The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-02-18
NATIONAL RUM
LAWS BRANDED
AS MONSTR0Ue
Attorney at. South Bend
Urges Action by Newton
D. Baker.
MENACE TO DEMOCRACY
NO Criminal Like a Fool
Legislator Letter
Declares.
Bn Iines kpeciaI

6OOIH BEND, llu-, TSD- 10
Federal prohibition laws are mon
strosity, Samuel B. Pettengill, South
Bend attorney, declares in a letter
to Newton D. Baker, former secre-
tary of war. member of the Wick
ersham committee which is study
ing prohibition.
Pettengill asserts a belief the time
is ripe for a clear cut statement on
liquor laws by man of Bakers
caliber. He suggests Baker has it In
his power to make the most states
man-like utterance Of our genera
ton"
In part, the Pettengill letter is as
follows:
Needless to say, while concede
the right Of local legislatures to pro-
hibit traffic in Intoxicating liquors,
1 nevertheless consider federal pro-
hibition as a monstrosity. It marks
a clear departure from the cardinal
principle of an understandable union
of sovereign states
The local resiliency which has
successfully absorbed the growing
pains of a growing people for a cen
fury and a quarter is abandoned for
a universal rigidity in which l20,-
100000 of people must all lie in the
same Procrustean bed 1t violates
the fundamental principle of all law
regulating personal conduct, that it
must be dynamic, not static, capable
of change as men change, as expert
ence ripeus. All things flow
Suggests Modified Plan
The most that should have been
done. if anything, would have been
TO grant congress power to legiSlate
with respect to interstate and for
eign commerce in liquor, leaving the
manufacture and intra-state COM
merce to the several states.
Law is public opinion. Brand
Whitlock defined it as whatever the
public will back up and this is as
good a definition of law. under gov
eminent by the people, as has ever
been put in words. And law having
a local application, IS whatever local
iuries. prosecuting attorneys. judges,
Sheriffs will back up. Anything else,
under our democratic theory, is of
the nature of tyranny. National
prohibition, therefore. whenever it
comes in conflict with local public
opinion, is a denial of democracy.
All lam Endan1ared
1T is not impossible that the re-
port of your commission will pro-
foundry affect social life on the. con-
tinent throughout this century. An
examination into the wisdom of
federal prohibition comes clearly
within the purview of the great end
you we're appointed to promote
respect for law. Nothing does more
to cause disrespect for law than
laws which do not command re-
spect. In comparison, 'Scofflaws,
hi hackers, bribery, unlawful en-
forcement of laws, are but mere
tri1es. There is no criminal equal
10 a fool legislator.
Laws creating new crimes are of
necessity new criminal markers.
Ten years ago it was said that fed
eral prohibition would empty the
jails. Today our penitentiarieS are
crowded to the point of mutiny. If
we continue in our ignorance and
fanaticism to make new crimes it
will not be long before we shall
have a nation composed of GRIM
1nalS, or the relatives of criminals.
The legislation presently pro-
posed in congress to make the users
of liquor criminals, will place within
that category perhaps a majority of
the entire nation, certainly an over
whelming ma jority in many of the
largest states of the Union. When
has blindness been so blind? o,
Judgment, thou are fed to british
beasts, and men have lost their rea-
SON.
All Decency at Stake
Respect for law is not the only
thing involved. Respect for the
principles of representative democ-
racy, for the traditions of our great
past. are not alone involved. A ma
lion of criminals and actual or po-
tential convictS means that respect
for blood. for family. for ones an
cestry and poSterity. for all those
strong compulsions which cause one
TO try TO keep clean the name given
him by his father, are all at stake.
Let us leave something to the
home. to the school, to the church
Let us leave something to con-
science and to God! l mean this.
Before we dragon mems bodies. let
us first convince their souls
You have it in your power Of
necessary in a minority report) to
make the most statesmanlike utter
ance of our generation"