The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1928-07-01

the times demand something by addition,
the people will do it, and there is no
power higher than can prevent them from
SO doing. And by fair inference the
trainers of the Constitution intended this
to be So when they provided a way 1t
is a great strain on ones imagination to
suppose that those far-seeing men in
tended the people TO be put in a straight
jacket and not be able to provide for a
possible contingency in the vast future
in which they expected the Constitution
to endure.
In all deliberative bodies, motions are
amended by addition, satisfaction or sub
stitution. Suppose Congress should pro-
pose to change the Eighteenth Amend
ment by an amendment In doing So it
is proposed to substitute legaliZing the
traffic in intoxicating liquors in place of
prohibiting the traffic in all the territories
of the United States and this, were it
adopted by two-thirds of both houses and
ratified by three-fourths of the state
legislatures, would any one, or could any
one, rightfully contend that this would
not be a legal and correct procedure? It
certainly could not. And yet it would be
an addition to the Constitution, and
something new and different. The Eight
zenith Amendment would then be le-
galization instead of prohibition.
Who will deny the right of the people
of the United States of amending the
Constitution prohibiting great, ponderous
airplaneS and ships, carrying hundreds OF
passengers and many tons of freight,
from passing over densely populated Sec
tions of the country? Who will deny the
right of the people of authorizing the
construction Of a terminus of an eight or
ten-way tube for trains and autos con-
Meeting Europe and America, or even pro-
hibiting such construction? These GER
tainly would be something new and vastly
different from anything that is in the
original Constitution and something the
trainers never dreamed of. Can any one
suppose that those trainers ever intended
that the people should be hampered IN
their means of self protection, or OF self
advancement? Most asSuredly we can
not think So
Should the Congress enact law under
the police power prohibiting such acts,
then some high-priced lawyer would be
arguing before the Supreme Court that
such an act of Congress would be con-
travening the Fourteenth Amendment Of
the Constitution denying the equal pro-
lection of the laws, due process of law, or
the equal privileges and immunitieS of
the law. If Congress should refuse to act,
the people could go over the head of
Congress and amend. If Congress should
enact, then the people could annul.
LIKE THE EIGHTEENTH
AMENDMENT
Fifth-There is nothing like it in the
tuition. This we deny. The
Thirteenth Amendment is something like
the Eighteenth. But this objection is
largely answered in number three. The
Thirteenth Amendment is prOnibitiye in
its nature, operating On the individual.
The Eighteenth is prohibitiVe in nature,
operating on the individual.
The subject of slavery was very deli
cate subject for the Convention of 1887
to act upon. What was done about it was
by way of compromise. It was loaded
with dynamite: If touched off, it would
have wrecked everything. There were
those who would have prohibited it in the
whole country. There were those who
would have extended it everywhere and
for all time. Tt was only circumstance
of luck or fortune, or something that pre-
vented drastic action one way or the
other in the convention. Had slavery
been prohibited everywhere, or had it
been legalized everywhere, in either case,
there would have been in the original
Constitution something to which the
Eighteenth Amendment could be likened.
But circumstance, luck or fortune post
poned it till it came finally in the form
of an addition to the Constitution in