thrice-elected Governor
when it said in recent issue:
Beginning his third term as gov
ernor of Maryland, and no doubt with
an eye on the democratic presidential
nomination in 1923, Albert Cabel Rit-
chic makes an eloquent plea for state
rights. The subject would not have
assumed such Importance in the eyes
of Governor Richie if he were not
one of the most outspoken and mill
tant i-prohibitionists in the United
States, a recognized contender with
Governor Al Smith of New York as
the national leader of the wet forces.
Federal Capitalization, in the opin-
ion of Governor Richie, menaces the
rights of the several states, and so it
does, but not in the way he sees it in
this statement:
If you let the inherent and his
torical character Of your govern
ment change; if you let the
states yield their vitality and be-
come anaemic and dependent
things; if you look on while CEN
tralization breeds its bureau
Gratis, its petty tyranny and its
incompetency; if unprotestingly
you stand by while the rights of
citizenship are confscated; then
do not say the fault lies in the
stars when liberty and equality
Of opportunity fade and tolerance
bids the land farewell.
A fine bit of oratory, but like a
great deal of high-sounding talk, it
starts from false promise. Bureau
cracy, the Capitalization of authority
in the federal government, has no con-
naction, properly speaking, with the
Eighteenth Amendment and the Vol
stead Act. Prohibition was not forced
on the country by federal ukase, as
Mr.. Richie seems to think. 1t was
adopted by the states whose rights he
defends.
Not only did the Eighteenth
Amendment have the approval of
three-fourths of the states before it
became a part of the organic law Of
the nation, but before approximately
two-thirds Of the population of the
country was already living under dry
laws of one kind or another. In fact
prohibition began with the states and
eliminated in the federal government.
States rights are not involved in
prohibition, but if it could be proved
that they are involved, sumptuary
was voluntarily yielded by the states
to the federal government. Nowhere
is the state rights doctrine more
firmly adhered to in the South, and
yet the South is the dryest part of the
Union andWas largely instrumental in
adding the Eighteenth Amendment to
the Constitution.
Another newspaper, also published
in the South, takes this view of Mr..
Ritchie's candidacy for the presi-
dency:
The candidacy of Mr.. Richie for
president is hardly taken seriously by
the people of the country. The Gov
ernor was able to make good use of
the presidential proposition in his
campaign for a third term for Gov
tiHOf, DuL MS catering 10 the wet
element of Baltimore City is the very
thing that disgusts the voters of the
nation. The Governor has made the
same speech so many times on States
Rights that he puts more store by it
than anybody else. 1t is rather
strange that Governor Richie never
raised his voice on this question until
he raised it in behalf of the outlawed
liquor traffic. He was a lawyer of
some prominence for years in Balti-
more City, has been in political life
for dozen years, but he said moth
ing about encroachments of the Fed
eral Government on any other matter
Back Of it all is the fact that he is
wet and his advocacy of States
Rights ought not to deceive any
thinking man or woman.