The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1928-02-01

expense of the states. That nothing could
be less true is shown by the tactics which
these same opponents of prohibition have
adopted and which prove that they well
know that success or failure in enforcing
the amendment is largely i'll the hands of
the states. So far as the Eighteenth
Amendment from comforting a monopoly
of power upon the federal government,
the amendment expressly places the
obligation of concurrent enforcement On
the states. These powers are as broad as
those conferred on the Federal govern
ment The effort of the Amendment is to
secure cooperation by the states toward
common purpose, and to that end it adj
dresses a mandate to each state to en-
force the. amendment If a state refuses
to perform its constitutional duty, the re-
suit is to leave the amendment largely
dead letter within that state. Chief JUS
tice White, in his concurring opinion in
the Rhode Island case, said that when
no state legislation was enacted, there
would be no prohibition" and that the
refusal of state" to give effect to the
amendment by definitions and sanctions
would result in no amendment to be en-
forced in such refusing state" In other
words, the states can, by the exercise of
Legitimate and arbitrary power defeat the
effectiveness of the very amendment
which they write into the Constitution.
Such action would be in deliberate disre-
gard of the Constitution, not merely of the
Amendment itself, but of Section 2, Ar
ticle 6, which provides that TIE Consti-
tuition of the United States shall be the
supreme law of the land. Section of the
same article requires the governor of each
state and the members of the legislative
and judicial branch of the state govern
ment to take an oath to support the con-
stitution of the United States. Only by
violation of these constitutional obliga-
tons can the states defeat the Eight
zenith Amendment.
Obligation Upon States
There is much misunderstanding of the
way in which the action Of certain states
in refusing to use their police power to
aid prohibition enforcement operated on
the Constitution. In order to clarity it we
must start with the obvious proposition
that law amounts TO nothing, is Of no
effect or consequence, if it is not enforced.
Enforcement is the necessary compile
ment to law making, the necessary other
hall Of the process to make an effective
law. A law without enforcement. with
out the machinery or the agencies to en-
force it, is like a body without the spark
OF life, without the breath that makes it
a living thing. 1t is a corpse The Eight
zenith Amendment without any agencies
or without adequate agencies to put its
provisions into fleet, to bring them home
to those who would violate them, is no
more valuable or useful for the purpose
for which it was intended than if it did
not exist. To give life, meaning, reality,
existence to it, it must be coupled with
enforcement. Deprived OF enforcement it
is nothing; it is dead
Now, as we have already seen, the
Eighteenth Amendment contemp1ates en-
forcement not merely by the Federal
government, but by the states The fed
eral government is not equipped to per-
form the duties of ordinary police en-